Executive Interview: Scott Levenson, CEO of Private Prep

Scott Levenson, CEO, Private Prep

We recently sat down with Scott Levenson, CEO of Private Prep, to discuss what it takes to build a growing organization without losing the personalized experience that made it successful in the first place. Private Prep is the most trusted private test preparation and college admissions company for families seeking personalized, one-on-one academic support. The company provides test preparation, subject tutoring, executive function coaching, and college admissions guidance for students from fourth grade through college. In many ways, Domestique’s focus on creating the right systems for sustainable growth in the world of B2B SaaS feels like a fitting parallel to Private Prep’s balance of operational discipline and highly individualized student support.

Q: Private Prep is built around one-on-one support. How do you preserve that personal experience as the company grows?

A: Growth creates a real tension. You want to reach more families, but you never want students to feel like they are moving through an impersonal system. Our answer is to build infrastructure that supports personalization, rather than replacing it.

That means having clear processes for matching students with the right tutor or coach, communicating with families, tracking progress, and identifying when a student needs additional support. The systems should handle the coordination and consistency so our educators can focus on the relationship and the work happening in each session.

Q: What does effective preparation look like beyond simply raising a test score?

A: Test scores can be an important outcome, but they’re by no means the whole story. Students also need to become more confident, more organized, and more capable of managing challenging academic work independently.

The best preparation is customized to the student’s starting point, learning style, goals, and schedule. We look at where the student is today, define a realistic path forward, and break the work into manageable steps. That approach helps students make progress without feeling overwhelmed.

Q: Domestique works with companies that need to mature their processes as they scale. What operational lessons have been most important for Private Prep?

A: One of the biggest lessons is that a process should create clarity, not bureaucracy. As an organization grows, informal communication and individual memory are no longer sufficient. You need shared systems that help everyone understand what’s happening, who owns the next step, and how success is being measured.

At the same time, processes should remain flexible enough to account for individual circumstances. In education, every student is different. The goal isn’t to force every family into the same experience, but to create a reliable foundation that allows our team to deliver thoughtful, customized support consistently.

Q: What role does technology play in a relationship-driven business?

A: Technology is most valuable when it removes friction. It can help teams organize information, communicate more efficiently, and see patterns that might otherwise be missed. It can’t  (and shouldn’t) replace judgment, empathy, or the trust built between a student, family, and educator.

We use technology to strengthen the experience around the instruction. The human relationship remains at the center.

Q: What advice would you offer businesses that want to grow without compromising quality?

A: Define what must never change. For us, that’s the quality of the people we bring onto the team, the level of personalization we provide, and the care we show students and families.

Once those standards are clear, build the operational systems that protect them. Sustainable growth is about creating the structure that allows a team to deliver its best work repeatedly, even as an organization becomes more complex.

Private Prep is a personalized tutoring, test preparation, and college admissions company that provides one-on-one academic support for students from fourth grade through college. Its services include SAT and ACT preparation, subject tutoring, executive function coaching, and college admissions guidance, helping students build confidence, strengthen their skills, and navigate their academic journey with clarity and care.