Tech

Shopify CEO discusses shares surging 69% in trading debut

Shopify CEO: Mobile exploding on platform
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Shopify CEO: Mobile exploding on platform

Shares of Shopify, a Canadian e-commerce software maker, surged as much as 69 percent above its IPO price of $17 per share after debuting on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. (Tweet This)

The Ottawa-based company, which makes software that helps both small and large businesses such as Tesla sell goods online, issued about 7.7 million shares in the offering, raising around $130 million.

Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke said he was not worried about going public in a climate where fellow online retailers like Etsy have seen shares slump. "We love the position we are in," he said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "It came down to the team was ready, the company was ready, everything was ready."

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Shopify founder and Chief Executive Officer Tobi Lutke smiles after the company's IPO at the New York Stock Exchange May 21, 2015.
Lucas Jackson | Reuters

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Shopify works with over 150,000 merchants across 150 different countries with sales totaling over $8 billion. Customers using the sales platform pay a fee starting at $14 a month.

Lutke said Shopify wins by partnering with companies like Google looking to emphasize mobile shopping and simplifying purchases for customers with buy buttons. "We find the last decade has been the lost decade of entrepreneurship," he said. "It was really hard working with all the complexity and learning curve to start. We've flattened that down and now allow people to have not just one single point solution, but just run the entire operation for them."

Lutke, who founded Shopify after he discovered the difficulty of managing sales for his own snowboard company over ten years ago, claims the platform takes only 15 minutes for a small business to master.

Reuters contributed to this report