Scott Leese moved to Austin six years ago after growing up in northern California and establishing a tech career in the Bay Area.
His startup journey has led him to more than one mainstay on the Austin tech circuit. He's served as senior vice president of sales at Main Street Hub when it was just 10 people, where he was instrumental in growing the team to 300 employees, relocating the company’s HQ location from California to Austin and opening an additional office in NYC.
After two and a half years, Leese joined another Austin tech startup, OutboundEngine, where he once again helped scale a team from 20 to 30 people to about 300.
Now, Leese is back at it again. He will be taking on the role of SVP of sales of San Francisco-based Qualia, helping the company open and recruit for a brand new Austin office.
Launched in 2015, the company develops title settlement software that integrates with more than 9,000 banks, underwriters and vendors that provide notary services, outsourced title commitments and more. Qualia will remain headquartered in San Francisco as it looks to bring on 20 account executive roles locally under Leese's leadership.
“You’ve got an incredible city with a huge growing talent pool. It’s a great startup scene,” said Leese. “I tend to look for people who are younger in their career who are looking for their first or second real big, lucrative opportunity."
Following his years spent with marketing automation software platforms, Leese now enters an industry that he says hasn’t been influenced by tech in years.
“Most new founders think the title insurance business is totally unsexy and boring. It’s not something that a lot of technology-focused founders are thinking of — which makes it absolutely perfect for innovation,” said Leese. “I looked at similar products in the space and couldn't believe how out of date they were compared to current technology on the market.”
Qualia looks to bring modern software to the insurance business to provide a more secure, efficient workflow to title companies.
“This is a really unique opportunity to believe that your product is best in class in the market. It’s really easy to get behind it and as someone who leads the sales organization that’s really helpful to feel that way,” Leese said.
To date, Qualia has raised $10 million in funding and will be available to title companies in all 50 states by the end of the year. Their San Francisco office houses a team of 30, and Leese said they plan to double the Austin team by adding customer success roles leading into 2018. The local office is located at 816 Congress.
Having rapidly grown sales organizations before, Leese said the most important aspect in scaling a team is the investment in developing people.
“You really need to let them know you know care about their success and their growth, and not just professional but their growth as a person,” said Leese. “I think people are drawn to that kind of work environment where they are going to be pushed daily to improve and develop new talents and skills and improve the ones that they already have.”
.jpeg)
