In a leaked memo, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke discourages employees from having side hustles, saying Shopify requires ‘unshared attention’

• Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke posted an internal memo saying employee side gigs should have limits.
• He said that Shopify required their full attention and that conflicts of interest were possible.
• Shopify has long encouraged employees to become entrepreneurs in their own right.

Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, issued a company-wide memo on Wednesday discouraging employees from having side hustles.

“I recently learned that our offer letters and some Vault pages have been suggesting side gigs,” Lütke wrote on Shopify’s workplace page, which Insider viewed. “This surprises me because it directly contradicts the countless times I’ve said Shopify is like a professional sports team that requires our unshared attention.”

The Vault is a collection of internal web pages where Shopify employees can learn about company policies. It’s not the first time Lütke has compared Shopify’s employees to a sports team. In 2020, he issued a widely circulated memo asserting that “Shopify is a team, not a family,” and that “like any other competitive (sports) team, how you show up every day and contribute to the team’s success matters.”

Many employees were taken aback by Wednesday’s message, which some claimed contradicted Shopify’s long-term policies. Shopify is frequently referred to as “the entrepreneurship company,” and company representatives have stated that the company actively promotes “a spirit of entrepreneurship internally and encourages our employees to pursue their passions and side projects.”

Even the company’s president, Harley Finkelstein, has his own Shopify store, Firebelly Tea, which he co-founded in 2021 with David Segal, the creator of DavidsTea. In response to Lütke’s note on Wednesday, Finkelstein wrote that Segal took over as CEO of Firebelly Tea full-time once it was “up and running,” a fact that Finkelstein admitted “might not be well known.”

“He was someone who could devote his full attention and time to that quest,” Finkelstein said. “When you’re at Shopify, we are building the entrepreneurship company for millions of entrepreneurs around the world, and that is our main quest.”

“We all need to solve problems like an entrepreneur: Think and act like founders,” he went on to say. “And build Shopify as if it is our own.”

Employees should start their own Shopify stores, according to Lütke, because it helps them stay familiar with the platform.

He also stated that employees should not pursue side gigs due to potential conflicts of interest.

“I’m not talking about occasional side hustles like teaching a yoga class on the weekend or coaching your child’s soccer team once or twice a week. And open source contributions are welcome, but give yourself a break by not committing to a large maintenance burden or allowing them to become a significant workload,” he wrote. “Any role you take on should not conflict with the output of your primary craft that contributes to Shopify’s mission.” Because our customers rely on us, and your coworkers rely on you.”

In response to Lütke’s post, Shopify General Counsel Jess Hertz stated that all employees would receive an email with more information on how to disclose side projects or other outside work.

“Everyone will need to complete this form if it triggers the type of work that could involve conflicts with employment at Shopify,” she said in a statement.

A representative from Shopify declined to comment on the memo.

Read Lütke’s entire memo:

Shopify’s mission necessitates your undivided attention.I recently discovered that our offer letters and some Vault pages have suggested side gigs. This surprises me because it contradicts the numerous times I’ve stated that Shopify is like a professional sports team that requires our undivided attention. We’re creating world-class software for millions of merchants who rely on us every second of every day. This is not a part-time job, just as there are no part-time players on Premier League teams.To learn about our product, you should open a Shopify store. If it grows, hire help or do what we love most: become a full-time entrepreneur. Any other commitments that drain and deplete the creative energy that you would bring to work are undesirable. Another consideration is potential conflicts of interest, which must be disclosed and reviewed (side jobs, board work, secondary employment). Jess and Tia will finalize the rules here.I’m not talking about occasional side hustles like teaching a yoga class on the weekends or coaching your child’s soccer team once or twice a week. And while open source contributions are welcome, give yourself a break by not committing to a large maintenance burden or allowing them to become a significant workload. The key point is that any role you take on should not conflict with the output of your primary craft that contributes to Shopify’s mission. Because our customers rely on us, and your coworkers rely on you.This is not a modification. I’m trying to figure out why this was ever included in our offer letters/on Vault. When I found out about this one, I seriously thought I was stuck in the Truman Show.