How Two Mormon Missionaries Built a Multi-Billion Dollar Empire

Eric Rea and Dennis Steele's first pitch to a car dealership ended with the general manager writing a check for the entire year on the spot, and they say that moment is what convinced them dealerships, not the tire shops they started with, would build their company. They walk through how a 700-location collision repair network let Podium's voice agent take over 61% of its after-hours phone calls, and how that agent is now on pace to help book $1 billion in repairs this year with a customer satisfaction score higher than the network's own human call center, a result that surprised even their most skeptical engineers. Eric Rea and Dennis Steele are the co-founders of Podium, the AI platform now used by 4,000 auto dealerships for reviews, texting, and voice-based customer service. What started as a reviews app built for Eric's father's tire shop grew mostly on dealership revenue, and the pair say Podium is now the fastest company to reach $100 million in agent-based revenue. They met selling door-to-door in college, have run the business together for twelve and a half years, and still sit inside dealerships watching how their agents get used every day. They explain: ◼ Why they walked straight past every gatekeeper into the general manager's office on their very first dealership pitch, and the line that got them a check for the whole year ◼ Why dealer groups say they miss 40% of their phone calls, and how an AI agent is already closing that gap at one of the country's largest collision networks ◼ How a new agent called Operator can turn "find 100 lapsed customers across 37 locations" into a finished outreach campaign in under 10 minutes ◼ Why they built a model router that cut their own AI costs 40%, and why they aren't worried about costs rising from here ◼ Why they call the average dealership's 20-tool software stack "insanely bad," and what they think a dealership's technology looks like five years from now ◼ How a new tool called Rainmaker finds their best-performing AI agents, tests why they're winning, and can put every proven change on autopilot Topics: 00:55 AI Replaces The Entire Dealership Stack. 03:30 Don't Learn To Code, Learn Agents. 05:55 How Founders Stay Friends For 13 Years. 09:00 Door-To-Door Tactics Sold Dealerships. 12:45 Reading Bad Reviews Closed The Deal. 15:05 Jerry Launched In 2023 And Never Left. 17:50 BDC Agent Lifted Show Rate 40%. 22:45 Voice AI Completed 87% Of Bookings. 29:05 $5K A Month Tool Just Pulled DMS Data. 31:20 Operator Found Lapsed Customers In 10 Minutes. 38:15 Default State Of Any Company Is Stillness. 44:05 Customization Has No Limits With Operator. This episode is brought to you by: 1. @experian — Car shoppers are researching, comparing, and narrowing their choices before they ever visit a dealership. Experian AutoCheck helps dealers meet them earlier in the buying journey as the only vehicle history report across top consumer shopping sites. By putting trusted vehicle history where shoppers are already looking, AutoCheck helps build confidence, drive engagement, and generate more leads for local dealerships.Visit @ https://carguymedia.com/4rpbkqB 2. Proton Dealership IT — Around-the-clock protection starts with around-the-clock support. Proton Dealership IT continuously monitors, detects, and responds to potential cyber threats and network issues 24/7/365, helping keep your dealership secure. Visit @ https://www.protontechs.com/ for more information. 3. @Podiumsoftware — the AI platform trusted by one in three dealerships. Podium helps dealers consolidate sales, service, messaging, and voice into one connected system that actually runs the work. If your AI isn’t driving real outcomes, it’s time to take a closer look @ https://www.podium.com/car-dealership-guy Check out Car Dealership Guy’s stuff: For dealers: CDG Circles ➤ https://cdgcircles.com/ Industry job board ➤ http://jobs.dealershipguy.com Dealership recruiting ➤ http://www.cdgrecruiting.com Fix your dealership’s social media ➤ http://www.trynomad.co Request to be a podcast guest ➤ http://cdgguest.com For industry vendors: Advertise with Car Dealership Guy ➤ http://cdgpartner.com Industry job board ➤ http://jobs.dealershipguy.com Request to be a podcast guest ➤ http://cdgguest.com Car Dealership Guy Socials: X ➤ https://www.x.com/GuyDealership Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/cardealershipguy/ TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@guydealership LinkedIn ➤ https://www.linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy Threads ➤ https://www.threads.net/@cardealershipguy Facebook ➤ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683 Everything else ➤ https://www.dealershipguy.com

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