The Auto Tech Whisperer: The Next $300M Exit
发布时间 2024-07-02 09:00:02 来源
Don't get caught up in, oh, this is a great idea. So it's like spreading it's worth $10 million. And it's all about execution. If they can execute, they have a great tech or great idea. But more importantly, are they good people? Tesla's got some great advantages on the side of buying the car. But on the service side, they're still lacking dramatically. If you can tap into that in an organized way that's meaningful for the dealer, that's the home run multi-billion dollar deal. A significant amount of people listening to this podcast right now. Don't know who you are, but have used or are currently using or have interacted with some software or product that you have been involved with. Is that a fair assessment? I would say that's pretty fair. Yes. You founded Chrome data, which sold to deal with track in 2005. You know, many years later, it's today owned by JD Power. It's valued or I believe or valued at 1.4 billion. I mean, we can go on and on.
不要被“哦，这个主意真棒”这样的想法困住。就像某个产品火起来值上千万美元一样。一切都在于执行力。如果他们能执行到位，无论是有很棒的技术还是很棒的创意，但更重要的是他们是否是好人。特斯拉在买车这方面有很大的优势，但在售后服务方面，他们还是远远不够。如果你能以有组织且对经销商有意义的方式切入这一点，这就是一个数十亿美元的成功案例。现在收听这个播客的许多人可能不认识你，但他们曾经使用过、正在使用或者接触过你参与开发的一些软件或产品。这种说法合适吗？我认为很贴切。你创办了Chrome Data，并在2005年卖给了Deal。多年后的今天，它被JD Power拥有，估值为14亿美元。我可以继续举例说明。
You you were part of Dilex, which if people here have been in the industry for a while, I remember Dilex when I started in the industry, actually, and we were buying. I don't know if we were buying leads from Dilex necessarily, but we were using it in some capacity. Yeah. So Dilex is a car. How do you say that? That's how you pronounce it. You bet. Car Gg. Exactly. Investor and board member and lot links, investor and board member and car wiser, early strategy with car gurus. I didn't know about that. Yeah.
你曾经是Dilex的一部分，如果这里的人在这个行业待过一段时间，应该会记得Dilex。我刚进入这个行业时，也记得我们在购买。我不确定我们是否直接从Dilex购买线索，但我们确实在某种程度上使用过它。是的，Dilex是一家汽车公司。怎么说呢？那就是它的发音。你说对了。汽车公司。没错。Dilex的投资者和董事会成员以及Lot Links的投资者和董事会成员也是Car Wiser的早期策略参与者。与Car Gurus有早期合作。我还真不知道这个。是的。
So Langley Steinhardt just needed some help getting introduced to the auto industry. And I just helped him connect to people and then helped him hire a few people and got him in the early stage. Just was way back when he first started in after he sold TripAdvisor. And he's really, really good at SEO and SEM. So he took off and just that thing exploded, went public, obviously. Sean Peoples was one of the guys I helped bring into the to the car gurus family. And that was fun. And he just built out the dealer network from there. So that was a very big success story. But the, but the list goes on.
所以朗利·斯坦哈特（Langley Steinhardt）刚开始涉足汽车行业时需要一些帮助。我帮他介绍了一些人脉，然后帮他招聘了一些员工，让他在早期阶段站稳了脚跟。当时，他刚卖掉了TripAdvisor。他在搜索引擎优化（SEO）和搜索引擎营销（SEM）方面非常在行，所以他的事业迅速起飞，最后公司甚至上市了。当然，可以预见的是，这是个巨大的成功。肖恩·皮普尔斯（Sean Peoples）是我帮忙引荐到CarGurus团队中的一个人。那段经历非常有趣，他从那时起构建了整个经销商网络，这也是一个非常成功的故事。而类似的成功案例还有很多。
Car saver. So you're involved there. I spoke with the founder, maybe like two months ago. Autonomy, as we know, Scott Painter, I'm a, I'm a tiny LP in that one. Super tiny there. Digital air strike motor. Okay. So we get the point. You've been involved in a lot. You've seen a lot. You've, you've been on the forefront of a lot of change in this industry, right? You're sort of the, let's call you the auto tech whisperer.
车保。那么你也参与其中了。我大概在两个月前和创始人聊过。至于Autonomy，正如我们所知的Scott Painter，我在里面是个小得不能再小的有限合伙人。超级小。在数字空袭电机这方面也有参与。好吧，我们明白了，你参与了很多项目，也见证了很多变化。你一直站在这个行业变革的前沿，对吧？不如称你为汽车科技领域的智囊吧。
Mark, just start us off, man. Like what brought you into this industry? So that's a great question. Um, when I was 26, I think, and I didn't have the gray hair like I have now, but it was, um, I was working at Hewlett Packard in Corvallis, Oregon. And I was working in the calculator division. So I sold a heck of a lot of calculators back in the day, the HP 12 C's, the 15 C's, 11 C's. So those who know HP calculators know exactly what I'm talking about. And there are millions of my sold. I was in the marketing department, learned a lot about marketing and sales. About the HP way, um, their management, their strategy back in the, uh, the original days, it was great.
马克，来帮我们开个头吧。是什么让你进入这个行业的呢？这是个很好的问题。嗯，当时我大概26岁吧，还没有现在这么多白头发。我在俄勒冈州科瓦利斯的惠普公司工作，负责计算器部门。那时候我卖了非常多的计算器，比如HP 12C、15C和11C那些型号。熟悉惠普计算器的人肯定知道我在说什么，我卖了上百万台计算器。我在市场营销部门工作，在那里学到了很多关于市场营销和销售的知识。了解了惠普的管理方式、他们的战略，在那些最初的日子里，真的非常棒。
And I had this buddy of mine who said, Hey, you know, do you know, do you know, I think about computers? I said, I had a little bit, you know, I played with them and I have a little bit of experience. And I had a neighbor that was actually next door to me and his name was C-list hug. And he was a microcomputer specialist Oregon State University. And he knew how to program and I knew how to sell. And so we got together. We said, Hey, we could start this automotive thing and these, these dealers have these giant ordering books, right? I mean, they, they, they, it takes them an hour or two just to spec out a Chevy truck or a Ford truck. Cause all the options. And if you could just put this on a PC now back then, remember PC's had a 10 megabyte hard drive and a five and a quarter and floppy disk with a monochrome screen. I think green or amber, which you really fancy got the amber screen. And you had this like PC's, but dealerships didn't even know what first of all, there was no internet back then. Second of all, they didn't really have PCs. I mean, you know, they had fax machines, right? And that was pretty much it. So, so we introduced this product called PC car book to the auto industry. And literally we didn't have a clue of what we were doing. We knew nobody in the auto industry. But we had this really cool technology. It, it priced out turbo Pascal, by the way, the language. It was priced out a car truck within minutes, sometimes second. So it was super fast.
我有一个朋友跟我说：“嘿，你懂电脑吗？”我回答说：“我懂一点，我玩过电脑，有点经验。”然后我有个邻居，就住我隔壁，他叫C-list Hug，是俄勒冈州立大学的微型计算机专家。他会编程，而我会销售。于是我们一拍即合，决定做一个关于汽车的项目。那时候，这些汽车经销商有着巨大的订单书，对吧？光是配置一辆雪佛兰或福特卡车就需要一两个小时，因为选项太多了。如果我们能把这些放到电脑上就好了。那时候，个人电脑才刚问世，硬盘只有10兆字节，带有五英寸四分之一的软盘驱动器和单色显示屏。显示屏有绿色或更高级的琥珀色。那时候的汽车经销商根本不知道电脑是什么。首先，当时还没有互联网。其次，他们也很少有电脑，他们有的只不过是传真机。所以我们把这个叫做‘PC汽车手册’的产品介绍给汽车行业。说实话，我们当时对自己在做什么一无所知，我们在汽车行业也没有人脉。但我们有一个非常酷的技术，它使用Turbo Pascal语言，可以在几分钟甚至几秒钟内配置好一辆汽车或卡车，速度非常快。
So for a dealer, these dealers remember this, the Chevy dealers, 5,000 of them we sold. They were, they knew this product was fantastic because it helped them spec out their truck for fleet. So this solution we came up with was really loved by the auto industry. And we grew that business over 16 years and to think about 8,000 dealers later, it became kind of the standard in the industry.
所以，对于经销商来说，这些雪佛兰经销商，记住有5,000家，我们卖给了他们。他们知道这个产品非常棒，因为它帮助他们为车队定制卡车。因此，我们提出的这个解决方案深受汽车行业的喜爱。我们花了16年时间发展这项业务，发展到后来有大约8,000家经销商，这个解决方案就成了行业标准。
And then Chrome was born back in 1986 in my garage, literally on a fold out table with one PC. Just started making phone calls and selling dealers. It was awesome. What? So, but it walked me through how an HB guy, you know, non auto business. Gets into the car business in, you know, indirectly via software and becomes so successful. I think there's a, you know, I can't tell you how many investors reach out to me, ask me questions or, or like founders, you know, from just the broader tech industry. Like, Oh, I want to come and disrupt this disrupt that.
然后，Chrome诞生于1986年，当时我在我的车库里，真的就在一张折叠桌上只有一台电脑。我开始打电话并向经销商推销。这简直太棒了。什么？所以，跟我说说，一个没有从事汽车业务的HB人是怎么通过软件间接进入汽车行业并取得如此成功的。我想，有很多投资者联系我，问我问题，或者是像创始人那样的人，来自广泛的科技行业。他们会说，哦，我想进来颠覆这个颠覆那个。
And I just feel, I feel like a lot, you know, many of these people make mistakes. They don't realize the nuances of our industry. Right. I think if you look at a company like Carvana, which obviously have, you know, super ambitious undertaking, you know, they have so many, their car business roots are so strong. Right. Look at Vroom. And I'm talking about retailers right now, right? But like they acquire Texas auto direct back in a day, which gave them that auto business competency, right?
我感觉，很多人都会犯错。他们不了解我们行业的细微差别。你看像Carvana这样公司，他们有非常宏大的目标，他们在汽车业务方面的根基非常深厚。再看看Vroom，我现在说的是零售商，他们早年收购了Texas Auto Direct，这赋予了他们汽车业务方面的竞争力。
All these different, all these players that somehow brought in the automotive competency. Now these aren't pure software plays that I'm referring to. But my question to you is, what was it about you or your, your network, your surroundings that was made you successful in this industry, given its nuances and how it kind of functions a bit differently than broader tech.
所有这些不同的、所有这些涉足汽车行业的参与者，他们以某种方式带来了汽车领域的专业能力。我指的不是纯软件方面的东西。但我的问题是，是什么让你、你的网络或你的环境在这个行业中取得成功，考虑到它的细微差别以及它与更广泛的科技行业有些不同的运作方式。
Boy, you wish I had a magic answer for you. It was really just like trial and error. And I mean, we made every mistake in business. You could possibly make it Chrome. And in spite of my stupidity, I still survived. So it's really about learning, pivoting, changing, growing. I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew we had a really cool tech. It was good timing. It was something that the dealers just absolutely loved. I mean, they loved the product and it was a real opportunity, it was a springboard to create relationships in the auto industry over 16 years that I was able to take to other companies.
