Why Lightspeed set up shop in this renovated Montreal train station

This fast-growing Montreal retail software company couldn’t find an office big enough to house all its new hires. So it leased a castle—more or less. With 400 employees arranged in six offices around the globe, Lightspeed founder and CEO Dax Dasilva travels as light as possible, holding most of his international meetings by video conference from the company’s brand new headquarters in Montreal’s historic Gare Viger. Dasilva built Lightspeed’s original product in 2005 and only stopped coding in 2010. “It was shocking at first, because [it felt like] I wasn’t doing any real work.” He has since come to terms with his obligations as CEO, but code is still close to his heart: Dasilva chose a glass-walled office located right next to the development team. “Developers and product people come through my door all day. There are no curtains; it’s completely open. I’m in a fish bowl.”

Note the red booth on the left: “We thought we had many meeting spaces,” says Dasilva, “but we can’t have enough.” As a result, formal and informal meetings occur everywhere: in the kitchen, in a lounge decorated like a 1930s cigar room, in the heart of the castle’s central turret, in the multiple conference rooms named after world-famous shopping streets and in three small, angular cabanas in the lobby.

The kitchen area on the right is also significant: Lightspeed’s previous warehouse space included some popular features like a pool and a theatre. As a nod to its past, Lightspeed’s new kitchen was designed to resemble a pool. (The hot tubs that will eventually be installed on the outdoor terrace will be a much more tangible reminder.)