BACKGROUND
Scott Lingle always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur, growing up on the north side of Indy with parents who owned a real estate business. They introduced him to the joys and challenges of small business, but only after introducing him to the central importance of faith and family. The lessons stuck.
After graduating from Lawrence North High School and obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois, he began a two-decade journey into corporate America with United Healthcare. Indianapolis was the place he was rooted, and his love of faith and family runs deep, so it was the place he returned with his bride, Linda. Now married 33 years, the two couldn’t think of anywhere else they’d rather be. They’ve raised three sons and an adopted daughter, and are now twice grandparents.
“The friendships, family, and faith community,” he says, “we love it.”
Rewinding a decade, however, the higher up the ladder he went in his career, the harder it got to want to move that ladder to a different, riskier wall and fulfill his entrepreneurial impulse.
“I finally said to Linda when I was 45, ‘I have to do it now, or it’s not going to happen,’” he recalls.
That leap, taken 10 years ago, yielded an amazing, often challenging, but fun decade that he wouldn’t trade for anything. He had two friends propose startup ideas so, rather than choose one, he helped found two businesses simultaneously, both in the health technology sector. No pressure, right?
With God’s grace, both have succeeded. The first, Insurance Specialist Group, “flew like a rocket ship,” with a million in sales the first year, and ultimately sold to AmeriLife in 2021. The second, Remodel Health, has been a steady grower, now with 111 employees and on the Inc. 5000 list for five years in a row. Remodel Health also made the Indianapolis Business Journal’s “Fast 25” list for the last four years. Lingle has the distinct privilege of serving as the Chairman of the Board and, with a great management team, found himself playing a ton of golf and pickleball for about three months before it got “very boring” and he began doing what he believes God has wired him most deeply to do: help young entrepreneurs (high school juniors, seniors and grads under age 21) develop into what he calls “redemptive entrepreneurs.”
“God was calling me into a ministry growing and funding faith-driven entrepreneurs,” he says. “God has blessed me with the gift of entrepreneurship and blessed the businesses we’ve built. I feel led to help others do the same in a faith-driven, redemptive way; to teach others to love on their employees and customers and put people over profit.”
In Indy that has shown up in a partnership with Shepherd Community and Elevate Indianapolis to launch a non-profit called Side Hustle School. It started when Don Palmer introduced him to Aaron Story, President and CEO of Elevate Indianapolis, and that partnership has been a game-changer for the school, yielding eight of its current students.
Side Hustle School offers a weekly class, January to May – and outside the classroom helps students launch and grow startups using a blend of mentoring with business professionals and funding to achieve big ideas at a young age. Successful enterprises include car detailing, pressure washing, asphalt sealing, lawn mowing, hair styling, food service, and more. (Would you like to impact a young entrepreneur through hiring, or serving as a valuable mentor to help them grow skills necessary to small business owners? Please reach out to Lingle at the email address below and visit sidehustleschool.org to learn more.)
Lingle’s dream is to scale the non-profit in the coming years, reaching all of Indianapolis high schools with the model that is proving truly successful – one committed young entrepreneur has already scheduled $30k of business this summer, and 10 students combined have managed to put up $20k in profits in less than five months.
“They may not want to do these jobs for a lifetime,” says Lingle, “but they are learning valuable life skills along the way that can help them in whatever path they choose. They can begin growing teams, pivot into other lanes, and find themselves doing something else, and they can avoid racking up a lot of college debt. Many of my friends who are entrepreneurs started with a side hustle,” he adds.
Now a member of the board of directors at his college alma mater, Lingle has developed a great working relationship with the college president that is leading to growth in educational offerings. They’ve launched a Bachelor of Science degree in Entrepreneurship, a program of study designed for students who have a big idea, want to start their own business, or bring innovation and creativity to an existing organization. Thirty years ago when he was a student, there was no such curriculum, but today, thanks to his own entrepreneurial spirit, others have focused offerings.
“I couldn’t have predicted this 10 years ago,” he says. “I’m now spending as much time building non-profit ministries as for-profit. It’s what God wired me for, and when you’re doing what God called you to do, you’re thriving.”
Lingle is also active on the board of LifeSong for Orphans, where he serves on a committee dedicated to Zambia. He enjoys attending a meeting called Faith-Driven Investors once a month to hear from both for-profit and non-profit groups looking for seed money. He and Linda attend Westside Church of Nazarene, where he has been active in leadership, teaching roles, and small groups for three decades.
LINGLE'S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
- BE AROUND PEOPLE YOU WANT TO BE LIKE. There are five men who’ve mentored and inspired Lingle most: his dad, Tom Drake, Greg Enas, Don Palmer, and Doug Wilson. “Indy is really unique and thriving in generosity,” he says. “From the first time I met Greg, Don and Doug, they’ve been incredibly generous with contacts from their own network for what I’m trying to build and I’m learning from them.”
- LEAN IN. “My challenge to others would be quit being a spectator and get in the game. Life can be so much more fulfilling and rewarding when you discover your God-given calling and go do it in a big way. Lean in,” he says, “Get off the couch and take lots and lots of action,” adding that he faces doubts and fears and imposter syndrome but keeps getting up. “It’s all about trial and error. If you keep getting back up to bat again, pivot, make adjustments, and go again, you learn. The last 10 years really helped me with skills for the next challenges of building Side Hustle School.”
- OPEN UP YOUR NETWORK AS A GIFT TO OTHERS. “I wasn’t in the habit of doing that,” he says, “but now I do the same thing that was done for me. You’re always going to learn most from other people. That’s what we try to do with mentoring young entrepreneurs, and we do a ton of pairing them with someone who’s 10 or 20 years down the path in building the thing they’re trying to build.” One of the reasons he enjoys C7 is how the model opens up generosity all over Indy. “C7 to me is like the power of compound interest applied to kingdom relationships. It’s these dense networks and the massive impact that can have on a city. Indy is becoming stronger and stronger because of it,” he says.
SCOTT LINGLE TRIVIA
Favorite hobby besides work? Pickleball
Go to snack and beverage? Kilwin’s Toasted Coconut ice cream
Favorite restaurant, locally? Root & Bone
Favorite places for a vacation? Hilton Head Island
Secret Dream? Opening a farm-to-table restaurant with his wife and kids in Danville, where they are currently building a home. “I want to create a magnet to be around them as much as possible,” he says. With a nephew who is a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Germany, a son and daughter-in-law who grow their own food, and “a wife who rivals Joanna Gaines, only more talented,” he says, Lingle likes his chances for success.
Connect with Lingle at scottlingle@remodelhealth.com and check out Side Hustle School.
