Ralf Elfving

We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Building something from scratch and making the first X iterations that impacts 100s of early adopter customers will be faster than adding new features or iterating on an existing codebase with 1M users that rely on your product and how it has behaved for years. The cost of change increases with scale and complexity, and coordination cost grows with a larger org. AI does a lot to bend the curve, but there still is a curve. Or to use physics: AI is a force, but bigger orgs are higher-mass objects so they have more inertia to overcome. The same push produces less acceleration.

The one thing I don’t understand about AI right now. I’m seeing people whip up full Saas products in a matter of days, chasing features, deploying improvements constantly, and the rate of improvement and feature launches with 1 random dude working on it with Claude code is insane. Yet the rate of deployments and changes seems to be exactly the same for large established Saas with big teams as it was before. Shouldn’t the big teams also be running 5-10x faster now as well?

@williambmclean @fortelabs This is the way.

@fortelabs Claude code, Astro site, hold the files in GitHub and publish with cloudflare pages or any of the other free publishing options.

What's the best way to vibe-code a website right now for someone completely non-technical? I want a simple site with a few pages, with a modern, clean, but polished UI and nice interactive effects Should I just use Claude Code for this, or is it worth using a more specialized tool like Bolt or Lovable?

@harleyf @Shopify The rest of Canada thanks you, they just don't know it yet.

Builder Sundays is growing. Toronto. Montreal. Now Ottawa starting March 1. Ottawa builders have been asking for this for a while… we heard you. Every Sunday we open @Shopify’s doors to builders, solo devs, and early teams working on their next idea. We’re also moving to weekly ticket releases so more builders can join. Come build with us.

@iannuttall This is so annoying. It was annoying pre-Gemini.

Google just make it so difficult to actually use and pay them for Gemini It's easier to just switch to OpenAI

@Bonthoux @tobi There's a big window between now and the Dutch government admitting it's a clear failure that nations like Canada can use as cover to introduce something similar.

@tobi Well at least is should (hopefully) quiet down any argument for it in Canada once we watch it unfold as the inevitable disaster it will be.

Figures. The entire legislature of Netherlands failed a very public IQ test in front of the entire world. Pathetic.

Let's take a look at how Seattle's DoorDash law actually turned out. In 2024, Seattle implemented "PayUp" — a minimum wage law for food delivery drivers, setting the rate at $26.40/hour. The intent was to protect workers. Here's what actually happened: DoorDash added a $5 fee to every order. Customers stopped ordering. Within two weeks, 30,000 fewer orders. UberEats volume dropped 30%. Drivers — the people the law was supposed to help — saw their available deliveries cut in half and earnings per hour fall 25%. A new National Bureau of Economic Research study confirmed what the numbers already showed: higher per-delivery pay was completely offset by fewer deliveries and lower tips. Active drivers saw zero net gain in monthly earnings. KUOW reported this week that two years in, the results are undeniable — Seattle is now the most expensive delivery market in the country. Denver, Portland, and San Francisco, cities without these laws, saw delivery revenue grow 20-40%. Seattle stagnated. The parallel to what's happening with WA tax proposals is obvious. SB 6346 would impose a 9.9% income tax on high earners. The QSBS add-back bills would strip federal tax exclusions from founders. The argument is always "just a small tax on those who can afford it." But capital moves. Founders move. Companies incorporate elsewhere. The DoorDash data gives us a controlled experiment: same company, same product, same time period, different policy environments. The city with the heaviest regulation saw the worst outcomes — including for the workers it tried to protect. Incentives matter. Every time. kuow.org/stories/seattl… #StartupLaw #WashingtonState #PolicyMatters #QSBS #Founders #waleg

@Beevor12 @ahesselbom Han pekar på en fråga om principer.

@ahesselbom Spotify som inte ligger under IF Metalls avtalsområde? Bättre du klagar på tjänstemannafacken.

Finns det någon medlem i IF Metall som stöttar bojkotten mot Tesla men frivilligt betalar för Spotify? Det säger allt du behöver veta om deras genuinitet.

@MattSpoke But it sure feels good! And the people like it!

@KerryBurgess @Tesco Legendary.

