North Star | Fireside Dax Dasilva & Fred Lalonde

About this episode

Dax Dasilva and Fred Lalonde discuss the challenges and strategies of building successful tech companies from Canada.

Two of Montreal's most iconic tech founders — Dax Dasilva (Lightspeed) and Fred Lalonde (Hopper & Deep Sky) — sit down for a rare and candid fireside conversation on building global companies from Canada, surviving the founder rollercoaster, and using technology and capitalism to tackle world-scale problems. From bootstrapping and product-market fit, to IPOs, hypergrowth, culture, leadership, and climate action — this keynote goes deep into what it really takes to build enduring companies. This is not a highlight reel. It's an unfiltered operator conversation. In this keynote, they discuss: Bootstrapping vs venture capital journeys The hardest leadership transitions founders face How company culture is actually built (not what's written on the wall) Product-market fit stories from Lightspeed and Hopper Scaling teams from 10 → 1,000+ people Founder psychology, resilience, and decision-making under pressure Why trust is the ultimate currency with teams and boards Capitalism as a lever for large-scale positive change Climate, carbon removal, and building Deep Sk Conservation, Age of Union, and purpose beyond exits Speakers: Dax Dasilva — Founder & CEO, Lightspeed Fred Lalonde —…

People in this episode

Guests: Dax Dasilva, Fred Lalonde

Topics covered

• building global companies
• founder rollercoaster
• technology
• capitalism
• bootstrapping
• product-market fit
• IPOs
• hypergrowth
• company culture
• leadership
• climate action

Keywords

• founder psychology
• resilience
• decision-making
• trust
• capitalism
• climate
• carbon removal

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Lightspeed, Hopper, Deep Sky

Places: Montreal, Canada

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