小伙子，你肯定希望我能给你一个神奇的答案。其实，这完全是摸索和试错的过程。我可以说，在Chrome公司，我们把所有商业错误都犯了个遍。尽管我愚蠢，我依然生存了下来。关键在于学习、调整、改变和成长。我根本不知道自己在做什么，我只是知道我们有一个非常酷的技术，时机也很好，经销商们特别喜欢这个产品。这是一个真正的机会，是一个跳板，让我在汽车行业建立了16年的关系网，这些关系我后来也带到了其他公司里。
So I never burned a bridge. People burn bridges with me, but I personally have never burned a bridge, at least that I know of. And, and I think that reputation follows you. And I like to stay under the radar. I think we talked the room. We first started talking. I said, I don't do these interviews. I like to stay on the radar. I really do like to help others excel and become kind of the point of focus of their business. And so I've learned to help other people in, in more of a direct way, utilizing the relationships. That I have in the auto industry.
所以我从来不会断绝关系。别人可能会与我断绝关系，但我自己从未主动断绝关系，至少我不知道有这种情况。而且我认为这种名声会伴随你。我喜欢保持低调。我们第一次聊天的时候，我应该说过我不喜欢接受采访。我真的喜欢在背后帮助别人出类拔萃，成为他们事业的焦点。所以，我学会了以更直接的方式利用自己在汽车行业中的人际关系来帮助他人。
So I just tap into them. I make a phone call. I call the CEO of this company or that company and we make things happen pretty quickly. So we get from zero to a hundred very fast because they trust me and my relationship. So as you build that, that's how I help other companies get going and start. Yeah. OK, so I think that's a good point, which is that you have been able to get close to some of the most incredible companies. Arguably, I can make or I can also say it in an opposite way, which is you've gotten close to these companies and they've also become great.
所以，我只需要利用这些关系。我打个电话，给这家或者那家公司的CEO打电话，我们很快就能把事情搞定。所以我们可以从零到一百的速度非常快，因为他们信任我和我的关系。通过建立这样的关系，我帮助其他公司起步和发展。嗯，我觉得这是一个很好的观点，你能够接近一些令人难以置信的公司。同样可以反过来说，因为你接近了这些公司，它们也变得很优秀。
So like we just mentioned a lot of names in there that many here have heard of. Right. So what is that to your point? What's that secret sauce to getting like you could have billions of dollars. But at the end of the day, if your reputation is not there, people don't respect you. You're not going to get on the cap tables of some of the most influential automotive software companies. So is what what has that been for you? How have you done that over the years?
就像我们刚才提到的，有很多大家都听说过的名字。那么，关键是什么呢？假如你有几十亿美元，但如果没有好的声誉，人们不尊重你，你就不会受到一些最有影响力的汽车软件公司的重视。那么，对你来说，秘密是什么？这些年来你是怎么做到的呢？
Sure. I think a lot links is a good example. So Dilex is a good example. Dilex had two Stanford grads come from the Bay Area and they started this company called Invoice dealers.com. They blew through a million dollars and they didn't know anybody in the auto industry and they had a great product, a lead, right? We could sell to dealers and and they were competing with Auto by Till and Auto USA back in the day. They didn't have a clue of who is who in the industry. And that's not all you need to know, but you got to have a good tech. They had phenomenal tech and super smart guys. They ran out of money. They blew through a million dollars.
当然。我认为很多链接是一个很好的例子。例如，Dilex是一个很好的例子。Dilex由两名来自湾区的斯坦福毕业生创办，他们创建了一家名为Invoice Dealers.com的公司。他们花掉了一百万美元，但在汽车行业没有人脉。尽管他们拥有一个很棒的产品和一个潜在客户，这些产品本可以卖给经销商，还与当时的Auto By Till和Auto USA竞争。然而，他们对行业内的人物一无所知。虽然了解行业中的人物不是唯一需要的东西，但拥有好的技术是必需的。他们拥有出色的技术并且是非常聪明的人，但他们最终还是耗尽了资金，他们花掉了一百万美元。
I wrote a check for a quarter of a million. We took that business and literally in four years and we brought Dean Evans in. We brought these great people that you probably heard names of. And we took that company and sold it for under a hundred million dollars to cobalt back in the four years later. So all the shareholders were very happy with that transaction, but we worked hard and these guys just were super smart. So what I do is I find a company, I look at the guy or the gal who's running it, right? Do they have integrity? Are they smart? And by the way, good idea is not at the top. Good idea is like third or fourth, right? And it's all about execution. If they can execute and they have a great tech or great idea, but more importantly, are they good people? And that for me is kind of the criteria. Then I know there's a formula for successor somewhere. So I'll help them. I'll either invest, I'll be on the board, I'll be an advisor. I'll get on the cap table either through investment or granting of options or stock. And then I'll help them accelerate. We'll just go and I dive in. I don't, I'm not usually a passive investor, although one of my companies is a charging station company founded out of Portland, Oregon. And that company, I'm just a passive advisor and an investor. But, but I don't get involved in that.
我开了一张25万美元的支票。我们接手了那家企业，并在四年内让它实现了爆发性增长。我们引入了Dean Evans以及一些你可能听过名字的杰出人才。四年后，我们把这家公司以不到一亿美元的价格卖给了Cobalt。所有股东对此交易都非常满意，但这期间我们都付出了很多努力，这些人都极其聪明。
我的做法是找到一家公司，观察他们的领导者，无论是男是女，对他们的诚信和智慧进行评价。值得注意的是，“好主意”并不是第一要素，大概排在第三或第四位，最重要的是执行力。如果他们能够执行，并且有优秀的技术或创意，但更关键的是，他们是否是好人。对我来说，判断标准就是这些，这样我就知道成功的配方在某处。我会帮助他们，可能会投资，可能会加入董事会、担任顾问，通过投资或授予期权或股票来进入他们的股权结构，然后帮助他们加速发展。我会全力以赴介入其中，我通常不是一个被动的投资者。不过我确实有一家公司，是在俄勒冈州波特兰成立的充电站公司，在那里我只是一个被动的顾问和投资者，并不深入参与其中。
But my specialty is helping CEOs avoid all the mistakes I made in business. So that's sort of a formula that I used. And let's talk about lotlings for a minute. Lotlings is a great example of that. Len Short called me up, said, boy, I hear you're the guy to talk to and blah, blah, blah. And he's awesome. And, and, you know, I'd like to, I'd like to have fly you down here to Oakland. Back at that time, they were down in Oakland in their headquarters. Then about three guys had Jason and Rob and, and, and I think Lance was there too. But we had just, that's all there was. There was no other employees, right? They had blown through $6 million. Same thing. I wrote a check. I raised money for him. I brought some cash in. I got on their board. I enjoyed lotlings so much. It was such a fun run. And they've been an incredible company. They've accelerated. They've done incredibly well. Len is, you know, taken kind of a less role as German rather than CEO and Jason stepping up. This is good people that, but they have a great product. So all I did was help them connect into the industry, help them with strategy, you know, raise money. And then I get out of the way. You sort of answer my question, like, what's your secret sauce? And it seems to be like a combination of those couple of things. I wouldn't. And by the way, you mentioned Len Short, shout out Len Short for having a son named Cole Short, who's our head of content here at Car and dealership guy. So love, love, Cole. It's awesome.
但我的专长是帮助CEO们避免我在商业中犯过的所有错误。所以这就像是我用的一种公式。我们来聊聊Lotlings一会吧。Lotlings就是一个很好的例子。Len Short给我打电话，说：“我听说你是那个值得谈谈的人，等等。”他很棒，他说想要让我飞到奥克兰。那时候，Lotlings的总部在奥克兰，那里只有三个人，Jason、Rob，还有我记得Lance也在。但那就是全部员工了，那个时候他们已经烧掉了600万美元。我给他们写了支票，为他们筹集资金，把现金带进公司，还加入了他们的董事会。我非常享受与Lotlings的合作，这是一次非常有趣的经历。他们是一家令人难以置信的公司，发展得非常迅速。Len现在更多是扮演一种德国角色，而不是CEO，Jason接过了领导职务。这是一群优秀的人，他们有一个很棒的产品。我所做的就是帮助他们连接行业，提供策略帮助，筹集资金，然后我就退到一边去。这基本上回答了你的问题，比如我的“秘诀”是什么，似乎是这几件事情的结合。另外，你提到Len Short，向他致敬，他的儿子Cole Short就在Car and Dealership Guy担任内容主管，我非常喜欢Cole，他很棒。
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And that's, I think why I was so fascinated to have this discussion because right now, I'm not so very like fully loaded question about, you know, let's fast forward to 2030, right? What piece of software or tech that's up and coming today in our industry is selling for $100, $200 million, $300 million by 2030. What is that? What is that piece of software? In an adjacent way of what I'm asking you is like, where is value going to be created here over the next five to six years? Data, data, data. AI, hungry for data. If you can tap into that in an organized way that's meaningful for the dealer, that's the home run multi-billion dollar deal.
这就是为什么我对这次讨论充满兴趣的原因，因为现在我没有所谓的“全盘加载”的问题。但是，让我们快进到2030年。目前我们行业里有哪些正在兴起的软件或技术，到2030年能卖到一亿、两亿、甚至三亿美元？那究竟是什么软件？另外一个相关的问题是：在未来五到六年里，价值将在哪里创造？答案是数据，数据，数据。人工智能非常需要数据。如果你能有条理地将这些数据以对经销商有意义的方式加以利用，那就是一个可以带来数十亿美元收益的绝佳机会。
So those type of businesses like, and I'm not, I mean, I'm not going to be shame. I mean, I have a little stock in lot links. I'm not certainly a controlling interest of the majority, but in lot links, they've got data. They've got a lot of it. Like a car wiser, car wiser has an incredibly deep database of information on pricing and consumers. And when they sell their car, right? How do they sell their car? When did they sell? What price, what is the pushback point of whether they go forward or not? And we have like six, seven years of data that we could use.
这种类型的企业，比如说，我不需要掩饰，我在Lot Links公司里有一些股票，但不是控制性股东或者多数持股。在Lot Links，他们拥有大量的数据。比如说Car Wiser，Car Wiser拥有一个非常深度的信息数据库，包括定价和消费者信息。他们何时出售汽车？他们怎么出售？以什么价格？是否有购买阻力点？我们有六七年的数据可以利用。
And if a company did a roll up with all these data companies that have all this history, it's an unbelievable valuation at the end of the day. I'm not a rocket size. I can't predict the future. I certainly don't have a crystal ball, but my gut tells me if you have data, good quality, deep data with history, the AI can do amazing things with that information and deliver value for a dealer and a consumer. So let's dig into that a little bit more.
