Scott Walden, President & CEO
I attended Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and earned my BA degree in Philosophy and Psychology, which makes perfect sense as a basis for my career in the “crane” industry, right? Let me explain. Over the years, I have successfully served as a sales executive for a waste-removal company, a community development/marketing manager for a company that raises funds for nonprofit organizations, and a marketing/public relations director for a company that provides crane services. All of these experiences led me to develop a plan for launching a business that would make it quicker and easier for contractors to connect with crane companies and schedule the equipment they need to complete their projects.
Eight years ago, the owner of a crane company and I stood in his front yard and talked about my business idea. “Just call on heating and air conditioning contractors,” he suggested. “Well, that isn’t going to take me very long to do,” I replied. You can imagine the expressions and responses I get when I tell my story.
When I contacted contractors, I learned that they face a number of challenges when they need to “schedule a lift,” as it is commonly called. Some of the contractors were first-time crane users and didn’t know what company to call, what specific equipment they needed, and/or how to successfully schedule a lift, while other contractors thought they knew more than the crane companies about what they needed and how to schedule it. The one challenge all of them have to deal with is nonstop back-and-forth phone calls and messages about scheduling snafus, delayed deliveries, broken cranes, unavailable equipment—the list goes on.
My first idea for resolving some of these challenges was to give contractors marketing materials containing a QR code (shown on a stress ball shaped like a crane) that they could scan to access a web page and type in the information I needed to follow up and schedule a lift. That was the birth of LiftitWorks, LLC. I quickly learned, however, that a QR code was not appropriate for placing orders or scheduling services, and I changed my business plan to use a mobile app instead.