Shopify President’s Blueprint for Winning in Entrepreneurship’s Golden Age

Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s president, sees a golden age for entrepreneurs right now. In recent talks, including the Q3 2025 earnings call and a CNBC appearance, he shared how AI and smart platforms help businesses start fast and scale big. Every 26 seconds, a new entrepreneur makes their first sale on Shopify, he pointed out in the CNBC chat.

Agentic AI Fuels Massive Growth

AI isn’t just hype for Finkelstein—it’s driving real results. On the November 4 earnings call, he noted AI-driven traffic to Shopify stores jumped 7x, with orders from AI searches up 11x since January. Sidekick, Shopify’s AI assistant, hit 750,000 new shops in Q3, logging nearly 100 million conversations total, including 8 million in October alone.

Shopify’s laying the groundwork for “agentic commerce,” where AI handles product creation, customer chats, and sales. Finkelstein told CNBC they’re building AI into shopping and shopping into AI. Partnerships with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity back this push. Read more in the full PYMNTS earnings coverage or the Q3 transcript from The Motley Fool.

Numbers Back the Momentum

Gross merchandise volume hit $92 billion, up 32% year-over-year, per the earnings call.
Revenue grew 32% too (31% constant currency), with merchant solutions up 38%.
Shopify Payments covered 65% of GMV, Shop Pay processed $29 billion (up 67%).
International GMV rose 41%, B2B GMV doubled to 98% growth.
Free cash flow reached $507 million, an 18% margin.

These stats come straight from the Q3 call, showing North America led the beat on expectations while international spots like Europe accelerated.

Black Friday sales jumped 25% to $6.2 billion from 70 million shoppers, Finkelstein said. See Biztoc.

Start Simple, Scale Smart

Finkelstein stresses ease: set up a Shopify store in under an hour. That’s key for the platform’s appeal from startups to giants. Even big brands like Estee Lauder, e.l.f. Cosmetics, and FanDuel switched to Shopify—they’re ditching custom tech stacks for platforms that handle commerce and retail.

His suggestion? Use AI to automate grunt work so you focus on products and growth. “AI is the next wave of democratizing commerce,” he said on CNBC. It augments people, frees time for strategy. In this climate, start on Shopify and grow there—no rebuilding needed. Check his full CNBC thoughts in StartupHub.ai’s coverage.

Shopify’s Q4 outlook calls for mid-to-high 20s revenue growth, proving they’re built for this shift.