Co-founder & President

    Dave Salvant

    From the Barbershop Floor to a Seven Hundred Fifty Million Dollar Empire

    Raised in Section 8 housing in Coney Island, Brooklyn, Dave Salvant is the co-founder and president of Squire, the barbershop software company he started with Songe LaRon in 2015. Squire reached a $750 million valuation in 2021, and the pair won EY Entrepreneur Of The Year for New York in 2025.

    • 17 min listen
    • Squire co-founder
    • Entrepreneur
    • Barbershop technology
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    Dave Salvant’s full 17 min audio biography, From the Barbershop Floor to a Seven Hundred Fifty Million Dollar Empire, is available on Lyfestori for iOS. Listen to a free preview below.

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    Full story

    A life in brief

    Dave Salvant: life and timeline.

    He grew up in Section 8 housing in Coney Island with his mother and two sisters, then moved to Spring Valley, where he played fullback and defensive end. At the University at Albany his roommate cut his hair every Friday. Dave Salvant went into private banking at JPMorgan and insurance sales at AXA before leaving to start Squire with his friend Songe LaRon in 2015. A year later, with $60,000 left, they spent $20,000 on a failing barbershop in Chelsea Market to learn the trade from behind the register.

    1. 2008

      Graduates from Albany

      Earns a bachelor's degree in political science from the University at Albany. There he brought Grammy-nominated singer Ryan Leslie to perform at a campus party, his first taste of running something himself.

    2. 2010

      Meets Songe LaRon

      After a brief stint in marketing and a job as a private banker at JPMorgan, he is throwing parties for young Black professionals in Harlem when he meets LaRon, a Yale-trained corporate lawyer.

    3. 2015

      Founds Squire

      Leaves AXA after about three years in sales and co-founds Squire with LaRon to build booking, payments and management software for barbershops. The name comes from their Sunday Game of Thrones evenings.

    4. 2016

      A barbershop in Chelsea Market

      Spends $20,000 of the founders' $60,000 to take over the lease on a struggling shop in Chelsea Market and runs it as a "test kitchen" for the software. That summer, on their third application, Squire joins Y Combinator.

    5. 2017

      43North

      Squire wins $650,000 at the 43North pitch competition in Buffalo and opens an office there alongside its New York headquarters.

    6. 2019

      Series A

      Raises an $8 million Series A from Trinity Ventures.

    7. 2020

      Pandemic and Series C

      Days after a $27 million Series B led by CRV, Covid-19 closes barbershops. Squire waives subscription fees for shut shops, then raises a $45 million Series C led by ICONIQ in December at a $250 million valuation.

    8. 2021

      $750 million

      Tiger Global leads a $60 million Series D in July that triples Squire's valuation to $750 million. Forbes names it to its Next Billion-Dollar Startups list.

    9. 2025

      EY Entrepreneur Of The Year

      Salvant and LaRon are named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year winners for the New York region in June. Squire says it serves more than 3,000 shops and has processed over $1 billion in payments.

    Major achievements

    Dave Salvant: major achievements.

    • 01

      Building Squire

      With Songe LaRon he built software that handles booking, payments, payroll, inventory and marketing for barbershops, an industry most of Silicon Valley had ignored. It serves shops in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

    • 02

      A $750 million valuation

      From $60,000 of the founders' own money, Squire raised roughly $165 million in venture funding, reaching a $750 million valuation in July 2021.

    • 03

      Loyalty through the pandemic

      When lockdowns closed shops in 2020, Squire stopped charging subscription fees to barbers who could not open. It kept building, and came out of the shutdowns with a larger platform and a loyal customer base.

    • 04

      Recognition

      EY Entrepreneur Of The Year for New York in 2025, alongside LaRon, and a place on Forbes' 2021 Next Billion-Dollar Startups list.

    Turning points

    Dave Salvant: defining moments.

    • Childhood

      Coney Island

      He grew up in a two-bedroom apartment with a single mother and two sisters, in subsidised housing a few blocks from the boardwalk. He has said it taught him the difference between the haves and the have-nots, and gave him the drive to do more.

    • 2015

      Leaving the corporate track

      Private banking and insurance sales gave him a stable career, but he and LaRon shared a frustration with corporate life. They saw barbershops — central to Black community life and still run on paper appointment books — as a market nobody had built for.

    • 2016

      Running a real shop

      Instead of designing from a distance, they bought into a Chelsea Market barbershop and worked the register and the schedule themselves. Problems like splitting receipts between several barbers went straight into the product. Y Combinator accepted them that summer after two rejections.

    • 2020

      Waiving the fees

      Covid-19 shut barbershops days after Squire's Series B, cutting its revenue to almost nothing. The founders chose to stop billing closed shops, many of them Black- and Latino-owned. By December investors valued the company at $250 million.

    I grew up with a single mom and two sisters in a two-bedroom apartment.

    UAlbany Magazine, "A Cut Above"

    What you’ll take away

    Lessons from Dave Salvant’s life.

    1. 01

      Learn the business from inside

      Owning a barbershop taught the founders what no customer interview would have. Squire's product grew out of problems they hit at the register.

    2. 02

      Overlooked markets are still markets

      Investors had passed over barbershops as too small and too traditional. Salvant and LaRon saw a large, culturally central industry with no modern tools, and built for it.

    3. 03

      Stand by customers when it costs you

      Waiving fees in 2020 hurt in the short term. It also earned the loyalty of shop owners who remembered who had stood by them.

    FAQ

    Frequently asked questions about Dave Salvant.

    Who is Dave Salvant?

    An American entrepreneur and the co-founder and president of Squire, a software platform for barbershops. He grew up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and worked in private banking and insurance before starting Squire in 2015.

    What is Squire, Dave Salvant's company?

    Business software built for barbershops. It handles appointment booking, payments, payroll, inventory and marketing, and says it serves more than 3,000 shops in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

    Who is Songe LaRon?

    Dave Salvant's co-founder and Squire's chief executive. A Yale Law School graduate and former corporate lawyer, he met Salvant around 2010, and the two started Squire together in 2015.

    How old is Dave Salvant?

    His exact age has not been made public. He graduated from the University at Albany in 2008 and co-founded Squire in 2015.

    Was Squire on a Forbes list?

    Yes. Forbes named Squire to its 2021 Next Billion-Dollar Startups list, after a $60 million Series D led by Tiger Global valued the company at $750 million.

    Where did Dave Salvant go to college?

    The University at Albany, part of the State University of New York, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 2008.

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