如果一家公司把所有这些拥有丰富历史数据的公司整合起来，那么最终的估值将是难以置信的。我不是火箭科学家，无法预测未来，也没有水晶球，但我的直觉告诉我，如果你有数据，尤其是高质量、历史悠久的数据，人工智能可以利用这些信息做出惊人的事情，为经销商和消费者带来价值。所以让我们更深入地探讨一下这个话题。
Right. When you say data, we know that a lot of the large automotive services company have tons of data, but the first party data here in our industry is originating with the dealer for the most part. Right. And so one of the big, you know, rising parts of our industry have been these customer data platforms where they pretty much tap into your CRM, you know, your DMS or they get your customer information and they help you make sense of it, right? Because it's not just getting the data, which is, you know, arguably the easier part is can you make sense of the data? Can you leverage it to your advantage?
对。当你提到数据，我们知道许多大型汽车服务公司拥有大量数据，但在我们这个行业中，一手数据主要是从经销商那里产生的。没错。所以，我们行业中一个正在兴起的重要领域是这些客户数据平台，它们几乎可以接入你的客户关系管理系统（CRM）或经销商管理系统（DMS），获取你的客户信息，并帮助你理解这些数据，对吗？因为不仅是获取数据可以说是相对简单的一部分，而是你能不能理解这些数据，能不能利用它们为你带来优势。
Right. Is that an area where you think that there's a lot of opportunity for our industry to drive value? Like, is it overhyped, underhyped? Where are you on the spectrum of customer data platforms? And generally speaking, leveraging, you know, helping dealers and our industry take all this customer data from years and years that's, you know, in many cases, a jumbled mess and make sense of it to drive more value. What's your take on that?
好的。你认为这个领域是我们的行业能创造大量价值的地方吗？比如说，它是被过度炒作了，还是低估了？在客户数据平台这方面，你的立场是什么？总体来说，通过帮助经销商和我们的行业利用多年积累的客户数据，这些数据在很多情况下都是非常混乱的，但通过整理这些数据来创造更多价值。你怎么看这个问题？
Right. So, so I think there's, um, there's a big disconnect, right? Like you said, there's all this data. How do you get in a usable format that can, that dealers can take advantage of it to help sell cars faster, more relevant to the consumers needs? And, and you know, I can't identify a single company that I know today that has all of it. I think people have those companies have different bits and pieces of it, right?
没错。所以，我认为，这里面存在一个很大的脱节，对吧？就像你说的，有那么多数据，怎么把它变成一种可用的格式，让经销商能够利用这些数据更快、更好地卖车，以满足消费者的需求。而且，你知道吗，我目前还没发现有哪家公司能完全做到这一点。我认为，各个公司都只掌握了部分数据或技术。
So if you think about JD Power, a treasure trove of data, right? They've got, they bought Chrome data. They bought all these other company, inventory companies and, and now they're being shopped, right? So who is that? I'm curious about who that buyer is for JD Power and then what they're going to do with that data because that's the next iteration. I don't know exactly, you'll see how you can take or what companies today actually do that. I think digital air strike is on the kind of the cutting edge of taking a lot of their information because they got a lot of dealers and they're using their platform to expand more in the SaaS model. So I'm watching them grow too in kind of that direction where they're, they're starting to accumulate and understand the value of the data they have and similar companies, right?
所以，如果你想想JD Power，它相当于一个数据的宝库，对吧？他们收购了Chrome Data，还收购了其他一些公司和库存公司。而现在他们正在被出售，对吧？所以我很好奇，谁会成为JD Power的买家，然后他们会如何利用这些数据，因为这是接下来的发展方向。我不确定现在哪些公司在进行类似的操作，但我觉得Digital Air Strike在这方面走在前沿。他们拥有很多经销商，并利用他们的平台在SaaS模式上进行扩展。所以我也在观察他们朝这个方向发展，他们开始积累并理解自己所拥有的数据的价值，类似公司都是这样对吧？
And car savers, another one, right? The Walmart Auto buying program. And I know Sean Wolfington, a good friend of mine. He was the original founder and brought that business together and the whole team is fantastic. I love those guys. You know, they're in an interesting position too, right? Cause they've got volume. And so I don't know really where this is going to go, but I am super interested. And also I'm scared too, because I always get this like fear of AI. Like what the heck is it?
翻译成中文，表达意思，尽量易读：
还有一个是Car Savers，对吧？沃尔玛汽车购买计划。我认识Sean Wolfington，他是我的好朋友。他是这个项目的创始人，把这个业务做起来了，整个团队都很棒。我很喜欢他们。你知道吗？他们现在的处境也很有趣，因为他们有很大的销量。我不知道这个项目未来会怎样，但我非常感兴趣。同时，我也有些害怕，因为我对人工智能总有种恐惧感，不知道它到底是什么。
First of all, and what's it going to do? I have this little chat program. I use it on my phone now. It's the 4.0 chat, uh, chat GDP. And it has a woman's voice, right? I tried to change the voice to a, to a Southern accent. Didn't quite work. I tried to shade into it. She didn't want to do that. I call her Lily. She gives me this. She designed something. She engineered something for me in this new company. I just started. I can't tell you about because if I did, they would probably kill me. So I, it is a new business and it's phenomenal, but I can't tell you about it. We'll have to do that later, but, but we'll get it out of you. You can't, I'm a steel trap.
首先，它能做什么？我有一个小聊天程序，我现在在手机上使用。它是4.0版本的聊天程序，叫聊天GDP，还有一个女人的声音。我试图把声音换成南方口音，但没有成功。我试图让它慢慢变成南方口音，但她不愿意。我称她为莉莉。她为我设计了一些东西，为我刚创业的公司做了些工程设计。我不能告诉你详细内容，因为如果我说了，他们可能会杀了我。所以，这是一个新业务，真的很棒，但我不能告诉你细节。我们得以后再谈这个话题。不过，我们会让你说出来的。你不行的，我可是什么都不会说的。
I've got guys watching me, right? It said, no, no, can't, can't tell. I would love to, though. Absolutely love to, but no, there's, so she's telling me this and she's engineered something. I don't even need an engineer on this thing. It was phenomenal. And it started using it in different ways. It's just, it's just like you're, if you ask the right questions, you'll get the solution that you want. So it's interesting. I don't know where this is going to go in the auto industry. Yeah. Fair enough.
有些人一直在盯着我，对吧？他（或她）说，不，不，不能，不能告诉你。我真的很想告诉你，非常想，但不行。所以她跟我说这些，并且她还设计了一些东西。实际上，我根本不需要一个工程师来处理这事。这真的很了不起。然后开始以不同的方式使用它。就是这样，如果你问对了问题，你就能得到你想要的解决方案。所以这很有趣。我不知道这在汽车行业会走到哪一步。是的，确实如此。
All right. I've many, many more questions here. So first of all, before we, I want to ask you about some current software that's being used and if you're out, look on that, before we get to that, what, what's exciting to you from an auto tech perspective nowadays? There's a company that I'm considering it involved in. It's called unison. And it's, they also have a product called dealer mesh. And basically what it is, it's a front end platform, like a website, but in the back end, it takes all the, um, the, the 80 vendors that dealers have, right?
好的，我还有很多问题要问。首先，在我们讨论当前使用的软件以及你的看法之前，我想先问问你，现在在汽车技术方面最让你感到兴奋的是什么？有一家公司我正在考虑参与，它叫Unison。他们还有一个产品叫Dealer Mesh。基本上，它是一个前端平台，类似于一个网站，但在后端它整合了经销商所使用的所有80家供应商的数据，对吧？
That are disconnected and they do I frames in your website and they take your data. We don't know what they do with your data. And this is kind of a tool that connects, connects all these vendors for the dealer, like a mega dealer group, mostly a larger group or a medium sized group. Would it take advantage of something like this? And it has a dashboard that shows, oh, you, this connection is broken or this is working well or whatever. But it integrates all these vendors together and you control the data, data, data. And this is something that dealers are giving up right now, they're not even aware of the fact when they partner with one of these companies, they're potentially given away.
他们断开连接，他们在你的网站上使用 I 框架，获取你的数据。我们不知道他们会对你的数据做些什么。这是一种工具，能够把这些供应商与经销商连接起来，主要适用于大型或中型的经销集团。一个这样的经销集团会利用这个工具。它有一个仪表盘，显示连接是否正常，并整合所有这些供应商，让你掌控数据。而现在经销商们正在放弃这个控制权，他们甚至都没有意识到，当他们与这些公司合作时，可能会泄露数据。
They're very valuable information to areas that could be used with their competitors, potentially. So this protects that I like this company. I'm considering some involvement with them because I think they've got a real cutting edge technology that will help a dealer control their own data. That's important. And then another thing I think about too is like, uh, what's, what's happening on the, this lawsuit, you know, it's coming up here from the FTC that tell basically the dealer, if they aren't transparent with their pricing and they don't disclose of their dealer ads, there's like a $50,000 fine.
这些信息对与竞争对手可能相关的领域来说非常有价值。因此，这也保护了我对这家公司的好感。我正在考虑参与其中，因为我认为他们有非常前沿的技术，可以帮助经销商控制自己的数据。这很重要。另外，我还关注一件事情，就是有关这个即将到来的诉讼。联邦贸易委员会（FTC）表示，如果经销商不透明定价并且不披露他们的广告费用，可能会面临五万美元的罚款。
Now there's a lawsuit from Texas that's trying to prevent this from happening with the FTC rule, but that's a big deal for a dealer. So if I'm a dealer and I, if I don't comply with this new law, it will take form in some way. The lawsuit's just going to slow it down. It's coming though. And the dealer's going to have to figure out how to be more transparent. And that's actually, which by the way is good for the consumer because if I have the same price on the website, I do have on that, I have on the car and maybe even the payment on the website and the payment on the car, that's a really big advantage. And I know a dealer that went from number 17 in the Northwest as a Toyota dealer to number one, using that strategy of transparency.
目前德克萨斯州有一场诉讼试图阻止FTC规则的实施，但对于经销商来说，这是一件大事。如果我是经销商，若不遵守这项新法律，总会以某种形式受到影响。诉讼只能拖延它的执行，最终还是会到来。经销商需要找到变得更加透明的方法。顺便说一下，这对消费者是有利的，因为如果网站上的价格和车上的价格一致，甚至网站上的付款和车上的付款一致，这对消费者来说是一个很大的优势。我认识一个丰田经销商，通过这种透明化策略，从西北地区的第17名跃升为第一名。
So he's kind of ahead of the game, but there's a lot of dealers that are still playing the good guy, bad guy, hiding the price. You think that like the FTC, the Carzak, you think it's going to take shape in some form, but do you think it's a, in the long term, do you think it's a positive for the deal ship community as well?
