The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

My friend Mark Hayes, one of the marketing guys at my former workplace, Shopify, is looking for a Toronto-based social media and community manager. Shopify, in case you’re not familiar with the company, is a wildly successful ecommerce platform that’s moved over a billion — that’s right, billion with a b — dollars worth of goods since its inception about five years ago. It’s one of Canada’s biggest startup success, and a great place to work.

He’s using Reddit’s “Toronto” subreddit to find this social media and community manager. Here’s what he posted:

Hey r/Toronto:

My name is Mark and I work at an ecommerce platform called Shopify. This week, I plan on hiring someone from r/Toronto to be our social media and community manager. If you’re really, really, ridiculously good at social media and want to work at an awesome company – read on.

Why I’m on r/Toronto:

I need to hire a social media and community manager in Toronto. Last time I hired someone (a marketing copywriter), I made it a public job posting. I received over 800 applications… going through them all was awful.

This time, I’m not making a public job posting. I plan on finding our new social media manager this week on r/Toronto. Yes, I have that much confidence in the power of Reddit. 🙂

I’m working out of Shopify’s Toronto office until Friday and would love to grab coffee with Toronto’s best social media people. Here’s a bit about working at Shopify:

• Exciting challenges to face, and problems to solve every day!
• Competitive salary
• Shares in the company
• Flexible work hours
• Free house cleaning service
• Free gym membership
• Office 5 min from Union Station
• More here.

About Shopify:

• We’re an ecommerce platform with over 40,000 online stores around the world.
• Profit Magazine called us the smartest company in Canada.
• Fast Company named us one of the world’s top 50 most innovative companies.

How to get hired: Shoot me an email, mark.hayes@shopify.com with a short intro and links to a couple of your social media platforms. Also please include a link to your LinkedIn, but if you don’t have one – don’t worry. No resume, cover letter or any of that stuff. I’ll respond to anyone who I would like to get to know a bit better and we’ll grab a coffee sometime this week!

Also, of course feel free to chat w/ me in the comments here. Thanks so much r/Toronto!

Edit: It occurred to me that those who want this job may downvote to decrease visibility of this post and increase their chances. Please don’t. 🙂 I hope to have as many coffees as possible this week, so chances are I’ll get to meet most who apply!

If you’re in the social media / community management line of work and are looking for a great gig, this is it! Be sure to drop Mark a line and tell him Joey sent you!

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

During those rare lunches when I eat alone, this bowl/smartphone cradle might come in handy.

This article also appears in Mobilize!: The CTS Mobile Tech Blog.

While getting some work done at the Starbucks that used to be Albert Britnell’s book store (Yonge just north of Bloor), I saw the sign on their emergency exit at the back and had to snap this photo. The door leads to what appears to be a back alley, but the “after dusk” warning suggests that something sinister, something that fears the daylight — Gremlins? Vampires? Hipsters? — lies in wait for unsuspecting double macchiato drinkers.

We’re this close to getting the coworking space up and running.

A Potential Name

One of the things we have yet to determine is a name. I put out a request to my friends on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, and while they came up with some interesting suggestions, my favourite name remains “Union Workstation”.

I think it has a rather nice ring to it. It also very clearly alludes to how close it is to Toronto’s Union Station, which is a major subway, commuter train and VIA Rail station, which makes the place easy to get to, even for people who live deep in the ‘burbs.

A Lucky Break with Furniture

On Thursday, my friend Heather Williams posted the following in Facebook:

Lovely people of Toronto — do you have an office in need of a furniture upgrade? Looking for some cubicles or desk items/filing cabinets?

My office is moving and we can’t fit the current stuff in the new place so it all needs to move out before end of January. Free to a good home – just come and get it (office is near Pearson).

We have 7 of the cherry wood desk sets (with matching shelving) and 6 cubicles with divider walls. We also have various filing cabinets, chairs and shelving units. All in great shape.

Our movers can assist with the removal of these items when they are moving our stuff if you want to coordinate that and pay for just that portion of the job and delivery to your location (or bring your own van and cart it away).

Give me a shout if any interest!!

Chris Glynne alerted me to Heather’s posting, and I contacted her immediately. Her work was only too happy to get rid of the stuff, and we were only too happy to take it off her hands…for free-as-in-we-pay-nothing!

Furnishing a coworking space is always a big challenge, and I’m glad that we lucked out with this catch. Thanks, Heather and Axiom!

Floor Plans

Once again, here are the floor plans for the space:

If you’d like to claim a desk or a whole office, drop me a line (jdevilla@ctstech.net) or give me a ring (647-985-5639). Let’s talk!

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

…and that’s the problem.

And now a Q&A session with the world’s greatest animated superspy ever…Sterling Archer!

Awwwwwww.

Found via George Takei.