Tag: Shopify

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Shopify Perquisites

I don’t think the word perquisite gets used enough. You probably know the shortened form of the word: “perk”, as in bonus, privilege, advantage or “extra”. Here are the perquisites that come with a job at Shopify:

Shopify gear 1

Sweet gear! Working at Shopify means a return to the Mac and startup worlds with the following equipment, which is standard issue for all new employees:

  • 15″ MacBook Pro. The current spec for this machine is 2.2 GHz quad-core i7 processor, 4 GB RAM, 1GB VRAM, 750 GB hard drive. And at last, the trackpad knows what a right-click is!
  • 27″ LED Cinema Display. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.
  • Apple Wireless Keyboard. Compact, connects via Bluetooth.
  • Apple Magic Mouse. The first Apple mouse I’ve liked in a really long time. Feels nice, knows the difference between a left- and right-click, 4-way touch sensitive scrolling that feels much better than Microsoft’s Arc Touch mouse. (I love the Arc Mouse, but don’t like the Arc Touch.)
  • Herman Miller Aeron Chair. Yes, it’s the classic symbol of the dot-com bubble, but it’s a very, very comfortable chair. The only thing that loves your butt more is that guy from Deliverance.
  • The bag o’ stuff. I’ll cover what’s in it below.

Shopify gear 2

What’s in the bag o’ stuff? Extra goodies to make you feel welcome:

  • Shopify hoodie. Light grey with the Shopify logo on the left. Very warm and fuzzy on the inside.
  • T-shirts. One light grey sporting a grey monochrome Shopify logo, one dark grey with the green Shopify logo. Both are American Apparel, which means they’re extra-soft.
  • Moleskine notebook. Because sometimes ink and paper is the best way to take something down.
  • Neat pen. A Sacchi ballpoint pen, to be precise.
  • Godiva chocolates. It’s a nice touch.
  • $50 Apple Store gift card. An even nicer touch. The Apple Store in Ottawa is in the Rideau Centre, a short walk away from the office.
  • $100 gift card for Play and Beckta restaurants. Still even nicer. Both are great restaurants — Harley took me out to Play for lunch on my first day. Now to find someone to take out to dinner.
  • The Shopify Handbook (not pictured), which I’ll cover in the next blog entry.

All in all, very, very nice.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

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In Transit

Me holding an Air Canada safety booklet and the Shopify Employee booklet

I’ve been travelling quite a bit this week. On Monday, I moved to Ottawa for the summer, spending the better part of the day on the road in miserable weather. My first week at Shopify was a short one, running only from Tuesday through Thursday because I spent all of today in transit, flying from Ottawa to Minneapolis by way of Toronto. I took the above photo earlier today on the Ottawa-Toronto leg. (I will have to write about the Shopify new employee handbook sometime; I’ve never seen anything like it at any of my other workplaces, or at any of my friends’ workplaces.)

As I write this, I’m in Minneapolis, getting ready to go to the MinneBar pre-party to catch up with my fellow BarCamp Tour representatives as well as a number of Minneapolis-based friends. The actual MinneBar event takes place tomorrow at Best Buy Headquarters, after which I’m sure some form of mayhem will ensue. I’ve been shooting pictures like mad on my new camera (a Canon PowerShopt ELPH 300 HS, and it’s a pocket dynamo) and along with the photos will a lot of blog entries.

Speaking of blog entries, my article That’s Not OCD, You’re Just a Slacker racked up 79,000 hits on Global Nerdy yesterday and 47,000 today thanks to StumbleUpon. The comments have been quite interesting — the photo on which the article is based might as well be a sort of Rorschach test based on the variety of responses.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

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The Swank Tank

Facade of the 126 Sparks building

“Sure, I’d love to come up to Ottawa for a couple of months to immerse myself in Shopify,” I told Tobi and Harley when they were pitching the tech evangelist job to me, “but I can’t pay two rents.”

“No worries,” replied Harley. “We’ll get you a place.”

That place turned out to be 126 Sparks, the front entrance of which is pictured above. It’s a short walk away from Shopify’s office in ByWard Market — not even ten minutes — and it’s around the corner from this place:

Peace Tower and Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings

(For those of you not familiar with Canada, it’s the Canadian equivalent of living around the corner from the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C..)

