What's up everyone? This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and executive chairman of Morning Brew.

Welcome back to Founders Journal, my personal audio diary where I give you the business builder,

the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business,

a team, or a new product. Today, I am talking about why your company is not your family. Let's hop into it.

So in May of last year, in the middle of the pandemic, I came across a letter by Toby Lutke,

who's the founder of Shopify. And if you don't know, Shopify is a $184 billion e-commerce platform

that powers the online shopping experiences for everyone from Netflix to Oatley to Spanx.

In this letter that Toby wrote to every Shopify employee, he talked about what leadership

looks like during times of crisis. He talked about Shopify's position on social and political

issues. And finally, he talked about why Shopify wasn't a family. And I think it's this last topic

especially that caught people off guard. You know, we live in a time where joy of work is far

more of a focus than it was 50 years ago. I think that's probably because there's more choices

around what you can do for your work than ever before. We talk about the importance of work life

balance. We talk about the importance of having a great culture. We talk about benefits and how

a benefits package is so important in deciding where you want to work. And I think on the surface,

these top priorities that we talk about in the workplace today, they do feel more and more like

the joy you experience as part of a family. But this is exactly why I believe Toby specifically

said that this concept of your company being your family or Shopify employees referring to Shopify

shop of family, why that's so harmful. He knew he had to nip this idea in the bud. Some of you

who are listening to this may think it's too harsh. Shopify isn't a family. What is Toby talking

about? Is it a company supposed to feel like a family? Is he just another cold blooded founder

of a publicly traded company that doesn't care about his people? I want to share a paraphrased

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