From Farm Boy to Fintech Founder Fighting for Small Business Owners with Levi King

What It Covers

Levi King, CEO and cofounder of Nav, shares his journey from growing up in poverty on a farm to building multiple businesses across manufacturing, hospitality, and fintech. He explains how Nav helps small business owners understand and improve their credit and financial health to access better financing options.

Key Questions Answered

• •Farm Work Ethic Foundation: Growing up on a farm with five siblings instilled a mindset where failure was not an option. Daily responsibilities like feeding livestock and managing crops regardless of weather or equipment failures built problem-solving skills and determination. This environment created the foundation for entrepreneurial resilience without initially recognizing the farm itself as a small business.
• •Money Solves Business Problems: Early in his first business installing and manufacturing electric signs, King discovered that adequate capital resolves most business challenges. Despite being an introvert with severe cold-calling anxiety that caused sweat rings down to his waist, he forced himself to read sales books and network at Chamber of Commerce events because securing revenue was the only path forward for business survival.
• •Business Credit Navigation System: Nav integrates with two consumer credit bureaus, all three commercial bureaus, and cash flow platforms like Finicity and Plaid to provide free comprehensive financial health assessments. The platform identifies specific problems like unknown tax liens, chronic late vendor payments damaging commercial credit, or excessive revolving debt, then guides owners through concrete steps to refinance subprime loans and improve future financing options.
• •Mental Health Breaking Point: After Goldman Sachs led Nav's forty-five million dollar Series C round in 2018, King experienced his first panic attacks despite having no prior mental health history. He spent two years in therapy developing new habits including meditation and psilocybin treatment before becoming panic-attack free in May 2020 and anxiety-free by 2021, learning he should have prioritized self-care before reaching a breaking point.
• •Success Requires Happiness: Building a profitable company with enough money to live comfortably does not equal success if personal fulfillment is absent. King emphasizes that professional achievement without daily contentment in work, team relationships, and customer impact creates a hollow victory that others cannot understand because they focus only on external financial markers rather than internal satisfaction and purpose alignment.