The Twenty Minute VCDax Dasilva: $900M ARR at $2.6BN Market Cap?! Lightspeed, The Most Undervalued Public Company |E1188
Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- August 9, 2024
- Duration
- 50m
- Channel
- The Twenty Minute VC
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Dax Dasilva is the Founder & CEO Lightspeed Commerce, one of the most incredible stories in startups. For 7 years they did not raise outside funding and ran a very profitable business. Ultimately they partnered with Accel and Innovia before going public on the Canadian Stock Exchange with just $70M in ARR. Lightspeed also undertook 9 acquisitions over the course of a four year period to consolidate the global market. Today they have a whopping $900M in ARR but are only valued at $2.6BN. Today we ask the question, is Lightspeed one of the public market’s most misunderstood companies? ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:04) Childhood Challenges That Shaped Dax (03:55) The Inspiration Behind Starting Lightspeed (05:36) Lessons on Product-Market Fit with Lightspeed (07:21) Would Early Funding Have Changed Lightspeed's Path? (09:09) What Dax Would Change with More Early Capital (12:32) Do Modern SaaS Investors Overlook Potential Gems? (13:33) Lessons on Winning in Competitive Markets (14:34) Key Lessons for Global Expansion Beyond North America (22:11) Reducing Implementation & Hardware Costs to Improve Margins (28:44) Misaligned Capital Market Expectations vs. Business Needs (30:58) Should SaaS Companies Go Public Earlier? (35:00) Leadership (36:57) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Dax Dasilva We Discuss:
1. VC Funding is Distorting SaaS: Why did Dax decide not to raise money for Lightspeed in the early days? Does Dax believe Lightspeed would have been successful had they have raised a seed round like many do today in SaaS? Why does Dax believe venture funding is distorting a generation of SaaS companies today? How does Dax advise founders scaling their business today from $0-$1M in ARR?
1. What Went Wrong: The Founder Returns: Why did Dax feel he had to come back to the role of CEO in 2024? What was not working? What was the single biggest problem that the public markets had with Lightspeed? What were some of the biggest challenges that came with the intense amount of M&A? What would Dax most like to do that the public market will not allow?
1. What Makes a Great Leader: How it Changes: What required skills in leadership change with the changing scale of the company? What skill does Dax have that he is slightly ashamed of but has most contributed to his success? What did Dax not know when he founded Lightspeed that he wishes he had known? What question is Dax never asked that he should be asked more? ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Dax Dasilva on Twitter: https://twitter.com/daxdasilva Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #daxdasilva #lightspeed #venturecapital #leadership #ceo #saas
SPEAKERS
Dax Dasilva
guestHarry Stebbings
host
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Dax Dasilva and Harry Stebbings, Dax Dasilva: $900M ARR at $2.6BN Market Cap?! Lightspeed, The Most Undervalued Public Company |E1188 explores bootstrapped To A Billion: Lightspeed’s Slow-Burn SaaS And Profit Pivot Dax Dasilva, founder and CEO of Lightspeed, explains how the company grew from a bootstrapped, product-obsessed startup to a nearly $1B revenue public business he believes is deeply undervalued. He attributes early product-market fit to relentless coding, extreme proximity to customers, and seven years of profitable, slow, deliberate growth before ever raising venture capital. Once public, Lightspeed pursued aggressive M&A and payments expansion, and is now in a ‘profitable growth’ phase focused on simplifying the story, integrating acquisitions, cutting OpEx, and clarifying its ideal customer profile. Dasilva also discusses leadership evolution, the emotional realities of layoffs, strategic tradeoffs between market expectations and what’s best for the business, and his broader environmental and community-driven philosophy.
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