In this episode, Louis Gelinas, West Point Class of ‘11, shares how his Army experiences, especially managing people and operations under pressure, shaped his entrepreneurial path. Currently, the Director of Product at  Rivet — a workforce management platform for trade contractors — was born from a simple but powerful idea: solve a real-world problem with the tools he wished he had in uniform. Louis also highlights the crucial role the West Point Entrepreneurs group played in helping Rivet navigate early challenges, secure vital connections, and ultimately hit key growth milestones.

Louis studied History and Chinese before serving as an infantry officer with assignments in Italy, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Korea. After eight years on active duty — and growing his family to include four children — Louis returned home to Detroit, Michigan, to launch the next chapter of his career. Doubling down on his software development skills, he teamed up with local entrepreneurs to cofound Rivet, a workforce management platform built specifically for trade contractors. Today, as Director of Product, Louis leads a team of engineers, designers, and product managers, channeling the lessons from his Army days into building a platform designed to empower America's skilled trades workforce.

Throughout the conversation, Louis talks candidly about the challenges of staying focused in the fast-paced world of startups, how West Point’s leadership lessons still guide his decision-making, and why curiosity and community are critical to entrepreneurial success. From the early days of Rivet’s scrappy beginnings to winning the confidence of investors and customers, Louis’s story is full of valuable insights for anyone looking to build something that truly serves others. Plus, we dive into how staying relentlessly mission-focused — even when things get tough — can make all the difference.

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Key Quote:

“  Company Commander time is really where you get the heat of like the prioritization, ideally your company commander and your battalion commander are the people who are being like, there's 10 priorities, but we're gonna be able to really make time to be good at three of them. And as a platoon leader, ideally, you get to focus on the one thing we're gonna be training on.

This is gonna be our key task, this is gonna be our mission. But a big part of it is like somebody else decided to filter out the like 17 other things. The various aspects of the Army is gonna ask you to do. And that like intense focus on prioritization is like very important even as a Company Commander, is that you can kind of figure out like if you picked the right thing to focus on like not only do you succeed in your mission, but everybody's okay with the fact that you put a ‘C’ into, you know, this aspect of the third thing on the list because you did the most important thing. What is the most important thing is always gonna serve you well.”

-Louis Gelinas

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Episode Timestamps:

(01:19) Louis’ West Point Career and Transition

(04:21) Founding Rivet: Inspiration and Team Formation

(08:32) The Impact of West Point Entrepreneurs

(14:09) Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

(26:01) The Future for Rivet

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Links:

Learn more about the West Point Entrepreneurs Group

Connect with Louis

Learn more about Rivet