Barbershop to Billion.

Dave Salvant, President and Co-Founder of Squire, built a platform that’s processed over $1B in payments — but it all started with a bad haircut experience.

When we sat down for the podcast, Dave told me how he and his co-founder got so frustrated waiting hours in chaotic barbershops that they decided to fix it.

But here’s the part that floored me: when their first test client backed out, they didn’t quit.

They bought the barbershop themselves — with their last $40,000.

That decision changed everything.

By running the business firsthand, they learned every inefficiency, every pain point, and built Squire from the inside out.

Today, that same obsession with the customer experience has turned Squire into the operating system for 3,000+ barbershops worldwide.

As a founder, that story hit me hard.

As a marketer, it reminded me: the best brands aren’t built on strategy decks — they’re built on empathy and immersion.

Sometimes the biggest growth move isn’t scaling faster.

It’s getting closer to the people you serve.

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Step past the Red Velvet Rope.

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