Slime, Sharks & Shopify

I watched the Grammys for the first time in a very long time last night. I used to be a pretty big award show guy… Oscars, Grammys, Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards, etc. Nothing better than some green slime and a bunch of rich celebrities drinking champagne & awarding each other for being rich celebrities.

For the most part, it was meh. Like any nationally televised event these days, the cameras panned to Taylor Swift one too many times. Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs performed Fast Car live which was for sure the highlight, so if you like that song (which if you don’t, what’s wrong with you?) you should check that out.

Otherwise, I’d say there generally was just not enough sliming.

What’s ironic is I probably listen to less music now than I ever have. Since I never drive I don’t listen to the radio, and for the most part, podcasts have really taken over my ears’ real estate. There’s gotta be a podcast award show coming soon, right? Decided by The Academy of course. You’ve gotta think that people spend more time listening to podcasts at this point than music… right? I dunno, I could be wildly wrong on that but I know my time spent listening to podcasts versus music is like 10:1.

Imagine a podcast award show where instead of live performances by musical artists we just get like 3 minutes of a couple white dudes talking about biohacking…

“Now to the stage… Joe Rogan & [insert any semi-controversial person] to discuss the carnivore diet & ice baths.”

Now that’s some riveting television. You’re welcome, Academy.

Welcome to week 16 of Trust Fun. A newsletter about nothing.

What would we do without Shopify?

Speaking of award shows, is anyone else sick & tired of seeing founders post their Shopify trophies online?

When you hit 100k and 1 million orders on a Shopify store, you get sent this golden shopping bag trophy thingy from Shopify. If you have a moderately successful Shopify store, AKA have been around for like 5-8 years & were lucky enough to live through the COVID e-commerce gold rush, you probably have hit 100k orders & received one of these things.

And if you did, congrats. Seriously. You’re probably rich, or at the very least, you drive a Tesla & own an ice bath.

I’m not saying that as a dig by the way. I’m jealous. I really want a Tesla & an ice bath. Like so bad.

All jokes aside, Shopify is a very special tool. And for those who don’t know, let me have ChatGPT explain…

“Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows individuals and businesses to create their own online stores without the need for extensive technical knowledge. It provides a user-friendly interface for setting up and customizing storefronts, managing inventory, and processing payments. Shopify handles the technical aspects of hosting and security, enabling users to focus on selling products.”

It’s THE software that has enabled everyone and anyone to become an entrepreneur. They’ve broken down the barrier of entry to building complicated websites. Typically, a website as high tech as a Shopify store would cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to build & would require serious software development skills to maintain. Shopify gives you all that for like $50 a month. They also take like 2% for each transaction made on your store.

For me, and anyone else who work for and/or relating to a business that sells shit online, Shopify is the reason your job exists. We are truly indebted. All hail king Tobi and prince Harley.

Great How I Built This with Tobi (founder of Shopify) by the way. Def check it out.

Another short and sweet one this week. Not a ton to say.

Getting ready for my big move while also continuing to try to figure out a way to sell more stretchy jeans.

Any ideas are welcome. Or you can just grab a pair here 🙂 Check out this glowing endorsement:

See you next week.