Taxing the Unrealized: A View on the Netherlands’ Planned 36% Capital Levy 🇳🇱 The Dutch merchant tradition was built on one principle: tax realized trade, not hypothetical valuation. A 36% tax on unrealized capital gains is not a technical tweak — it is a structural intervention into capital formation. I) The Mechanism a) Starting position 500 shares Value Jan 1, 2028: €50,000 Value Jan 1, 2029: €100,000 Unrealized gain: €50,000 You did not sell. The state treats it as income. b) Exemption €3,600 (married) Taxable: €46,400 Tax at 36%: €16,704, payable in May. Liquidity irrelevant. c) Market correction scenario Portfolio falls to €60,000. Tax bill remains €16,704 (based on peak valuation). d) Forced sale After paying tax: €43,296 left. Shares drop from 500 to 360. 28% of ownership permanently gone. e) Economic result Final value: €43,296 Original cost: €50,000 Net: –€6,704 A €10,000 real gain becomes a loss. This is not taxation of profit. It is confiscation of volatility. II) Why This Is Destabilizing a) It Violates the Realization Principle Prices reflect expectations, time preference, and risk. Taxing unrealized gains assumes certainty where none exists. It turns market signals into tax liabilities. b) It Forces Pro-Cyclical Selling Bull markets expand the tax base. Corrections force liquidation into weakness. Volatility is amplified, and long-term holders are penalized. c) It Destroys Compounding Capital formation requires reinvestment and deferred taxation. Annual taxation of appreciation weakens equity ownership and private wealth accumulation. III) Outlook If capital is taxed independent of liquidity, behavior adapts. Migration HNWIs shift domicile toward lower-tax jurisdictions (Switzerland, UAE, Singapore). Holding structures move abroad. Wealth Drain Entrepreneurs delay IPOs, avoid domestic listings, and build offshore. Money Drain Capital rotates from public equities into private vehicles, hard assets, gold, and bitcoin — assets harder to mark annually. Brain Drain Talent follows capital. When upside is taxed before realization, risk-adjusted innovation declines. IV) The Deeper Shift This policy moves: - From taxing transactions → to taxing appreciation itself. - From taxing income → to taxing expectation. The Netherlands 🇳🇱 prospered through merchant accounting, realized profit, and capital preservation. Detaching taxation from realization may raise short-term revenue. - Medium term, it raises emigration. - Long term, it erodes the capital base. - And capital is what sustains prosperity.

@forgebitz The government will pass legislation that requires blue collar work to be done by a certified blue collar worker.

plumbers have 300/h jobs because people are working 60 hours a week in an office wtf do you think happens with plumbing jobs when everyone is jobless

@SamMendelsohnW6 You're describing @gadget_dev

How far away are we from ai being able to in a single platform Build and code a application Build the interface Handle all the infrastructure and data basing and security? I’ve project managed a lot of stuff being built over the years from developer to designers etc. but would be sick to be able to just do it all myself with just natural language prompting

@livetefterfire Det som kan gå riktigt fel är att andra länder tar efter.

36% skatt på orealiserade!? vinster i Holland fr 2028. Vad kan gå fel här?

@SimJoSt @rdraward @Shopify If you know anyone please send them my way, looking for early adopters for feedback as I roll it out on app store.

@ralfelfving @rdraward @Shopify Exactly how I was thinking of it. I can imagine some merchants wanting it.

Built a real-time globe activity feed for a project that didn't launch. Turned it into the @Shopify app Glowb, a live order feed that lights up the shipping location of new orders (and more) 100% novelty, but also 100% delight. :) Any brand interested in giving it a spin?

@SimJoSt @rdraward @Shopify What I've built is only available in the admin, but with a few tweaks you could expose it elsewhere too. But I'd remove customer data like names and maybe truncate the lat/lon-data a decimal or two.

@ralfelfving @rdraward @Shopify Is this only available in the backend or could it be safely exposed to customers on the frontend?

@JustenEcom @Shopify It was fun building as well! :)

@ralfelfving @Shopify This is the kind of fun feature that makes brands feel alive 💪🏻

@beffjezos @chrysb @steipete @openclaw Clawfund

@chrysb @steipete @openclaw why can't he just raise a seed round? He could crowfund $100M

wow - @steipete losing $10K-$20K/mo on @openclaw and set to partner with either OpenAI or Meta very mixed feelings

@FoodProfessor @Francesco_Image @grok The number was so big it crashed.

@Francesco_Image @grok Big dairy hacked @grok?

Hey @grok — why don’t Dairy Farmers of Canada disclose how much milk is dumped each year?

The inspiration clearly is Shopify's own BFCM globe. The original project was outside the Shopify ecosystem, and when it didn't launch I couldn't resist changing the feed from one type of activity (runs) to another (Shopify orders). Everything made real easy by @gadget_dev