Scott Wolfe, Jr.
CEO & Founder
Levelset (acq. by Procore)
GET TO KNOW SCOTT...
Hometown:
New Orleans, LA | Currently resides in New Orleans, LA
Alma Mater:
SMU (BA) and Loyola College of Law (JD)
Motto:
Learn enough.
Hobbies:
I just started learning to play piano and love to read!
Q: What was your first job?
A: My parents were grocers, so I grew up in the grocery business. All of my first jobs happened early on in the grocery store. Stocking the shelves, bagging, being a cashier, working the meat counter, etc. It was a great education in business, customer support, and building teams. Eventually, as we rolled into the 90s and 2000s, it turned into managing more point-of-sale systems and technologies, including the company’s web presence. And that was a “first job” that consumed my first 20 years!
Q: What problem is your company trying to solve?
A: The complexity and stress of payment, cash, and risk for contractors.
Q: Tell us the history of your company. What is the mission and how did you get started?
A: Levelset’s mission is to empower people in construction to always get what they earn. The company was founded in post-Katrina New Orleans when we noticed how difficult payment, cash, and financial risk was for contractors. We started by targeting an acute pain for contractors — getting paid — and from there, expanded to more holistically empower the industry to manage financial risk, move cash faster, and avoid cash stress.
Q: What has been your most satisfying moment in your business journey so far?
A: By FAR, seeing the impact made on the lives of co-workers and the impact we make to our customers. This fills the tank almost every single day, and it is overwhelming.
Q: Tell us about your funding journey and how your company seeks to grow into the next 5 years.
A: To me, funding is always about finding the partner, who sees the future like you do and wants to partner with you to deliver that future. We’ve been extremely lucky to find great partners, who shared our point of view about the world and how we could impact it, and then they lined up to do the work together. We were recently acquired by Procore, and so our funding journey concluded, but we have now found a new type of partner in Procore, who also sees the future like we do and is working with us to deliver it.
Q: Who or what has been the biggest support or resource within the startup ecosystem that has impacted your company’s future for the better?
A: I’ve been fortunate to get so much support and so many resources over the years, and it’s difficult to pinpoint the biggest contributors and impact. However, I must nod to the Idea Village in New Orleans and some of my earliest investors, who really formed me and shaped me in the early innings. This helped me tremendously to understand my job better, understand the business and funding future better, and more.
Q: What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far as an entrepreneur? What is the best advice you have received that you would like to share with others?
A: The biggest lesson I’ve learned is something I’ve been a big believer for as long as I can remember…and that is to be enthusiastic and have great passion about what you do. When you’re passionate and enthusiastic, people follow. Investors follow. Customers follow. Ultimately, you figure out the way to your destination…and you have the passion to get through all obstacles.
Q: What is your favorite thing about doing business in Texas?
A: I love the vibrant economy and ecosystem. Texas has so much energy and activity. It’s contagious, and it pours so much fuel into companies like ours.
Q: What has been the most beneficial support you’ve received from S3 Ventures?
A: S3 has been so incredibly supportive it’s hard to enumerate it all, and it’s hard to pick the most beneficial. In my journey with S3, I always found them to have exceptional acumen overall and impressive depth of awareness about our business. They always dug in. They always understood the business deeply. And I felt like they understood me deeply. And this understanding and acumen manifested itself in being so helpful for us to think about our challenges and opportunities, to evaluate the same, to dig into projects that could help, and more.
Connect with Scott on LinkedIn and catch up on his new venture, ClaimSpot.
Headquartered in New Orleans, Levelset is a software company that helps the construction industry simplify compliance and payment processes, decrease financial risks, and improve cash flow. The results are faster payments, reliable access to capital, and fewer surprises.
Levelset was acquired by Procore (NYSE: PCOR) for $500M in September 2021.
“Be enthusiastic and have great passion about what you do. When you’re passionate and enthusiastic, people follow. Investors follow. Customers follow.”