Sparks Street was the first street in North America to be converted into a pedestrians-only route; all but two of its blocks are closed off to most vehicles. Here’s Sparks as seen looking westward, as it appeared last night:

02 west

Here’s Sparks as seen looking eastward (also last night):

Sparks Street, as seen looking eastward

Sparks is pretty quiet after working hours. Many of the fast food places on the street close their doors at 6 p.m. on weeknights, and the sushi place doesn’t even bother opening on weekends.

Once I checked in with building management and got my welcome package — a folder with some information, keys to the apartment and mailbox, magnetic passkey for access to the lobby, elevator and garage and even a Starbucks gift card (there’s a Starbucks next door) — it was time to move my stuff inside. I drove into the garage and starting hauling stuff to the elevator lobby, which looked like it belonged in an upscale mall:

Elevator lobby for 126 Sparks, featuring a couch

When I first saw the site for 126 Sparks, I was impressed, but I also had to keep in mind that it was real estate photography — the biggest apartments in the building, all best-foot-forward, perhaps a little Photoshoppery and some fish-eye lens treatment that covers a multitude of sins. However, when I entered the apartment, I found it to be a pretty nice place. Here’s the kitchen:

Kitchen in my apartment

Here are the living room and dining room, as seen from one of the barstools at the kitchen counter:

View into the living and dining room in my apartment

A view from behind the dining table:

View from the dining room

I haven’t given the stereo a proper cranking just yet.

In MTV Cribs, there’s always a point when taking a tour of a rapper’s house where the host says “An’ dis here be da baby-makin’ area.” (Hip-hoppers never call them rooms on MTV Cribs; they’re always areas.) This is that part of the tour of my apartment:

The bedroom in my apartment

It’s cosy, and should I get the urge, I can very easily moon the passers-by on Sparks Street from the comfort of my own bed.

The place also has a nice big bathroom and in-suite washer and dryer. All in all, it’s nicer than most Residence Inns and it should be a pretty nice place to spend the next four months.

I decided to give the place a name: The Swank Tank. Other possible names that I briefly considered were:

  1. Chateau Tabernac
  2. jPad
  3. La Maison de Fromage
  4. Da Baby-Makin’ Area
  5. Pants-Optional Palazzo

I think I’m going to like staying here.

Next: Professional Perquisites

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Road Trip

On Monday, I packed the last of my stuff into the car…

The back of my car, packed with stuff

…which included a couple of accordions: the travel-sized Silvetta, which fits in just about every airplane’s overhead compartment, and the full-sized, full-sounding Crucianelli:

Front passenger seat of my car, with two accordions strapped in with the seatbelt.

If you’ve been following this blog for the past little while, you already know my destination: Ottawa, where I’ll be living for the summer to immerse myself in my new job as tech evangelist for the startup Shopify. The trip takes about five hours and is pretty simple — east on Highway 401, the north on Highway 416.

Map showing the route from Toronto to Ottawa

I like listening to audiobooks on long car trips. My selection for this one was Tina Fey’s Bossypants, read by Ms. Fey herself. It’s quite funny and entertaining, and it made the long, rain-soaked drive seem like a quick run around the block:

My Zune HD showing Tina Fey's Audiobook

Yup, that’s a Zune HD — I’m a former Microsoftie, after all — and that’s what I used to play Bossypants. It’s my highest-capacity portable MP3 device, so it’s the one I use for long trips. It’s the best media player you’ll never buy.

I arrived in Ottawa in the late afternoon. I don’t really know my way around the city other than bits of downtown and the Market. I’m going to be rather reliant on the Garmin when driving and on my phone while cycling or walking about. The only other time I make such heavy use of a GPS is when I’m playing Grand Theft Auto IV:

Arriving in Ottawa, as seen from the driver's seat

That’s the Garmin, which is suction-cupped to the windshield, and below it is the satellite radio. I switched to it when I pulled into town, just in time to catch a Beastie Boys special on Alt Nation — the perfect welcome to my new, if temporary, home.

My final destination was the furnished apartment where Shopify is housing me during my stay. It’s right on Sparks Street, and I’d have taken a picture if the weather wasn’t so miserable. Here’s what the area around my front door would look like if we were having a more typical spring:

Sparks street

Next: The Swank Tank.