所以他算是走在前面了，但还有很多经销商在玩好人坏人的游戏，隐瞒价格。你觉得像FTC（联邦贸易委员会）、Carzak这样的机构，未来会有一些动作，但从长远来看，你认为这对经销商社区是好事吗？
Yeah, I think it is because it sort of forces transparency. I think they're ridiculous on their $50,000 fine per occurrence. Can you imagine I have 20 cars that are out of compliance and I'm getting fined 20 times 50,000. So the lawsuit is going to twist and turn it. I think it's excellent for the consumer. Um, I think it's good for the dealer.
是的，我认为这是因为它有点强制了透明度。我认为他们每次违规罚款五万美元有点荒唐。你能想象一下，我有20辆车不合规，我被罚了20次五万美元。所以这个诉讼将会有很多变化。我觉得这对消费者非常好，对经销商也有好处。
Now every single time there's a rule and regulation the government gets involved. It's usually not very great. Great. It's usually kind of a, it's, although this one, it's kind of forcing the dealer to be more transparent. So from that standpoint, they're changing the behavior somewhat that could be very good for the dealer long term could put him in a better position. In this dealer that I'm talking about that became number one, he voluntarily did this and he's excelled. It's, he's done incredibly well.
现在每次有新规定和规章，政府都会介入。这通常不是特别好。虽然这一次，政府是在迫使销售商更加透明。从这个角度来看，他们改变了销售商的行为，这可能对销售商的长期发展非常有利，可能会让他处于更好的位置。我说的这个销售商，就是通过自愿遵守这些规定成为了第一名的那个人，他表现得非常出色。
And that's Toyota of Gladstone in Oregon. And just so I understand this dealer is strictly the only change you're, you're referring to here is going to transparent pricing, like fixed pricing and payment. On every single car. So every single car has the real price, the same price on the website.
那是位于俄勒冈州格拉德斯通的丰田经销商。为了理解清楚，你说的唯一变化就是他们要采用透明定价，也就是固定价格和支付方式。每辆车都有真实价格，并且在网站上显示的价格是相同的。
It is on the car. Okay. And it is the payments on there. So for a, for a, you know, uh, tier one customer credit, the payments on every single car. And now it's a real pain in the rear form to print up those windows stickers, but uh, it is working extremely well. And that's what got him from number 17 to number one in the Northwest.
它在车上。好的。车上有付款细节。所以对于一级客户信用来说，所有车上都有付款细节。现在打印那些车窗贴纸确实很麻烦，但效果非常好。这就是他从西北地区第17名跃升到第1名的原因。
Alright. So we talked about what's exciting to you, but let's go broader now, give me like three, four key themes that you're focusing on as an investor, auto tech investor in the industry. What are these key themes that are important and that you're focused on? Well, again, I just look for companies that have good ideas that will help a dealer sell more cars or they can bring a consumer to the dealer in a very low cost way. Which results in performance.
好的。我们刚才谈到了让你感到兴奋的事情，但是现在我们来谈谈更广泛的话题。作为汽车科技领域的投资者，你现在主要关注哪三到四个关键主题？这些重要的主题是什么？
嗯，我一般会寻找那些有好创意的公司，这些创意能够帮助经销商卖更多的车，或者能够以非常低的成本把消费者带到经销商那里，从而提升业绩表现。
So as I look back, I'm, I'm actively looking at three different investments right now. Um, they're, they're mostly in the one I was talking to you about this, uh, unison company. It's, um, in Georgia. And, uh, they're very interesting. And I liked what they're doing to help the dealer kind of streamline their data and own their data and bring a better consumer experience. So if we can do it, like this digital retail, and I think about Roadster, right? Who bought Roadster, CDK Global, right? And, and, um, I remember Rudy, one of the original founders.
回顾一下，我现在正在积极关注三个不同的投资项目。嗯，其中大部分涉及到我跟你提到的这个Unison公司。这家公司在乔治亚州。他们非常有趣，我喜欢他们正在做的事情，帮助经销商简化和掌控数据，并提高消费者体验。所以如果我们能做到像数字零售这样，我会想到Roadster，对吧？谁收购了Roadster？是CDK Global，对吧？然后，我还记得Rudy，他是最初的创始人之一。
Yeah, I know Rudy. Uh, he's off. Yeah, he's a good guy. I love him. So, he's off doing something else, but, but, but he helped build that company and get it to where it was, but digital retailing back, what five, six, seven years ago was kind of like edgy, right? I mean, oh, do we really want to do that and give the power to consumer to do the deal online, right?
是的，我认识Rudy。他不在这里了。嗯，他是个好人，我很喜欢他。虽然他现在在做别的事情，但他曾经帮助建立了那家公司，并让它取得了成功。五六七年前，数字零售还很前卫，对吧？意思是，我们真的要这么做，把交易权力交给消费者在线上完成吗？
Or to get a natural payment and process all the paperwork you can online. Of course it's good. It's good for the dealer because he spent less time with the consumer, right? On the show, and, uh, in back in the back room. Um, and so, so as I think about what's the next thing of digital retailing, what's that going to look like? Is it like a test? I'm a Tesla driver as well.
或者可以在线上完成所有的支付和办理所有的文书工作。这当然是好的。这对经销商有利，因为他花在消费者身上的时间减少了，对吧？在展厅里，以及后台办公室里。所以，当我思考数字化零售的下一步会是什么样子时，它会是什么样子？就像一个测试一样吗？我是一个特斯拉车主。
So I've got a Tesla. I went through the buying process of that Tesla and it was like 30 minutes. I was in and out, right? Because I did it online and I bought the car and I'm wondering if that's kind of where we're going with the, with the domestics and the foreign dealerships, right? With a transactional model that's more, uh, just like a checkout at Amazon, right? And so, so I think about those type of companies who's solving those problems.
所以我买了一辆特斯拉。整个购买过程花了差不多30分钟。我进去又出来，对吧？因为我是在线上完成的购买。我在想这是否就是我们汽车购买的未来，无论是国内还是外国的经销商会采用这种方式。就像在亚马逊结账一样的交易模式。所以，我在思考那些正在解决这些问题的公司。
And there's a few that, that look like they're getting close. Any, any specific ones you want to name? Not right now other than unison is the only one that I, that I want to mention. There's a couple of others that I'm, um, I doodling with, but I have. I love the simplicity. Like the first answer you gave was just like, I want to help deal or sell more cars. And it's like literally any competent marketing department at a dealership.
有一些项目看起来已经接近完成。你有特别想提到的项目吗？目前没有，除了Unison，我只想提到这个。我还有几个其他的项目正在琢磨中。我喜欢简单明了的回答，就像你之前说的：“我想帮助销售更多的汽车。”这就像任何一家汽车经销商里的优秀市场营销部门的工作。
When you're observing a new opportunity, right? Like I always say the disc tests, right? Does it sell cars? It's like really, really simple. Right. Industry, you know, will it actually work? And it's like, that's what we're trying to solve. Like, will it sell more cars? Will it make the car buying process more efficient? Yeah. Sometimes we just get too complicated in this stuff, right?
当你在观察一个新机会时，对吧？就像我总是说的那个测试，对吧？它能卖掉汽车吗？这个真的非常简单。对吧？行业内，你知道的，它真的会有效吗？这就是我们试图解决的问题。它会卖掉更多汽车吗？它会让买车的过程更高效吗？有时候我们在这些事情上弄得太复杂了，对吧？
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I mean, we, we overthink it and it's really quite simple. And you know, that's why I keep thinking about lot links and how, how well they're kind of performing the marketplace, the dealers that are really successful using them. There's been a lot of churn in the industry through the COVID and after COVID. But the ones that are using lot leaks effectively are really, really excelling. And so I think about that and how well they've put together a product and how they're developing their AI and how they're doing. That's really interesting to me because they have new stuff coming out. Len promised me a demo and I've never got it yet. But I, I'm looking forward to that because I think there's something there that they're ready to roll out that might be interesting. And also the same thing with digital airstrike. I think they've got something up their sleeve and Alexi is quite a incredible business leader. She's got, she's got passion and vision. And I think she's got this thing and it's a secret sauce. I don't know exactly what it is. Again, I haven't looked at it yet, but there's something coming up here for that.
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我的意思是，我们其实过度思考了，这其实非常简单。你知道，这就是为什么我一直在思考lot links，以及那些成功利用它们的经销商在市场上的表现。整个行业由于COVID期间和之后发生了很大的动荡。但是那些有效使用lot links的经销商确实表现出色。所以我想到这个产品的组建及其AI的发展情况，这真的让我感到兴趣，因为他们有一些新东西即将推出。Len答应给我做一个演示，但我还没看到。不过我很期待，因为我觉得他们准备推出的东西可能会很有趣。同样的，数字空袭（Digital AirStrike）这边，我也觉得他们有所准备，Alexi是一个非常出色的商业领袖。她充满了激情和远见。我觉得她手上有一种秘密武器。我还没有看到具体的东西，但我感到这边也有些东西即将推出。
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We finally did a cardioship guy news is live and ready to serve the car industry. We're not a traditional news outlet and I'm not a journalist, but I believe the market deserves concise and unbiased car industry news presented in clear, straightforward English from the latest stories in automotive to CDG podcast summaries dealership best practices and even consumer deals. We're going to offer it all. And the best part in the classic CDG spirit, everything's 100% free for you. Check it out at CDG. News that CDG. News and please give us feedback. Tell us what else you want. Rip us apart. We're not scared. We just want to provide value. Again, visit CDG. News or click the link in the show notes below.
我们终于推出了Cardioship Guy新闻，现已上线，随时为汽车行业服务。我们不是传统的新闻媒体，我也不是记者，但我相信市场需要简明公正的汽车行业新闻，以清晰明了的英语呈现。从最新的汽车故事到CDG播客摘要、经销商最佳实践，甚至消费者优惠，我们应有尽有。而且最棒的是，延续经典的CDG精神，所有内容对你都是100%免费的。请访问CDG.News查看，CDG.News，欢迎大家给我们反馈，告诉我们你们还想要什么，狠狠批评我们也不怕，我们只想提供有价值的内容。再次提醒，访问CDG.News或点击下面的链接查看。
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I want to ask you a bit of a different question. Do you think it's smart for dealers to incubate tech companies within their dealer groups? I mean, we've seen a lot of this. We've got. Yeah, I mean, we've seen lots of this. I've obviously been involved at our peak. We had 30 engineers on staff, which was quite an experiment. But but in all seriousness, I mean, there's lots of dealers out here, you know, that have done something with tech, whether it be, you know, Island Auto Group from New York or our Dell Grand dealer group from from the Bay Area. I mean, I could give many more more examples. Of course, my buddy, Ryan Mahair, who founded BusyCar, right? Lots of dealers have done this and have been successful. I'm sure lots of also done and haven't been successful. We just, you know, we haven't heard about them as much. What's your take on that? And wait, one more thing, actually, before you answer that question, right? Like, naturally, you have an embedded advantage where you have you own the testing grounds, right? Like the testing grounds is your dealership. You're sort of like solving your own pain point. But anyways, go ahead. What's your take?
