Shopify Says Even a Pimple Can Spark Big Ideas for Entrepreneurs

Hyping the platform's power to help build new businesses

Whoa! That zit gives me a great idea…

Shopify spotlights four diverse, quirky entrepreneurial ventures in its first work from Mother L.A. Lensed in bouncy, pseudo-doc style by Iconoclast director Marcus Ibanez, “Just an Idea” hypes the platform’s Sidekick AI commerce assistant and follows four very different startups.

There’s an offbeat but earnest tone throughout, with the most memorable bits involving high schoolers who develop pimple patches. That one really … pops. (Well, it does!) The other segments involve apparel, a sofa for dogs and a decal that stops pigeons from crashing into windows, and the brisk pace propels viewers effortlessly through the spot’s 2-minute run-time.

“Anyone who’s ever wanted to build something of their own just got powerful enough to do it,” Neal Hicks, director of creative at Shopify, tells Muse.

“For years, a lot of people with great ideas talked themselves out of them: ‘I don’t have the money. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the experience. I didn’t go to the right school.’ Those reasons were real. But with AI, if you’ve got an idea and the courage and determination to go for it, you can give it a shot and make it real.”

At its core, the work is about technology powering self-expression and turning visions into reality. In that sense, it shares themes with Apple’s 2026 holiday spot, in which a MacBook Neon helps a young painter strive for his goals. Shopify focuses on business, but the underlying message is the same: AI’s one more tool in your kit. It shouldn’t be feared, but harnessed by humans seeking to unlock their true potential.

Here, Hicks chats with Muse about campaign development.

Did you base the film on real user stories?

We meet founders every day, of every age and from all over the world. Their ideas are inspiring, joyful and sometimes wonderfully strange. For a long time there was a cliché about who an entrepreneur was and what they looked like. That’s completely broken down now, and we wanted the film to reflect that.

The startup types are a tad offbeat, no?

We started with a skeleton of the kinds of people and ideas we see every day, and the reasons each of them might have thought, “I could never actually do that. It’s not for people like me.” The real unlock came when Marcus took those sketches and turned them into people you want to root for. A guy with a sketchbook and great taste. An office worker tired of birds hitting his window. A couple fed up with ugly dog beds. A group of high school seniors with an idea for pimple patches. Marcus deserves a lot of credit for that.

Is the viewer takeaway as simple as: Shopify’s there for you?

“Just An Idea” is for people who haven’t started a business yet, including many who’ve never thought of themselves as entrepreneurs or even really considered it. But honestly, what we care about most is how people feel about themselves when the film ends. We want them to feel a door open, like they could actually do something with the idea they’ve tucked in the back of their mind for so long. If someone watches it and thinks, “You know what? Maybe now I can,” then it worked.

Not a holiday ad per se, but it has that vibe.

That’s fair. I think the message fits this time of year. The new year is all about new beginnings, and what we’re really saying is: Why not make this the year you stop saying no to that idea you’ve always kept small, and turn it into something real? Take your shot. Because now, all you need to get started is just an idea.

You squeezed a lot into 120 seconds. Any big challenges making the film?

Honestly, it was one of the most joyful sets I’ve ever been on, and that wasn’t a given. We shot in Barcelona over six days, with four stories, a lot of locations, and all of it on film. So there was no room to overshoot.

Then, in the middle of the night before day one, our phones started going off with storm warnings. I remember sitting in video village while the rain came down so hard that water was running in under our feet. I looked up and literally watched a chair blow past. Then I looked back at the monitor, saw that shot of Milo [in the cafe], and thought… that’s beautiful. All that chaos outside, and something so beautiful being made inside. That’s when I knew we were part of something special.

Walter [the pigeon guy) was a character a lot of us fell in love with. When the actor playing him wrapped his final scene, the whole crew, Marcus and our cinematographer Kasper Tuxen included, stood up and gave him an ovation. We ended up doing that for most of the cast, and I think it says a lot about the feeling on that set.

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