This Friday, May the 4th, is a day I look forward to every year. The day has quickly become an unofficial holiday for both hardcore and casual Star Wars fans, and it carries with it a little more weight for me personally.

Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope, was the first movie I saw in a movie theater. My father took me, and I remember every minute detail. The deliciously buttery smell of the movie theater lobby. The not-so-pleasant mildew smell inside the theater. The awe-inspiring size of the actual movie screen. And yes, the confusing but inspiring story born a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…


Every detail of the experience is locked inside my memory, like Princess Leia’s message to Obi-Wan Kenobi inside R2-D2.

Fast-forward some 30 years later. That young child who experienced his first film at a movie theater was starting his own journey: building a company from scratch, a company I would name Lightspeed.

I’ll admit Star Wars was nowhere in my thoughts when I was starting Lightspeed. But I’d be lying if I said my subconscious wasn’t driving the decisions, choosing a name with long-held significance.

My connection to Star Wars runs deep, on levels I’m sure I don’t even understand. Call it the Force if you like. Obi-Wan’s description of the Force to Luke in Episode IV seems to put it into words best:

The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.“

In honor of Star Wars, and Lightspeed’s deep connection to it, our entire team will celebrate May the 4th on Friday. Join us as we broadcast throughout the day via Facebook Live.

Check out our official May the 4th schedule here:

Be sure to tune-in and engage with us through social media, for a chance to win some great Star Wars inspired items such as our Collector Series Koozies.

Today, 10 years after starting this company, I can now see what only my subconscious was seeing when I chose the name Lightspeed: the correlation with my first immersive experience into an amazing story.

A story, which for me as a naïve little boy, was unlike any I had ever heard or seen before. A story focused on a lonely farm boy striving to chase his dreams and fulfill a destiny that was unclear, but nevertheless pulled him toward something larger than himself.

Those memories, forged in my mind at a young age, came rearing back to life when I started my own new journey on an uncharted path and founded Lightspeed.

As you start whatever new paths await you, and tell your own amazing stories, we at Team Lightspeed say:

May the Force Be With You!”

Join us on Facebook this Friday!