我想问一个有点不同的问题。你认为经销商在其经销商集团内孵化科技公司是否聪明？我的意思是，我们见过很多这样的例子。没错，我们确实见过很多。我自己也参与过其中，在我们的高峰时期，我们有30名工程师，总体上这是一种相当有趣的尝试。但说正经的，我是说，很多经销商都在科技方面有所作为，比如纽约的Island Auto Group或湾区的Dell Grand经销商集团。我可以给出更多的例子。当然，还有我朋友Ryan Mahair创办的BusyCar。很多经销商这样做并取得了成功，但也有很多可能没有成功，只是我们听得不多。你对此有什么看法？等等，在你回答之前，还有一点，对吧？自然地，你有一个内在的优势，因为你拥有测试场地，那个测试场地就是你的经销店，你相当于在解决自己的痛点。不管怎样，你怎么看？
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No, I don't. First of all, let me address that one first. Absolutely. Having a testing ground, um, an incubator, right? An actual user helping you design and build that system is extremely valuable. I think there's two schools of thought on the dealer owned investment type of deal. I mean, there's a few success stories like Frasier McCombs, right? Um, Chase and Zach and the team, those guys have done the auto tech ventures is not the same thing, but there's certainly, they sniff it around and they got a lot of investments in the auto industry. I think about Vinq as well, right? Vinq is a great example of a Frasier McCombs. Actually, Frasier McCombs in invested, I think, uh, Chase invested in it, uh, personally, because he loved the model so much. So there's an ID, like a concert there.
不，我不这样认为。首先，让我先谈谈这一点。绝对地，拥有一个测试场地, 一个孵化器，对吧？一个实际的用户帮你设计和构建系统，这是非常有价值的。我认为在经销商投资类型的交易中有两种思路。我是说，有一些成功案例，比如Frasier McCombs，对吧？嗯，Chase和Zach和他们的团队，这些人做了auto tech ventures，虽然不是完全一样的事情，但他们肯定在其中嗅到了机会，并且在汽车行业投了很多资。我也想到Vinq，对吧？Vinq是一个很好的Frasier McCombs的例子。实际上，Frasier McCombs 投资了，我想Chase个人也投资了，因为他非常喜欢这个模式。所以这里有一个类似音乐会的合作模式。
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But I think the problem is I've seen it both ways. I've seen dealers really screw it up because they try to run this tech company like a, like a dealership. What does that mean? I'm laughing. Oh yeah, I'm laughing because like I imagine like my father saying something like that. I'm going to go ahead and tell me what that means. Hey, listen, I love dealers. I've served them for 36 years of my life. I love dealers, but they, they need to know what they're good at and what they're not good at. And what they're not good at is running the software company that they might have incubated or invested in. Do listen, my advice to dealer. Don't try to take control of the business. Put a small investment at great.
但我认为问题在于，我见过两种情况。我见过一些经销商搞砸了，因为他们试图像运营汽车经销商那样运营科技公司。这是什么意思？我笑了。哦，对，我笑了，因为我想象我的父亲会说出类似的话。我要继续说下去了。听我说，我真的很喜欢经销商。我一生中的36年都在为他们服务。我爱经销商，但他们需要知道自己的强项和弱项。而他们不擅长的是运营他们可能孵化或投资的科技公司。所以，听我的建议，给经销商的建议是：不要尝试控制业务，可以进行少量投资，这样就很好了。
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Have a little investment off the side and then put that money in that business and, and let it run and get out of the way. Cause I've seen where they've destroyed companies, right? Because they want to run it like a car dealer. And I've got 10 stories and I don't want to get into them because I love these dealers. But they're just not good at it, but, but they are very good at they have resources. They have a lot of money. They have, they have resources. They have a store or two or five and they, they can open up that door for like, we're going to make mistakes, Mr. dealer. You've invested in this. We're going to make mistakes, but this is a great opportunity to get all those things out so that we can launch this thing and scale it to everybody. And you're going to win when we do an exit three to five, six years down the road, right? That's how they win. Small investment minority beyond the board. That's great. Give input, but do not try to control that business because you're going to screw it up and you're going to take it down. It's not, and it's just not going to work, right?
有一点点投资在旁边，然后把那笔钱投入到那个业务中，让它自己运作并且不要干涉。因为我见过他们毁掉公司的情况，他们想要像经营汽车经销商一样经营公司。我有很多故事可以讲，但不想详细说，因为我喜欢这些经销商。但他们就是不擅长做这些事，不过他们确实有资源，他们有很多钱，他们有一家或几家店，可以打开大门。告诉他们，我们会犯错，尊敬的经销商，您的投资可能会有错误，但这是一个巨大的机会，可以解决所有问题，以便我们能够启动并扩展业务。等三到五六年后退出时，您就会获利。这就是他们的盈利方式。少量投资，成为董事会的一部分，这很好，可以提出意见，但不要试图控制业务，否则会把它搞砸，弄垮它，那样是行不通的，对吗？
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So just speaking as an entrepreneur and as somebody's been in that position before and then seeing other people and coached other CEOs out of it, I know what I'm talking about. I love it. All right. So a couple of things there. First of all, again, obviously I reflect back on my experiences. I think one of the things we did right when I launched Get A Cars and online auto retailing platform was right away I hired a CTO who had run an online auto retailing platform, right? And he was in charge of the engineers and that actually allowed our tech team to scale very well and for us to build phenomenal tech team pretty quickly as well because I just did not have that competency, but I knew enough to be able to hire a great leader to run that. So anyways, I echo your sentiment because I think it's really important that the competency of being a dealer, to your point, it's very different than software, right? Software you typically have high margin dealership business is very low margin.
所以，作为一名企业家和曾经处在那种位置的人，同时也看过和指导过其他CEO走出困境，我知道我在说什么。我喜欢这样的感觉。好了，首先，我要提几点。首先，我会回想我的一些经历。我认为我们做对的一件事是，当我创办“Get A Cars”这个在线汽车零售平台时，我马上雇佣了一位曾经运营过在线汽车零售平台的首席技术官（CTO）。他负责我们的工程团队，这实际上让我们的技术团队扩展得非常顺利，我们也迅速建立了一支出色的技术队伍，因为我自己并不具备那方面的能力，但我知道该如何雇佣一位出色的领导者来管理。这一点我非常认同你的观点，因为我认为具备经销商能力是非常重要的，正如你所说的，这与软件有很大的不同。软件通常有很高的利润，而经销业务则是低利润。
I think one of the weird things about that for me as I entered the software realm and I was thinking about auto tech was I was coming from an environment where I was focused on saving every penny. Suddenly you're in software and it's like, wait, you need to grow quickly, right? You want to blitz the market in many cases. If you're first to market, you want to grow like, it's a completely different frame of mind that you have to really get adjusted and us as dealers, we don't have that muscle typically, right? Like the muscle that we practice is we're in a 5% net margin business. Let's save every penny. Software is in a completely different beast. I'll tell you a quick story. I met with one investor early on, looked me in the eyes and he said, Yoshi, he's like, I want to explain something to you. He's like, you are, this was the first investor in Uber. He said, you are right now operating a Harley Davidson. Like he's like a 1976 Harley Davidson. He was referring to the traditional in the dealership business. He said, the second you step into this venture game, he's like, now you're in a 20 or 20 or whatever, 2018, you know, whatever F 16 or whatever you want to call it. And he didn't believe that we could make the adjustment. But the point is like, it is a completely different frame of mind. And it's important to be cognizant of that because as you said, dealers do have a great testing grounds and platform to build great software, but maybe it does not make sense for them to actually operate that software themselves. Absolutely.
我觉得当我进入软件领域并考虑汽车技术时，最让我感到奇怪的是，我原本所在的环境是专注于节省每一分钱的。突然之间，我进入了软件行业，这里需要快速增长，对吧？在很多情况下，你需要迅速占领市场。如果你是第一个进入市场的，你需要快速扩张，这完全是另一种思维模式，需要我们去适应。而我们作为经销商，通常没有这种能力。我们的习惯是在一个5%的净利润业务中运作，尽量节省每一分钱。但软件行业完全是不同的动物。
让我给你讲个小故事吧。我早期见过一个投资者，他直接看着我的眼睛对我说，他说，“Yoshi，我要解释给你听。”他是Uber的首位投资者。他说，“你现在操作的是一辆哈雷戴维森摩托车，就像1976年的那种哈雷戴维森。”他指的是传统的经销业务。他说，“一旦你进入这个风险投资游戏，你就像是驾驶一架2018年或其他年份的F16战斗机。”他不相信我们能完成这种调整。但我的重点是，这完全是不同的思维模式。认识到这一点很重要，正如你所说，作为经销商，我们确实有很好的测试场地和平台来构建优秀的软件，但可能不完全适合由我们自己来运营这些软件。完全同意。
You know, I think about Bruce Thompson, who's, you know, he built AAX and sold that, then he built a red bumper and sold that, then he built car offer and sold that to car gurus for nice chunk of change. God bless America. Good for him. And he, he knew a lot of dealers and used the dealers help to get his product perfected. And he really focused on that. And so he found dealers that would, would be open with that. And he got a look, I think he got some dealers to invest with him too and his ventures. So there's a great example of how you can approach this, but, you know, I have a different view of these startups and how they should go about it. I look at, first of all, the guy, the integrity and all that. And I look at the idea that's second or third down the list, but, you know, where is, what's the problem they're solving and so forth? But I always recommend a business that's just organic growth, right?
你知道，我想起了布鲁斯·汤普森，他先是创建了AAX并将其出售，然后又创建了Red Bumper并出售，接着他创建了Car Offer并以可观的金额卖给了Car Gurus。真是美国梦的典范，为他感到高兴。他认识很多经销商，并借助他们的帮助完善了自己的产品。他非常注重这一点，找到了愿意合作的经销商。我想他还说服了一些经销商投资他的项目。这就是一个很好的例子，说明了你可以怎样去做。
但对于这些初创企业，我有不同的看法。我首先关注的是创始人的人品等因素，而把创意放在第二或第三位。我还会看他们解决的是什么问题等等。但我总是推荐那些自然成长起来的业务。
So car Gg was a deal I did with Tony home back in the, the early days. That was boy, that was seven years, eight years ago, something like that. And then we built it and sold it to eBay motors. And, and so Tony and I did everything with organic growth. We had 5,000 dealers that we took their inventory and posted to Craigslist focused on one niche, right? And then we, we just ran and we, we used resellers for our product because we had a lot of margin in that back in the day before they charge $5 a post. And we were able to expand to 5, 6,000 dealers as our customers, which is a phenomenal success. And eBay motors finally bought us. We had to pivot. There's a whole story there I went bore you with, but it, but you have to be willing to pivot. You got organic growth is way undervalued and taken on vulture capitalism. I mean venture capitalism. You got to be careful.
