Shopify launched in 2006 after being developed for an online snowboard store.
Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake created an online store called Snowdevil to sell snowboards. Dissatisfied with the available e-commerce software, Lütke built a new platform using Ruby on Rails. The founders then released that platform commercially as Shopify in 2006.
Shopify later shifted from a tool for one store into a hosted commerce platform used by merchants of many sizes. It provides storefront, product, payment, marketing, and fulfillment tools, while merchants remain responsible for their own businesses and inventory.
Shopify’s 2006 launch should not be confused with its 2015 public listing. The company began trading publicly years after its software platform became available.