Entrepreneur of the Year 2024: Safe Software CEO Don Murray helps other companies connect the dots

Safe Software is a spatial data company that made $80 million in revenue in 2024. It also shares a portion of company profits with its employees

THE KICKOFF: Don Murray is one of those lucky people who always knew what he wanted to do. “I played ice hockey growing up, but my passion was always computing technology,” he says.

As a kid in North Van, Murray would rush to school and play computer games before class. After earning a master’s degree in computer science from SFU, he worked as a software developer for MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, where he met his future business partner, Dale Lutz.

They remained friends when Murray went on to teach computer science at BCIT. But when the B.C. government posted a request for proposal (RFP), Murray said to Lutz, “‘Let’s bid on it, and if we win, we’ll start a company.’ And we did.”

ACTION PLAN: The pair’s solution to that RFP in 1993 scaled into what is Safe Software today. The company helps businesses make informed decisions by extracting value from data, and its offerings are so general that it can work with almost any business in the world. In fact, Safe’s data integration platform is used by 20,000 organizations, including YVR, BlueDot and the Weather Network.

U.K.-based HALO Trust is one of Murray’s favourite examples. “Their whole goal is to de-mine the world,” he says, “and they use our tech to help them identify where minefields are. That saves lives.”

Big news came early this year when Lutz retired and sold his shares in the company to JMI Equity for an estimated US$200 million. Murray aptly negotiated a 51-49 split in his favour, and he continues to run the company the way he knows best: like a sports team.

“Business is a team sport, just like ice hockey,” he maintains. “When things go wrong, some companies have post-mortems, which is just terrible. We have ‘retrospectives on when things went right.’ What did we learn? It’s all about the learning.”

CLOSING STATEMENT: Safe Software has come a long way from its humble beginnings in garages and spare bedrooms. It now operates out of the top five floors of a Surrey tower, and its revenue has grown from around $50 million in 2022 to $80 million in 2024.

Safe’s team is also expected to grow from 250 to 300 by the end of this year. The company shares 20 percent of annual profits with staff. “Because, again, it’s a team sport, so the team should win when the company wins,” Murray says.

“We also say, ‘Let’s do good while we’re doing good.’” Over the past decade, Safe has donated $3 million to more than 50 charities across Canada.

Q+A

What’s the best leadership advice you’ve ever received?

Surround yourself with the best people and let them do what they do.