所以，Gg汽车是我和托尼在早期合作的一个项目。那大概是七八年前的事情了。我们当时建造了它，并最终卖给了eBay Motors。托尼和我通过有机增长进行了一切。我们与5000家经销商合作，发布他们的库存到Craigslist，只专注于一个细分市场。然后我们利用经销商销售我们的产品，因为当时在Craigslist发布广告的利润率很高，那时候还不收费。我们成功地将客户数量扩展到5000到6000家，经销商数量非常惊人。最终，eBay Motors收购了我们。期间我们必须转型，这有一段故事但我就不详细说了。你必须愿意作出转变。有机增长的价值被严重低估了，而你加入风险投资时必须谨慎。这点十分重要。
Like who you dance with, right? There are devils out there. Maybe they don't have your best interests at heart. I've seen a lot of crashes and burns from the wrong investors, right? So be careful on who you take money from. Kind of a makes common sense, right? But you'd be surprised at how a little cash will make somebody do stuff. Some things you learn from experience.
就像你和谁一起跳舞，对吧？外面有很多恶魔，也许他们并不真的关心你的利益。我见过很多由于选错投资者而导致的失败。所以在接受资金的时候要小心。这应该是常识，对吧？但你会惊讶于一点点钱能让人做出什么事情。有些事情你只能通过经验来学习。
Do you see us moving or most of the OEMs in our industry, the auto manufacturers, do you see us moving to this like agency model type of experience where maybe the car manufacturer owns more of the vehicles on their balance sheet dealers are really fulfillment centers other than of course, use cars and fixed ops. But the new car side turns into like a just plain fulfillment center. Yeah, I think then forward and some of the other OEMs try to do that and they kind of failed miserably at least the first blush at it.
你认为我们或者我们行业中的大多数原始设备制造商（OEMs），也就是汽车制造商，会不会逐渐向这种代理模式转变？也就是说，汽车制造商在其资产负债表上拥有更多的车辆，而经销商实际上变成了履行中心（除了二手车和固定运营）。新车方面则只是简单的履行中心。我觉得，然后一些车企比如福特和其他OEMs尝试这样做，但至少在初次尝试时，他们的表现很糟糕。
I think dealers will always provide a service and will always be an important piece of the transaction and the service afterwards. I think when you have the opportunity like a Tesla not to have dealers in the first place and not include them, then you kind of have a little bit of advantage not to worry about how to use life. But then at the same time, Tesla's got lots of problems, right? So I try to take my Tesla in for service. I have to wait two weeks to get an appointment. Dealers are a little bit more responsive than that. And then what about like a total loss?
我认为经销商始终会提供服务，并在交易和后续服务中扮演重要角色。我觉得如果你有像特斯拉那样的机会，从一开始就不需要经销商，并将其排除在外，那你确实有一些优势，不必担心如何使用寿命的问题。但与此同时，特斯拉也有很多问题，对吧？比如说，我试图把我的特斯拉送去维修，却要等两周才能预约。相较之下，经销商在这方面更为高效。那么，面对车子完全报废的情况又如何呢？
I actually crashed my Tesla. Why a Mac truck hit me and that the car was about half the size of the original size and I walked out with a bruised rib and but trying to get that thing valued and trying to get that thing repair. But first of all, it couldn't be repaired was total loss. But I had another Tesla before that that I tried to get repaired. It was two, three months before I could get something repaired on it for the body work and that type of thing. So again, the Tesla's got some great advantages on the side of buying the car, but on the service side, they're still lacking dramatically.
我真的撞坏了我的特斯拉。为什么一辆大卡车撞上了我，车子变成原来一半大小，我出来时肋骨受了点伤。试图评估和修理那辆车，但首先，它无法修复，完全报废了。但我之前还有另一辆特斯拉，我曾尝试修理它，做车身修理等等，花了两到三个月的时间。因此，特斯拉在购买方面确实有些优势，但在服务方面仍然存在很大不足。
I think dealers will always provide even if like electric cars, remember when we had out all that momentum with electric cars like the Ford's and the Chevy Volts and all these different electric cars that came out? The Kia and the idea was, oh, look at them, all this momentum and the dealer's not going to have a place now in the future. Remember that conversation where dealers are told, you got to change your whole dealership now because everything's going to change. You're not going to have any service. These things don't need service. Windshield white person and tires and that's all you're going to have to replace on them. Well, that didn't work out exactly that way. Did it?
我认为经销商总是会存在的，即使像电动汽车这样的技术也不例外。还记得我们那时候对电动汽车充满了热情吗？比如福特和雪佛兰沃尔特，还有各种不同的电动汽车。起亚也是，当时的想法是，看吧，这么大的势头，经销商以后就没有市场了。还记得当时的讨论吗？经销商被告知你们必须彻底改变整个经销策略，因为一切都将改变。你们不会再有维修服务了，这些电动汽车不需要什么保养，只有挡风玻璃、雨刮器和轮胎需要更换。结果事情并没有完全按这种方式发展，对吧？
For me, there's like, okay, the OEMs have made several attempts of trying to eliminate the dealer and it just hasn't worked. Dealers are resilient. They're brilliant and they will change if they have to modify their model, but they'll always have a place. So I don't see that ever really happening down the road, at least the next five to 10 years. I don't see it happening. I know there's a lot of people say, oh, there's not going to be any dealers. They're all consolidating. And maybe there's numbers that prove there's some consolidation happening, but there always will need a dealer to be with that consumer to help them either through service or sales and to educate them about the vehicle and let them try it if they don't know exactly what they want. And a lot of them don't, right?
对我来说，情况是这样的：原始设备制造商（OEM）已经多次尝试消除经销商的角色，但都没有成功。经销商非常有韧性，非常聪明，他们会根据需要调整自己的模式，但他们总会有一席之地。所以我认为至少在未来五到十年内，这种情况不会发生。我知道很多人说不会再有经销商了，他们都在整合。也许确实有数据表明确实存在一些整合，但总会需要经销商与消费者合作，帮助他们进行服务或销售，教育他们关于车辆的知识，并在消费者不确定自己想要什么的时候让他们试驾。很多消费者确实不知道自己到底想要什么，对吧？
Yeah, look, I think, but you make a good point. Again, if you look at the observed market opportunity, right, I think the smart dealers should be looking at, okay, it's clear that in a new car purchase as a dealer, you have fewer opportunities to provide value as opposed to servicing a vehicle, right? Again, like higher barriers to entry, right? Every OEM can ship a car to someone and sell online, but OEMs can't service a vehicle that's owned by Sally that lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia and, you know, is 50. They can't do that. And she's not going to ship that car to Detroit and the OEMs don't have local service centers.
是的，你看，我认为你说的有道理。如果你看一下观察到的市场机会，我觉得聪明的经销商应该明白，作为经销商，比起新车销售，在车辆维修方面提供价值的机会更多。再说，比如进入门槛更高。每个原始设备制造商（OEM）都可以把车运给某个人并在线销售，但OEM无法为住在费城郊区的50岁的Sally维修她的车。OEM能做不到这一点，而她也不会把车运到底特律，OEM也没有本地的维修中心。
So I think to that point, like, right, if I put myself in the shoes of a of any dealer out there, I am asking myself, and I'm putting like, you know, use cars aside for a second, how can I just double down on service, whether that is evolving my actual service department, getting better training for my team, focusing on the new technology so I can service the vehicle of the future, right? Obviously that includes electric vehicles. I feel like that is where the upside is when I look at the industry in general. What do you think about that?
所以，我认为，在这个问题上，如果我站在任何一个经销商的角度来看，暂时不谈二手车，我会问自己：我该如何加倍努力在服务上？不管是改进我的服务部门，加强团队培训，还是关注新技术，以便我能为未来的汽车（显然包括电动车）提供服务，我觉得这才是行业的增长点。你怎么看？
Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think that I think your key word was really kind of like the dealer has to transform somewhat. They have to be ahead of the game and they have to think about, you know, how can I add value to my already existing? I mean, look, he's got a great asset. It's location, right? I've got a local location for my consumers and that is their number one, it's the space. It's the facility. So that can take different forms, but it's never going to go away. I don't see it as something that, oh my God, we're all going to all these dealers going to like lose their dealership and there's not going to be enough margin. To your point, service is going to have to transform somewhat and be able to accommodate the electric vehicles and the different changes. I just don't know how much you're going to be able to service a electric car because for the most part, wish your wife person tires. I mean, maybe a battery replacement, but if you break something, that would be something. I think one dealer told me that I was wrong. I can't remember which one told me, but anyway, I may not be accurate on that. But I don't think there's many things to fix on the electric vehicles, but we're going to have a lot of used vehicles. There's going to be a ton of opportunity for that. So again, I just don't see it as a doom and gloom thing for the dealer.
是的，我完全同意你的看法。我认为你的关键词确实准确，销售商确实需要进行一定程度的转型。他们需要走在前面，思考如何为现有的业务增加价值。看，销售商们有一个很大的资产，那就是他们的地理位置，对吗？我有一个本地的实体店，消费者最看重的就是这个店面和设施。这可能会以不同的形式存在，但它永远不会消失。我并不认为销售商会因此失去他们的业务，或者利润会不够。像你说的，服务也需要进行一定的转型，以适应电动车和其他变化。我只是觉得，对于电动车的服务可能不需要太多。大多数情况下，可能就只是换轮胎或者电池替换，如果有什么损坏的话，那可能另当别论。我记得有一位销售商告诉我我错了，但我不记得具体是谁说的。不过，我不认为电动车有很多需要修理的地方，但我们会有很多二手车，那里面有很多机会。所以，我并不认为对于销售商来说是一个灾难性的情况。
AI, will it replace entry level opportunities in our industry, salesperson, receptionist, whatever, or will it enhance those roles? It's not replace, enhance. With my little experience with AI, I wouldn't trust it. First of all, it's not a person. There's ways like, for instance, I've seen some technology, for instance, car wisers, a great example. Car wiser reaches out to these sellers that want to sell their car. Then they offer up multi-offer prices for that car that the consumer wants to sell in real time, kind of like a kayak model for sell your car. In real time, it pulls the car max and the car VANA and the local dealer, the Echo Park prices and what they will pay for that car instantaneously. I know car wiser uses some AI just to reach out to the consumer to engage them in the process, but then it hands it over to an actual person or agents that can take it to the red zone and we're going to push it over the gold line. We're going to help that consumer sell their car, get all the paperwork uploaded. There's a lot of automation you can bring to that which reduces your need to hire more people, but you can utilize the people you have in more an effective way. I think the same thing for dealers. I've got this big call center. I've got 30 people in my showroom with all these booths and different things. They got headsets and they're making calls and following up with this or that. If I can have that AI serve up the stuff I just repeat every day all day long and make it sound real and then I can filter that down to some actual items that I can actually take over. That's really where I think AI is going to go. I don't think it's ever going to replace the salesperson. It will get close, but people want to talk to people. They don't want to talk to machines. I think we're always going to have that need to have that human touch or that human conversation.
