
Founder Stories
These are the stories of the brave and the bold, the planners and the risk-takers, the dreamers and the doers. In conversations with the diverse Shopify founder community, we uncover the secret ingredients of success. Be inspired to take action by those who have paved the way before you.


How This LGBTQ Book Store Moved From Online to IRL

This Brand Knows Why Not Every LGBTQ Customer Wants a Rainbow

How These LGBTQ-Owned Businesses Connect With Their Community

This Subscription Box Is Uplifting Indigenous Entrepreneurs

My Starting Over Story: I Cashed Out My 401(k) to Start a Business—And Save My Family

My Starting Over Story: How I Beat Cancer and Found Entrepreneurship

My Starting Over Story: A Soap Making Hobby Became My Lifeline After Loss

My Starting Over Story: How I Revisited a Passion Project During My Lowest Point

My Starting Over Story: I Rebuilt My Wellness Business After it Burned in a Fire

My Starting-Over Story: How I Rediscovered Creativity After Trauma

How a Former Mortgage Professional Became TikTok’s Plant Mom

Ryan Trahan’s Journey From College Dropout to 6.8 Million YouTube Subscribers

Women Entrepreneurs We Love — Founder Stories (2022)

How These Black and Indigenous Merchants Are Empowering Their Communities

Suds to Stardom: How the Founder of Royalty Soaps Went Viral on YouTube

She Built a Toy Brand to Fill a Market Gap—and Teach a Generation to Love Their Hair

The Founder’s Zodiac: How to Spark Great Ideas, Based on Your Personality Type

Flipping Violins and Slurping Noodles: The Life of a Serial Entrepreneur

Empowering Phenomenal Women Everywhere, One Shirt at a Time

Pajamas With Purpose: This Fashion Brand Creates Opportunities for Those With Disabilities

This Founder is Selling Spirituality and Everyone’s Buying

Outraged: T-Shirts and the 100-Year Fight for Women’s Equality

Drinking in the Haus: How Funding Helped This Booze Brand Grow 500% During the Pandemic

Overdraft: How One Founder Built a Braiding Business—From Her Living Room

50 Great Shopify Ecommerce Stores to Inspire Entrepreneurs

How RUBIES Form-Fitting Wear is Supporting Transgender Youths

The Big Plans of One Small Business Owner—and the Diagnosis that Won’t Stop Her

Partners: From Van Life to Cacao and Coffee Roasters

How to Start a Retirement Business

This 84-Year-Old Grandmother Serves Comfort and Community Through Livestreamed Cooking Classes

The Art of Reinvention: How One Founder Found Her Purpose in the Middle of a Pandemic

Meet 6 Independent Businesses Responding to Crisis with Compassion

Partners: From High School Sweethearts to Serial Entrepreneurs

Partners: Their Love Migrated from the Dance Floor to a Fair-Trade Foods Business

Partners: They’re Running the Modern Day Mom and Pop Shop

Partners: Inuit Life Inspired Their Cross-Cultural Love—and Whale Soap

Introducing: Partners—in Business and Bed

The Grown-up Wisdom of 5 Young Entrepreneurs

Overcoming Adversity: 5 Founders on Surviving Their Greatest Defeats

Shop Shopify: 68 Holiday Gift Ideas for Everyone on Your List

The Future Needs More Black Businesses

The Fulfillment Stress That Comes with Unprecedented Press

Community and Competition: Inside the Mind of a 19-Year-Old Founder

Ollies and Ocean Life: Inside the Mind of a 14-Year-Old Founder

If You Build It They Will Come—But It Might Not Be Who You Expected

Books and Big Dreams: Inside the Mind of a 19-Year-Old Founder

Overdraft: KOTN’s Founder Talks Hard Times and Soft Shirts

Cartoons and Coding: Inside the Mind of an 11-Year-Old Founder
