The Barbershop Visit That Sparked a $750M Idea: The Squire Origin Story

Dave Salvant and his co-founder Songe had no technical background, no barbershop experience, and were burning through their seed money. With only $60,000 left in the bank, they made a desperate "all-in" bet: they used 30% of their remaining cash to buy a barbershop in New York City.

In this episode, Dave reveals how "becoming the customer" by operating a physical shop was the secret to building Squire, now a $750M all-in-one platform for barbershops. We discuss the reality of "hand-to-hand combat" sales, paying barbers cash to stay online during outages, and the journey from a struggling idea to Y Combinator and beyond.

Chapters:

(00:00) - The "Make or Break" bet: Spending the last $60k

(04:01) - Whiteboarding ideas at Columbia University

(08:23) - Validating the idea without industry expertise

(16:29) - "Uber for Barbers": Why the initial model failed

(21:11) - Buying a physical barbershop to fix the software

(28:40) - Surviving the fundraising struggle and Y Combinator

(33:14) - How to manufacture Product-Market Fit

(40:56) - The Sacramento Story: Flying cash to barbers during an outage

Referenced:

• Squire: GetSquire.com

• Guest: Dave Salvant on LinkedIn

• Careers: careers.getsquire.com

About Before It Clicked:Before It Clicked is the playbook for going from aspiring founder to business owner. Hosted by Sunny Rekhi, we explore the unpolished journey of how great ideas are born—and teach you how to replicate that discovery process for yourself.

Keywords: SaaS, Vertical SaaS, Startup, Product Market Fit, Y Combinator, Venture Capital, Barbershop, Entrepreneurship, Pivot, Squire