人工智能，会不会取代我们行业中的入门级工作，比如销售员、接待员等，还是会增强这些角色呢？不是取代，而是增强。根据我对人工智能的浅显经验，我不太信任它。首先，它不是一个人。比如说，我见过一些技术，例如Car Wiser。Car Wiser联系那些想卖车的卖家，然后实时给出多个报价，有点像Kayak的卖车模式。它实时收集CarMax、Carvana和本地经销商Echo Park的报价，告诉客户他们愿意为这辆车支付的金额。我知道Car Wiser使用了一些人工智能来联系消费者，吸引他们参与这个过程，但随后会把工作交给真实的人或代理人，他们可以把事情推进到最后一步，帮助消费者卖掉他们的车，上传所有必要的文件。有很多自动化可以应用，从而减少雇佣更多员工的需求，但你可以更有效地利用现有的员工。
我认为，经销商也一样。我有一个大型呼叫中心。我有30人在展厅里，每个人都有自己的工作站和不同的任务。他们戴着耳机，打电话，跟进各种事务。如果我能让人工智能处理那些每天重复的工作，并且让它听起来真实，然后再把需要人工处理的事情筛选出来，这就是我认为人工智能的发展方向。我认为它永远不会取代销售人员。它会接近取代，但人们还是愿意和人交流，而不是和机器。我觉得我们总是需要人与人之间的互动和对话。
Yeah. Look, I think you mentioned a couple of use cases and I've spoken about this one or so twice, but I invested in a company called Toma.com. Have you heard of them? Toma.com, they help dealers double their service leads. This is what I found is interesting that if you think about it, a big pain point is that dealers miss lots of service calls and it can be for various reasons, right? Maybe you're busy or whatever. Maybe you're after hours, but what I found fascinating about Toma is that they essentially create AI that answers the phone and actually schedules the appointments for you, but it's very neat. Like I actually tested this. I tested this and it works really well. They tell you it's AI, but it feels like you're really talking to human. It's natural language. It understands you and you actually hear a consumer booking an appointment or whatever, doing something very naturally. So I would echo your sentiment where I think we're going to see more of that kind of stuff where it's an enhancer. It's like if that specific request from that customer can be handled by an AI agent that really feels like a human, even though it's not, that's better for the dealer, more appointments booked, customer experience is better, everybody wins and it's really an enhancer in that perspective.
好的。看，我认为你提到了几个用例，而我也曾谈到过这个，我投资了一家公司叫 Toma.com。你听说过吗？Toma.com 他们帮助经销商将服务线索增加一倍。我觉得有趣的是，如果你考虑一下，一个主要的痛点是经销商错过了很多服务电话，这可能有各种各样的原因，对吧？也许你很忙，或者是在非工作时间。但我发现 Toma 很吸引人的地方在于，他们基本上创造了一个能够接电话并为你安排预约的 AI，而且它非常棒。我自己测试过这个，效果很好。他们告诉你这是 AI，但感觉就像真的是在和一个真人交谈。它使用自然语言，能理解你，你真的听到一个消费者自然地预订了一个预约或者做了其他事情。所以我赞同你的看法，我认为我们会看到更多类似的东西，它是一种增强工具。如果某个顾客的特定请求可以由一个感觉像人的 AI 代理处理，即使它不是真人，对经销商来说更有利，更多的预约被安排了，客户体验也更好，大家都受益，从这个角度来看它确实是一种增强工具。
Oh, absolutely. I could see that. But if you could throw that thing for a loop, I mean, I like to play mind games with the AI. I mean, that's kind of fun. What can it be? You like to really test it. Poke the bear a little bit, right? How can I figure this thing out to like break it? And so if I even have an indicator that that's an AI thing on the phone, I'm going to see if I can throw it. But to your point, I mean, if it's good, I, benefit, they're still open for investments. That's a good question. I don't think so, but you know, it's a startup. You're always open for business. So there is a, there is a, the notion is how real does it have to be, and maybe I don't care as a dealer. Maybe I don't care if it gets me to double my service revenue. I don't care if it doesn't sound perfect. And maybe that, maybe that is a, maybe that's really what it comes down to is, is it economics, right, for a dealer. But I don't know. I just, my gut tells me there's got to be at some point where it's got to be a real person involved, right? Maybe setting appointments at night makes sense, right? Because it's a repetitive thing and whatever. But, but I'd love to hear it, man. In fact, I'd love to see that one. That'd be interesting.
哦，完全可以。我能理解这种感觉。如果你能让那个东西出错的话，我是说，我喜欢和AI玩心理游戏。那挺有趣的。那会是什么呢？你真的喜欢测试它，戳一戳那个熊，对吧？怎样才能弄明白这个东西，把它搞坏呢？所以如果我有一点迹象表明电话那端是AI，我会试试看能否搞乱它。不过，你的意思是说，如果它做得好，我会受益。它们仍然开放投资的机会。那是个好问题。我认为不可能，但作为初创公司，你总是开放做生意的。所以，关键是它需要多逼真呢，也许作为经销商我并不在乎。如果它能让我服务收入翻倍，我不在乎它听起来是否完美。也许这才是关键所在，对经销商来说是经济效益的问题。不过，我不知道，我的直觉告诉我，有些时候必须有真人参与，对吧？也许晚上安排预约是合理的，因为那是重复性的事情。但我真的很想听听你的看法，事实上，我也很想看看，这个会很有趣。
So I want to talk a little bit about, you know, you've worked with many CEOs and you've worked with many, many startups in our, especially in our industry, which makes it even more unique. Start us off with, you know, some of the traits you find in the best founder CEOs. Wow. Integrity. You kind of think in terms of duh, right? But you might be surprised. I mean, how, who are they as a, as a, as a female, a woman or a man? Who are they? What's, what, where are their skeletons? I mean, I want to know all about that person. So when I sit down with the CEO, I dig in with, and the board, I like to meet the board as well. I dig into who they are, what's their vision? What are they trying to accomplish? And really who they are as a person, because that's really important to me. Because I don't work with jerks. So I have the no jerk policy that you can't, you know, if you, if you have fun, that's kind of half the battle, right? If you're enjoying that person or like that person.
我想谈一谈，你知道，你曾与许多CEO合作过，也与我们行业内的许多初创公司合作过，这让你的经历更加独特。先来谈谈你发现的优秀创始人CEO的一些特质吧。哇，诚信。你可能会觉得这是理所当然的，对吧？但你可能会惊讶。我想知道他们是谁，不论是女性还是男性，他们的背景是什么，有什么不为人知的故事。我想了解那个人的全部。因此，当我和CEO，以及他们的董事会坐下交谈时，我喜欢了解董事会成员。我会深入了解他们是谁，他们的愿景是什么，他们想要达成什么目标，以及他们作为一个人的本质，因为这对我来说非常重要。我不和不好的人合作。我有一个“不与混蛋共事”的原则。如果你和那个人相处得开心，那就已经成功了一半，不是吗？
I think the other thing is the advice that I, that I have for him is like, okay, first of all, be careful of your investors, right? Don't, don't, don't bring in money that, that is not going to be healthy for the organization. Okay? No, no your investors. If you need investment, it better, the better answer is, can you build this thing organically and start and having, keeping a control of your business? The other thing is go with your gut. We, we relatively, we forget about how important and how real and how valuable our gut instinct is. And a lot of times we second guess ourselves, right? Oh, did I make that the right decision there? Am I, am I maybe I'm not right in, in this direction? Just go with it. You'll learn and if you have to pivot, you pivot, but, but go with your gut, go quick, go fast, don't slow down and don't be analysis by paralysis or paralysis by analysis, right? Just go. And then the other thing is be, be authentic to everybody around you, be real, be who you are. Don't be somebody you're not and, and you know, it sounds so simple, but man, have I seen some BS in my life and, and you just got to cut through that and just peel back the onion a little bit and be, be transparent, real authentic and again, organic growth. And by the way, ideas are not where the value is at. The execution is where the value is for a, for a CEO or a company. Don't get caught up in, you know, the, the, oh, this is a great S.A. idea. So it's like spreadiness were $10 million. Bullshit. To a hundred other people thought of that idea. They just aren't, they just talk about it and they're not doers, right? You're the doer. So now just get to it and stop evaluating your idea more than the actual producing of what you're going to, what you're going to produce for the end user. So that's the focus that I, I really believe.
我对他的建议是，首先，要小心投资者。不要引入对公司不健康的资金。了解你的投资者。如果你需要投资，最好考虑是否可以通过有机增长来建立和控制你的业务。
其次，要相信直觉。我们经常忘记直觉有多重要、多真实和多有价值。很多时候我们会自我怀疑，比如我做的这个决定是否正确，我是不是走错方向了。就跟着直觉走。如果需要调整，再调整就好，但要快速行动，不要因为过度分析而停滞不前。
另外，要对周围所有人保持真实性和真诚，做真实的自己。不要假装成别人。虽然这听起来简单，但我见过很多虚伪的情况。要直面这些情况，保持透明、真实和真诚，并追求有机增长。顺便说一句，想法本身并不是价值所在，执行才是对CEO或公司来说最珍贵的。不要因为一个好主意而过于兴奋，认为它值一千万美元。其实有上百个人也想到了这个主意，只不过他们只是说说而已，而没有付诸行动。你才是真正的行动者。
所以现在就行动起来，不要再评估你的想法了，专注于为最终用户生产出成果。这是我真正相信的重点。
And by the way, you know, I always think about, do I have any regrets in my life as I built my companies and different things and different investments? And I do. Usually people say, oh, I have no regrets in my life. Bullshit. You always have something. I do love them. So one is grant, first of all, my children, I wish I would have spent more time with my kids as they were growing up and spent all my time on Chrome data, right?
顺便说一下，你知道，我经常会想，在我创办公司、做各种事情和投资时，我是否有任何遗憾？其实我是有的。通常人们会说，哦，我这一生没有遗憾。胡说八道，你总会有一些遗憾。我确实有遗憾。首先是我的孩子们，我希望在他们成长过程中能花更多的时间陪伴他们，而不是把所有时间都花在Chrome数据上，对吧？
And deluxe. Those are the two things that just sucked my time. And so I do have a regret about that. I wish I would have spent more time with it. I still have a great relationship with them, but I think I would have been a more enriched life if I would have really managed my time better. And then the other thing is, Grant Cardone came to me. I don't know if Grant Cardone was in the auto industry originally. Now he's a real estate guy out there. Big investor. Very successful real estate deal.
