About Us
Powering the Future of Well Planning
Novi is fundamentally changing the way oil and gas companies design, forecast, and allocate capital for new wells. Learn about our vision, values, leadership, and company culture below.
Novi is Your Partner in Oil & Gas
“Novi” derives from the Latin meaning “to know”. We are a team that knows the oil & gas industry. A team striving to bring innovative workflows and software to solve the biggest challenges facing shale focused operators. We have assembled an experienced team of software engineers, data scientists and domain experts. We are dedicated to the idea that we can use machine learning to fundamentally change the way oil and gas wells are drilled and completed.
At Novi, we believe hydrocarbons will remain vital to meeting global energy demand. We are forging strategic industry partnerships and providing superior oil and gas well planning software for well forecasting. It allows operators to extract hydrocarbons more efficiently. Our team comprised of top tier engineering and geoscience talent apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to address well planning complexities.
Funded by Leading Digital Oilfield Investors
Montrose Lane, formerly known as Cottonwood Venture Partners, is a growth equity investment firm partnering with technology companies that provide digital solutions for the energy industry. Montrose Lane invests in technology companies that have achieved early customer adoption and require capital to accelerate growth.
Bill Wood Ventures is an Austin-based investment firm founded by long time venture capitalist Bill Wood. The investment firm focuses on the growing importance of Austin as a hub for oil & gas innovation by empowering top innovators with the resources, talent, and support needed to thrive.
leadership team
Scott Sherwood
Chief Executive Officer
Scott Sherwood’s career spans more than twenty years in sales, management and consulting. He is CEO of Novi Labs, LLC, an Austin technology startup that combines artificial intelligence with oil & gas analytics to plan unconventional wells and optimize financial returns.
Prior to Novi, Sherwood served as CEO at Packet Design and led sales at Cache IQ, a network-based caching company that was acquired by NetApp in 2012. Before that, he led all aspects of global sales and business development for ScienceLogic, a leading operations and cloud management company. Earlier in his career, Sherwood was Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales at NetQoS, where he helped the company acquire a ”who’s who” of Global 2000 customers including half of the Fortune 50, grow revenues from $200,000 to $56 million at a 50% CAGR, and deliver 31 consecutive quarters of double digit revenue growth.
He earned a degree in Information Systems from James Madison University College of Business.
Jon Ludwig
President and Co-Founder
Jon Ludwig is a proven, entrepreneurial professional with experience ranging from startups to building and managing teams within large organizations.
He founded Novi Labs to apply predictive analytics to hard engineering problems in unconventional oil & gas planning workflows after seeing from a firsthand perspective the challenges engineering teams faced when designing wells. As president of Novi, Ludwig is focused on taking care of Novi’s customers and aligning product strategy to customer needs. Prior to Novi, Ludwig was a Director at Hess Corporation. While with Hess he partnered with the Bakken Subsurface team to found the Predictive Analytics/Big Data program, which is now a cornerstone capability associated with the Hess LEAN manufacturing process for unconventional development. While with Capgemini, Ludwig started, staffed and grew a market leading systems integration consulting practice.
Prior to that, he was a partner at iPath, a boutique system integration firm that became one of EMC’s top systems integration partners in North America. Ludwig’s practice became the growth driver at iPath, leading to its acquisition by Perficient (NASQAQ: PRFT). Post-acquisition, Ludwig continued to serve as Managing Director. Ludwig holds a degree in finance and economics from The University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.
Kevin Stambaugh
VP of Engineering
Kevin Stambaugh is Vice President of Engineering at Novi Labs where he brings nearly 30 years of software engineering, data and product leadership experience to the company. With a strong record of successful strategic leadership across early and growth stage startups, he is responsible for commercializing Novi’s cloud-based well planning software, executing on the company’s product vision, and leading its team of software developers and data scientists.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Stambaugh participated in three startup exits, including two IPO’s and one acquisition. Prior to joining Novi, he was Chief Product and Data Officer at Shelfbucks, an Austin-based consumer tech company empowering traditional retailers to better compete with newer, tech-first companies by leveraging in-store IoT and mobile shopper engagement.
Mr. Stambaugh has held multiple C-level and VP-level Technology roles at startups and large enterprises. He has spent the majority of his career at the intersection of technology and business, helping organizations identify new market opportunities and leveraging data and technology to deliver strong business results.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from California State University, Chico and is agile CSM & CSP certified.
Ted Cross
Director of Product Management
Ted Cross is Director of Product Management at Novi Labs, where he brings his oil and gas expertise to bridge between the challenges operators face and solutions that advanced analytics and machine learning can provide.
Prior to serving as Director of Product, Ted worked as the first Technical Advisor on Novi’s Sales & Marketing team, where he built the technical sales playbook to communicate the value of Novi’s software to the upstream oil and gas sector. Ted has presented Novi’s technology in a number of technical conferences and workshops, including three papers selected as “Best of URTeC” and two features in JPT.
Ted began his career in oil and gas with ConocoPhillips, working as a geologist in a range of roles including Williston Basin development, Lower 48 exploration, global new ventures, and deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration.
He received a Master’s in Geology from the University of Arizona, where he received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Ted holds Bachelor’s degrees in Geology and Plan II Honors from the University of Texas at Austin.
Culture and Values
Novi’s success is powered by our core set of values and workplace culture. Be a part of our success story!
Multidisciplinary Strength
Solving the complexities of oil and gas well planning requires a multidisciplinary approach. One which integrates the knowledge and best practices of data science and oil & gas subject matter domains. That’s why our team is built on the experiences of petroleum engineers, geologists, geophysicists, and computer scientists.
Work/Life Balance in oil and gas companies
At Novi, we understand the importance of keeping employees challenged through meaningful work. All while ensuring the autonomy to manage personal work/life balance. We foster an environment of mutual respect and encourage open and clear channels of communication across all levels.
Work That Matters
From product development and R&D to sales and customer success, our employees are always executing on a clear vision. They deliver meaningful work to revolutionize oil & gas well planning in one of the most important industries in the world.
Relentless Innovation
We continuously strive to solve the unique challenges of oil & gas capital allocation while keeping pace with the ever-changing needs of well planning. Novi never stops innovating and continuously improving our technology.