We changed our name to Levelset today because the name zlien wasn’t good enough. And here – beginning at the very beginning – is why.

It’s 2006. The single window in my law office barely lit the room, and so a lamp on the front corner of my desk shined orange light onto the faces of contractors sitting across from me telling their story. Contractors like Clifton, who came dressed in rugged jeans and a t-shirt that had seen its share of jobsites. He shook my hand a little nervously not sure about where to begin, how much the conversation would cost, and whether his small business and livelihood would survive or not.

Clifton cried there in my office. And he wasn’t the first or last cash-strapped contractor to come apart in that red faux-leather chair. In fact, it happened constantly.

You know, of course, that cash is a contractor’s lifeblood.

But cash has gotten harder over the past few decades, hasn’t it?

This industry used to operate on handshakes as part of a small community, but today, red tape has turned the payment process into a stress-filled nightmare that makes payment go too slow, and paperwork cost too much, and disputes too often reward bullying, lying, and leverage.

That was the invisible garbage piled up there on the lawyer’s desk that disconnected me from Clifton.

Through teary eyes, Clifton explained how important this $100,000 payment was to his small business. But Clifton didn’t have his paperwork in order, Clifton waited too long, Clifton needed the money too much and lacked all leverage, and Clifton couldn’t afford the cost of litigation in time or money.

I couldn’t help Clifton very much; and worse, I wondered, could Clifton even be helped?

And that’s where it all began for us; asking how we can help Clifton, and people like him, never have to worry about payment again.

Staring at the construction industry’s payment crisis, and understanding how it’s a nightmare for everyone on a job, we saw a world where no one lost a night’s sleep over payment. And we committed ourselves to empower contractors to get past all that garbage, and to connect, and work together, so that everyone can always get what they earn.

We named the company Levelset because we started with the lien process and lien waivers, but that wasn’t enough. People needed help with broader problems to get their payment under control, and in our quest to help contractors with their payment stress, our product, resources, and services have all expanded beyond our lien rights roots.

And now we’re fully exposed.

The name zlien just won’t cut it.

So today, we changed our name to Levelset. We invite you to join over 500,000 contractors and suppliers who connect with each other on Levelset’s cloud-based platform to make the payment process stress-free, to make payments faster, and to experience fewer surprises.

All the payment help you need is finally here, and it’s here at Levelset.

Was this article helpful?
1 out of 2 people found this helpful
You voted . Change your answer.