Five Questions with Lightspeed Founder & CEO Dax Dasilva

Lightspeed was founded to simplify the complex—giving retailers and restaurateurs the tools to run better businesses. Twenty years later, that mission remains the same. Lightspeed has evolved from a startup to a global leader, helping businesses scale with confidence in an increasingly digital world. Founded in Montreal, Lightspeed has expanded its presence across North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region while navigating the challenges of scaling a company in Canada’s evolving business landscape.

CEO Dax Dasilva recently sat down with CCI President Benjamin Bergen to discuss Lightspeed’s journey from startup to scale-up, the challenges and opportunities of building a global company from Canada, and what it takes to drive growth in today’s innovation economy.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
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Benjamin Bergen: Hi Dax, great to speak with you today. So, Lightspeed is approaching 20 years in business, which is a huge milestone. Looking back to the very beginning, what was the original problem you set out to solve when you started the company?

Dax Dasilva: I had done a lot of custom systems for retail businesses in my teens and twenties. As the Mac grew in popularity and Steve Jobs returned to Apple, Apple products became more widely used, and I noticed a shift. What I sensed from the market was that business owners wanted to feel in control of their retail businesses.

Apple’s philosophy has always been about simplifying the complex, and I felt that same approach was needed for retail. Rather than continuing to build custom systems, I created a platform—Lightspeed—that helped business owners better understand their businesses, make informed decisions, and manage all the different elements of their operations.

That mission continues to drive the company today. We now work with more complex retailers and hospitality merchants, but the goal remains the same: to simplify their world and help them run better businesses.
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Benjamin Bergen: That’s great—not just in terms of the problem you set out to solve, but how you’ve continued to address it as the company has grown. At CCI, we focus a lot on the transition from startup to scale-up, and a key turning point is finding product-market fit. When did you realize that Lightspeed was on that trajectory?

Dax Dasilva: Our first 200 to 300 customers were Mac dealerships around the world. These were complex retailers with multiple locations, large product catalogs, and different parts of their businesses, like repair services. We saw broad adoption very quickly, which was an early sign that we were solving a real problem.

But I think the turning point came in our second year when we decided to host a training camp. These dealerships were already using Lightspeed in their own businesses, and we saw an opportunity to turn them into advocates who could sell the platform in their own communities. They knew firsthand how Lightspeed improved operations, so it made sense for them to introduce it to other retailers. That first training camp sold out, with around 50 companies attending from across the world—places like the Middle East, Ireland, Australia, the U.S., and Canada. Seeing that level of global enthusiasm so early on was a huge validation of product-market fit.

That model became a powerful growth engine. Fast forward seven years to when we secured our Series A investment from Accel, and those training camps had grown to 400 partners. Accel even attended one of them, seeing firsthand how our ecosystem had developed. By that point, we weren’t just selling a product—we had built a global network of engaged partners who believed in what we were doing.
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Benjamin Bergen: That’s a great insight—planting those early seeds and then seeing how they grow over time. You’ve been in the technology space for nearly 20 years, which is longer than the iPhone has been around. Looking back, what would you say has been the most meaningful change in the industry during that time?

Dax Dasilva: I think there are a couple of major changes that have made a big difference, especially in the space where Lightspeed operates.

We’ve always embraced innovation early—introducing mobile POS to enhance in-store experiences, pioneering cloud-based solutions to help retailers and restaurateurs scale more efficiently before they became widespread.

Now, AI is the next step in this evolution, helping merchants automate operations, optimize inventory, and drive smarter, more efficient growth.
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Benjamin Bergen: AI is something everyone is watching closely, and its impact is only going to grow. How is Lightspeed staying nimble and strategic as these technologies evolve? And how are you approaching decision-making in this process?

Dax Dasilva: I think it comes back to listening to our customers and understanding where we can truly change the game for them. We look at where they’re spending time and whether that time is actually adding value to their business and their passion—what made them start that retail or hospitality business in the first place.

Can we give them more opportunities to focus on what they love, like curating a menu or selecting the next great assortment of retail products? And can we reduce the time they spend on lower-value, repetitive tasks?

It’s also about levelling the playing field. We want to equip independent businesses with the same technological advantages that big-box retailers and large chain restaurants have. By democratizing that technology, we help ensure that vibrant, local businesses continue to thrive in our communities.
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Benjamin Bergen: What do you think is the most important factor in driving growth for an innovative company today? What are the key things that have contributed to Lightspeed’s success?

Dax Dasilva: Scaling goes beyond technology—it’s about how businesses adopt and apply it. AI is reshaping the way companies grow, and Lightspeed is focused on helping merchants navigate that shift. You can have an incredible product and even product-market fit, but if you don’t have a well-developed go-to-market approach, success isn’t guaranteed. That’s something that can sometimes be overlooked or not built out in the right way.

The way companies reach new customers is constantly evolving, which means businesses need to adapt. But that also creates opportunities. AI, for example, is introducing new tools that can help with outreach and go-to-market strategies in ways we haven’t seen before.

As a founder, I’ve learned that staying relevant means constantly evolving. Every year, I ask myself: What does the company need from me now? That mindset—anticipating change, adapting strategies, and driving transformation—is what fuels long-term growth. Success isn’t just about reacting to change; it’s about leading it. As a company grows, the needs of the business change, and that often means stepping into areas that might be less comfortable or less aligned with what you originally loved doing. But as a founder, you have to be the one to lead your business into those next stages. That requires not just courage, but also a sense of calm in the face of new challenges and opportunities.

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About the Council

The Council of Canadian Innovators is a national business council of more than 150 scale-up technology companies headquartered in Canada. Our members are job-creators, philanthropists and leading commercialization experts in the 21st century digital economy.