豪华与忙碌。这两样东西真的耗费了我大量时间，因此我对此感到有些后悔。我希望自己能多花点时间在这方面。尽管我与他们的关系依然很好，但我觉得如果能更好地管理时间，我的生活会更加充实。还有一件事是，Grant Cardone曾找过我。不知道他最初是否在汽车行业，现在他是房地产领域的大亨，进行非常成功的房地产投资。
He came to me before he started his Grant Cardone capital. And he said, Boyd, invest with me. I got this great idea. I'm going to buy all of these apartment buildings. And I'm going to, it's going to be, it's going to be a billion dollars. And I go, Grant, geez, I just invested a bunch of money in real estate. And I just invested over here. And I don't really have the time. He's not right for me right now. And he goes, he goes, oh, boy, you're going to regret it. And so now I fast forward.
他在创办 Grant Cardone Capital 之前来找我。他说，Boyd，跟我一起投资吧。我有一个好主意，我要买一堆公寓楼，这会变成一个价值数十亿美元的项目。我对他说，Grant，天哪，我刚刚在房地产上投了一大笔钱，而且还在其他地方投资了，现在实在没时间。他就说，你会后悔的。现在，时间过去了。
And I look at it just like my investment, what he's asking me, I think it was half a million or something like that, would have been worth about 50 million, 40 million, something like that, something ridiculous. So I didn't regret non-investing Grant Cardone's thing. So what's the lesson in there then? Go with your gut. Because my gut was, I probably should, but I don't know, the timing was right. I made some excuse, you know, whatever. Go with your gut.
我把这件事看作一个投资。他向我要的钱，我记得好像是五十万美元左右，现在大概值五千万、四千万左右，非常夸张。所以我不后悔没有投资Grant Cardone的项目。那么从这里学到的是什么呢？相信你的直觉。因为我的直觉告诉我，我可能应该投资，但我觉得时机不对，我找了个借口之类的。不管怎样，相信你的直觉。
And then the last thing is, I really wanted to do a lot of world traveling. But I will tell you, I had the opportunity to meet, you know, the Virgin Airline guy, Richard Branson at the digital airstrike, Alexi and Dave invited me and my wife to meet with him as his resident in Morocco. And we flew out there with the team and some dealers and just had the best time in the world. What an interesting guy and had a chance to ask him a few questions too.
最后一件事是，我真的很想做很多世界旅行。不过我得告诉你，我有幸见到了维珍航空的老板理查德·布兰森。亚历克西和戴夫邀请我和妻子去摩洛哥他住的地方见他。我们和团队还有一些经销商飞过去，度过了一段非常美好的时光。他是个很有趣的人，我还问了他几个问题。
And it was just, so I think what I found is that these successful people, they've fallen one to two categories. Their ego's gotten so big that they really believe they're all that and they're like a God and you're never going to die. Or the other people are the more humble, like open, honest, kind, generous. And I saw Richard Branson as that kind of guy. And you know, it's really fascinating, some of the stories. So I've learned a lot through that process.
我发现这些成功人士大致可以分为两类：一类人ego膨胀的厉害，觉得自己无所不能，就像神一样，认为自己永远不会失败；另一类人则比较谦虚，开放、诚实、善良、慷慨。我觉得理查德·布兰森就属于后者。有很多关于他的故事非常吸引人，通过这些故事我学到了很多。
But that was, I guess the, go back to the degree, Grant is that I didn't travel as much as I'm doing now. I wish I would have done that more at an earlier age. I'm 65 right now. But I guess there's time to travel. I guess I should start doing more of it, maybe. That would be fun. Yeah. I mean, first of all, I was listening to you very closely because you obviously have tons of experience and it's fun to learn from someone like yourself.
我想说的是，格兰特，回到学位的问题上，我过去没有像现在这样频繁地旅行。我希望在年轻的时候能多旅行一些。我现在已经65岁了，不过我想还是有时间去旅行的，我应该开始更多地去旅行，这应该会很有趣。对了，我刚才在认真听你说话，因为你显然有很多经验，向你这样的人学习是一种乐趣。
I think that even building this company, you know, Cardio's from Guy Media, it's, you know, I talk about it pretty publicly. I kind of fell into this. And I'm glad I did because it feels like it was meant to be. But it requires a ton of you, right? It's a hell of a treadmill. You got to push, push, push hard. I'm thankfully having an amazing team now, which makes it much more manageable than it was early on when it was me plugged in 20, 25, seven, I should say.
我认为，即使是在建立这家公司，你知道，Cardio's 来自 Guy Media，我也是在公开场合谈论这件事。我有点像是偶然进入了这个领域。我很高兴自己这么做了，因为感觉这命中注定。但这也需要你付出很多，是个艰辛的过程，你得不断地努力、努力、再努力。幸运的是，我现在有一支很棒的团队，这让事情比刚开始时轻松了许多。在那时，我基本上是全天候地投入工作。
But with all that said, you know, I'm a hundred percent owner. I get to call my shots. And I think that gives me that creative freedom to be able to build a platform that is aligned with my vision, you know, I don't have to report to anyone. You know, really my boss is my, is my audience. That's my boss. And that's who I built for. And it's a, it's a pretty unique feeling, which I, I kind of wasn't accustomed to having built a venture back company for, you know, the last, like almost four to five years.
但是话虽如此，你知道，我是百分之百的所有者。我能够自己做决定。我认为这给了我创作的自由，使我能够按照自己的愿景来打造一个平台。你知道，我不需要向任何人汇报。实际上，我的老板是我的观众，他们才是我服务的对象。这个感觉很独特，因为在过去四五年中，我一直在创办风投支持的公司，习惯了不同的工作方式。
So it's, yeah, it's, it's definitely been a very interesting experience. And I'm glad I'm glad life took me to this path because on hindsight, it feels like it was meant to be. But it's just great to be able to do this. And everything you just mentioned, I really resonate with because there's just no easy path. Even this, you know, it's like it's everything is long hours, a lot, lack of balance for periods of your life. If you want to build something great and everything you said, it really, really resonates. So this has been awesome.
所以，是的，这确实是一次非常有趣的经历。我很高兴生活把我带到了这条路上，回头看感觉这就是命中注定的。但能够做这些事情真的很棒。而你刚才提到的一切我都非常有共鸣，因为确实没有什么捷径可走。即便是这样，长时间的工作，不平衡的生活阶段，如果你想成就一些伟大的东西，就要付出很多。你说的一切真的让我非常有共鸣。所以，这真是太棒了。
Hey, I want to, before I ask you for your closing thoughts, I have a quick story I want to share with you just just to give you some feedback. So you invited me to your, your NADA party, which I attended this year. I came with our team, Cole was there. I came with my wife as well. And so we spoke earlier about like reputation and stuff like that, right? And so one thing that when we entered your suite for your party at NADA, you greeted us very graciously, very nicely. Like it was, it was really nice to know what you greeted us. And my wife was like, after she was like, who was that? I was like, oh, this is Mark. This is, you know, who's hosting the event. And she was like, Oh, wow. Like that was super nice of him to, you know, to really, you know, not just like, it was, like you didn't even know me back then. But it was like, I wasn't like an afterthought, right? And I'm sure you treat all your guests that way. And so the point I'm trying to make is that she was like, wow, like he's really like a really cool guy.
嘿，在我请你说一下临别感言之前，我想和你分享一个小故事，给你一些反馈。你邀请我参加了你今年举办的NADA聚会，我带着我们的团队去了，Cole也在那里。我还带了我的妻子。我们之前聊过关于声誉和类似的话题，对吧？于是，当我们进入你的NADA聚会包厢时，你非常亲切地接待了我们，给我们留下了很好的印象。后来，我的妻子问我：“刚才那是谁啊？”我告诉她：“哦，这是Mark，就是这次活动的主办人。”她感叹道：“哇，他真是非常友好，尽管那时候他还不认识我们，但完全没有那种敷衍的感觉。”我相信你对待所有客人都是这样。所以，我想表达的是，她觉得你真的是个很棒的人。
And so the point I'm trying to make is just that like this is like when people talk about reputation, you know, your reputation precedes you, it's stuff like that. It's little acts like that that we don't realize have an impact on us in so many, like just think how that permeates, right? She told me that everyone that asked me about Mark Boyd since then, right? I have positive thoughts that I associate with you. It's just so crazy how you, you, you treat people in certain ways, these little things, how they can travel so, so, so, so far. And anyways, I wanted to tell you that because she mentioned it to me several times. I forget like random kind of, you know, random conversations, but all because, you know, you were just being kind to someone that you didn't really know. And you know, it's crazy how far that travels. So obviously keep it up because, you know, I know that was natural to you and genuine to you, but look how, look how, how that people, people remember how you made them feel.
我要表达的意思是，当人们谈论声誉时，声誉总是先于你。这种事情就是如此，我们往往没有意识到某些小行为对我们的影响有多大。想象一下这种影响是如何扩散的，对吧？自从那时起，每当有人问我关于马克·博伊德的事情，我脑海中都会浮现出积极的想法。这真的很惊人，你对待他人的细微举动能传得多远。所以，我想告诉你这件事，因为她好几次提到过。虽然那只是一些随意的对话，但都是因为你对一个并不熟悉的人表现出了善意。你知道吗，这种影响真的很广。所以要继续保持下去，因为我知道那是发自你内心的自然表现，但看看吧，人们会记住你让他们感受到的情感。
That's, that really tell you my thank you, first of all. And that was really kind. I, you know, I don't, I mean, yes, thank you. I mean, that's, that's wonderful. But here I appreciate that so much. Mark Boyd, any closing thoughts for our audience? Well, watch out for a very big company about the launch. It's going to blow your mind and it's going to be phenomenal. It's like the best thing I've ever done. And it is, I can't talk about it right now, but it's going to be phenomenal. But the time with you, Yossi was fabulous. I really appreciated the opportunity. Again, I don't do these things, so this is a little uncomfortable for me, but, but hey, you know, it's, this is good. And I'm glad I did it. Absolutely. And I hope it helps somebody out there in some way.
首先，我真的要表达我的感谢。这真的是太好了。谢谢你。真的非常感谢。Mark Boyd，有什么最后的话想对我们的观众说吗？
请注意，一个非常大的公司即将推出。它会让你大吃一惊，会非常棒。这是我做过的最好的事情。我现在不能谈太多细节，但它会非常出色。和你在一起的时光很美好，Yossi，我非常感激这个机会。说实话，我不经常参与这些活动，所以有点不习惯，但这次真的很好，我很高兴我做了这件事。希望这能够以某种方式帮助到某些人。
So thank you. Thank you, Mark. Really good having you on. All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating. Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.
所以谢谢你。谢谢你，马克。非常高兴有你来做客。好的，希望你喜欢这一集。请给我们的播客评分，考虑订阅我们的节目，并查看节目说明中的相关链接。感谢你的收听，我们下次再见。