“If you want numbers to improve, stare at them every day. Making everybody aware of all the data is critical so nobody can hide.”
We are thrilled to welcome JP Chauvet, who played a key role in turning Lightspeed Commerce into a Canadian tech champion, as our newest Inovia Executive in Residence.
JP likes to be where big changes are about to happen. He worked at an Internet database-building company in the 1990s, moved to online publishing technology in the 2000s, and took part in the takeoff of online advertising. He joined Lightspeed in 2012 as employee No.37, ready to disrupt the point-of-sale systems used by restaurateurs and retailers.
From his first role as Chief Revenue Officer to becoming CEO in 2022, JP worked closely with Lightspeed Founder Dax Dasilva to modernize an industry that had changed little in decades, building the Montreal company into a global player that went public in 2019. He was instrumental in a host of acquisitions that fast-tracked Lightspeed’s expansion and strengthened its push into e-commerce and payments. By the time he left in 2024, the company’s run rate was over $1 billion USD.
JP’s role in the Lightspeed journey makes him an invaluable resource to founders looking to grow. We sat down with him to discuss the passions that energize him, what he learned from failures, and why you need to look at KPIs every day.
TELL US SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU
My background. Everybody thinks I’m French, but my mom is half-Irish, half-Scottish, and my dad is half-French, half-Lebanese. It’s difficult to nail me! I grew up in Africa. I’ve lived in Ireland, France, the U.S., Singapore, Australia… I can blend easily anywhere.
CAN YOU SHARE ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES OR FAILURES THAT YOU LEARNED FROM?
I embrace mistakes as long as I don’t continue making the same ones. Early in my career, I thought that funding was not that important and that you could become big if you had the right products. I learned the hard way that you can’t compete without it.
At Atex, where I worked before Lightspeed, we made four fairly large acquisitions through debt instead of equity. Never again. We then had a breach of covenant in 2007, just when the banking crisis started. We couldn’t find an agreement with bankers and ended up having to depart from certain divisions and sell the business to pay back the debt.
WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU RECEIVED IN YOUR CAREER?
If you want numbers to improve, stare at them every day. Managers and entrepreneurs create the KPIs and then look at them once a year and feel surprised they’re not moving. Making everybody aware of all the data is critical to the business so nobody can hide. Also, surround yourself with smart people who will make it happen, not smart people who will just tell you what’s not going well.
WHAT’S A QUESTION YOU WISH PEOPLE ASKED YOU MORE OFTEN?
Many people tell me that what Lightspeed did was amazing, but few ask why it was successful. It was successful because many people were hungry for it to be successful. I may be a dinosaur on that front, but for me, good execution, good structure, hard work, and measuring and publishing numbers drive the outcome.
WHAT ENERGIZES YOU? HOW DO YOU TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF?
I play a ton of sports: tennis, squash, sailing, diving. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking. I am passionate about wine and architecture. What gets me excited and happy in the morning are projects; I need to always have something to do that stimulates me. Right now, that’s a house in France that I’m going to renovate.
IN YOUR ROLE AT INOVIA, WHAT QUESTIONS SHOULD FOUNDERS ASK YOU?
I’m happy to be of service as a sounding board. If a founder leads a company of 100 people and grows it to 500, most don’t know what’s about to hit them or don’t understand how to update the management structure or their KPIs. I would have liked to speak to entrepreneurs with that experience when we were building up Lightspeed, but there weren’t many ones in Quebec back then. I want to share today what would have helped me at the time and the mistakes I wouldn’t make again.