Bobby Morrison CRO Out at Shopify: Now The Dust Has Settled

Let's follow the chain for a second right?

1 - Kaz left to join OpenDoor as CEO, and this seemed to expose Bobby, who had Kaz as the buffer between himself and Tobi. (fact)

2 - Bobby got a new buffer - Jess. (fact)

3 - Jess was not happy with what she learned? (speculation)

4 - Bobby presents to 8k people at Netsuite SuiteWorld this week on behalf of Shopify. (fact)

5 - Jess was promoted to COO based on her prior work, and what she learned needed to be fixed. (fact)

6 - Jess was promoted without an external search? (speculation)

7 - No thank you messages from Tobi, Harley, or Jess to Bobby. (fact)

8 - Bobby was forced out, along with a couple of top lieutenants. (informed speculation)

Some other meta-conclusions:

- Kaz seemed to be a big Bobby fan (informed speculation)

- Enterprise team missing numbers? (informed speculation)

Just saying, you don't get rid of a CRO who is knocking the cover off the ball.

Shopify momentum is Shopify momentum that is not going to change, but it does highlight that Shopify is quick to rectify what it thinks are mistakes and right the ship. I can think of 3 big ones in the last 5 years.

Allan Leinwand as CTO, unwound and reset.

Bobby Morrison as CRO, now unwound and we will see how it resets.

Huge Logistics bet, unwound and reset.

There are a lot of great people in the GTM team at Shopify, a lot of them brought in by Bobby. There were also some notable departures in the last 6 months.

And the final informed speculation: Shopify believed there were more sales and marketing departures to come if this was not done.

I'm not passing judgment on it, it's just the thing of it.