Newsletter #49: Shopify's acqui-hiring strategy, Carlos Alcaraz, and survival

Hi there,

I hope you're feeling good.

In edition 36, I wrote about one of my favorite Shopify stores, Désirée Fleurs. Last weekend, my family and I went to one of their shops in Paris to participate in a flower workshop.

The co-founder, Mathilde Bignon, taught us how to make a proper flower bouquet: how to choose the flowers, assemble them, and wrap them all up nicely.

I really enjoyed this workshop. It was a relaxing time, a sweet break.

In today’s edition, we’re discussing Shopify's acqui-hiring strategy, Carlos Alcaraz, and survival.

Let's dive in.

Work

Jeremiah Prummer, CEO of KnoCommerce, recently wrote a short LinkedIn post expressing that Shopify acqui-hiring founders out of their apps ecosystem was a cool move, and that it would pay dividends in the long term.

That was the first time I encountered the word “acqui-hiring”.

As its name suggests, acqui-hiring refers to the practice of acquiring a company for its products or services, but also for its talent. One of the motivations is to hire the skilled employees of the target company.

We saw an example of this when Shopify acquired Checkout Blocks and hired its founder, Gil Greenberg, as well as its Senior Software Engineer, Justin Henricks.

I believe this acqui-hiring strategy makes a lot of sense and presents several advantages.

First, it’s a great talent acquisition strategy. By acqui-hiring companies such as Checkout Blocks, Shopify gets its hands on highly experienced people that are skilled in very specific and crucial areas. They bring a new innovative thinking into the company, with fresh perspectives and ideas.

In addition, they are already aligned with Shopify’s culture and vision. And, because they know the platform well, they can start contributing to projects and have an impact immediately.

Second, this acqui-hiring strategy brings technological advancements into Shopify. These companies possess advanced technologies that can be integrated into the platform to complement and strengthen Shopify’s existing services.

Finally, these technological advancements lead to product enhancements. With these new features, Shopify merchants get more capabilities. In Checkout Blocks’s case, after the acquisition, the Starter plan became free of charge, so it was even more of a win-win situation.

Last week, Shopify acqui-hired Threads, a workplace communications tool, not to be confused with Meta’s Threads product.

Its CEO, Rousseau Kazi, just joined Shopify. On LinkedIn, the description of his Product position states “Working on special projects with some of my favorite people.” I’m looking forward to discovering what these projects are!

Inspire

Last week, my shot of inspiration came from Carlos Alcaraz.

The 21-year-old Spanish tennis player won the men’s singles final of the French international tournament Roland Garros, against Alexander Zverev.

In doing so, he broke a record: he became the youngest man to earn a major trophy on all 3 surfaces - hard (US Open 2022), grass (Wimbledon 2023), and clay (Roland Garros 2024).

This final was amazing. It had 5 sets and lasted 4h19. There were so many beautiful points.

To get a sense of the intensity of this match, I invite you to watch this 15-minute best-of video made by France TV.

Explore

This week, I’m reading a book that has nothing to do with tech: "The SAS Survival Handbook”, by John Wiseman.

John Wiseman is a former member of the British Special Air Service (SAS), renowned for his expertise in survival techniques.

In this book, I’m learning about the right equipment to survive and how to find water and food. I also learn the basics about navigating my way around without a compass. Of course, this is the type of lessons that are better learned directly in real life, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

I always lived in big cities and I find it vertiginous how we sometimes are so disconnected from nature. With all our modern tools, I feel so autonomous and so assisted at the same time, do you know what I mean?

It feels great to go back to basics. It’s a refreshing and very interesting read.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie