Steve Greenfield’s Post

🌷🐰 Hop into Easter with LetYouKnow, Inc.! 🌷🐰 🐣🌸As we celebrate Easter, LetYouKnow, Inc. is here to bring some egg-citing news to dealerships! 🚗💨 Looking to hatch a plan for more sales without the hassle? Well, you're in luck! LetYouKnow has a cracking opportunity for new car dealerships to boost their sales with no sign-up fees or subscription fees. It's time to crack open a new approach to car sales! 🥚✨ Here's how it works: Dealerships list their new cars anonymously on our dealer portal. Meanwhile, consumers bid their price for these new cars @ LetYouKnow.com. Our patented tech does the heavy lifting, matching committed buyers with your inventory seamlessly. Say goodbye to chasing costly leads & hello to more closed deals! 🎉 What's even better? LetYouKnow works its magic in the background, ensuring your walk-in sales flow smoothly without interruption. It's like having your Easter bunny delivering baskets of sales while you focus on what you do best – serving your customers! 🐇✨ So, if you're ready to take your dealership to new heights, DM Boris Zhukov to sign up TODAY! Let's make this Easter egg-ceptional together. 🥚🌟 #HappyEaster #Easter #holidays #Easter2024 #CarDealerships #dealerships #dealers #moresales #SalesBoost #sales #newcars #cars #NoSignUpFees #signupnow #nocost #InnovativeTechnology #easy #autopilot #salesautomation #automateyoursales #patentedtechnology #startups #winwinforall

■■Carvana Starts the Slow Climb Back Up to Recovery■ ■Online used-car seller Carvana begins to recover March 23, 2024 Sourcre Car and Drive,.Ari_wb ■Ernest "Ernie" Garcia III had a dream. Armed with a degree from Stanford and a $100 million investment courtesy of his father, Ernest Garcia II—the billionaire behind DriveTime, a major used-car dealership chain—­Garcia III was uniquely well situated to give his audacious vision a shot. ■In 2012, he cofounded Carvana, an e-commerce platform for selling used cars. He hoped it would become the Amazon of secondhand-car sales, an online operation where you might buy a pre-owned vehicle with no in-store visit, hard sell, or haggling and have the new-to-you car or truck delivered to your home. Though supportive—Carvana began as a subsidiary of Drive­Time before being spun off—Garcia the Elder was skeptical, according to his son, and, for years, he was not alone. ■"Probably a different company would swing at [this idea] every couple of years ­until someone eventually cracked the nut. U­ntil that happened, there would be failures, and ­people would probably think, 'Oh, see, it doesn't work,' " Garcia III, Carvana's CEO, explains to Car and Driver. "When the reality was, it was just tough to build something good enough to where consumers said, 'That was good, and I'm going to tell my friends.' " Carvana set out to build that solution. ■"What's funny in the story of 2013 through 2016," Garcia says, "was that [investors believed] we had no chance. We started in Phoenix, which is the wrong place to build a startup. And we are a capital-­intensive business at a time when the only businesses getting funded were marketplaces. We got to a spot where private capital dried up for us." ■With more money needed for growth, in 2017, Garcia III (the CEO) and Garcia II (the privately held company's biggest share­holder) took the online retailer public. Recalls Garcia the Younger: "We barely made it out. We went public at $15 [a share], trading at $8 over the first week. That was tough. We built up from there. By the time we got to 2019, people believed in the business. It made sense. People thought maybe we were onto something." https://lnkd.in/ePBvKZNf

Finally, a solution for Vanmoof! The premium Dutch e-bike maker was declared bankrupt on July 18, but McLaren Applied's Lavoie has come to the rescue. Lavoie recognized Vanmoof's brilliant product and brand and even plans to rebrand their own scooters under the same name. Under new management, VanMoof will abandon its in-house retail store model and instead use third-party retailers to sell and service bikes around the world. This move aims to increase efficiency and address quality problems that led to high maintenance costs. Despite some redundancies, Lavoie plans to retain VanMoof's departmental managers and engage and retain some of the great people the Dutch e-bike maker employed. Vanmoof sold around 200,000 electric bikes for more than 2,000 EUR, close to the scooters price McLaren recently launched. The purchase price for Vanmoof was not disclosed, but Lavoie mentioned an investment of "tens of millions of pounds" in the short term. Van Moof raised more than 180 million from investors. Exciting news for the e-bike industry and for Vanmoof fans! #Vanmoof #Dutchebike #McLarenApplied #e-bike #bankruptcy #investments https://lnkd.in/eR_pPmUG

Last week, a startup that had achieved cult status among e-bike aficionados met its demise. Even though I'm not personally a devotee of this form of transport, I've found their bikes quite captivating. Interestingly, journalists often labeled this company as the "Apple of e-bike makers," which, in retrospect, turned out to be an accurate reflection of a significant challenge they faced. Much like iPhones, their bicycles weren't very repair-friendly despite commanding prices in the thousands of euros, and servicing them was only feasible at a select few authorized workshops. Consequently, owning one of these premium bikes came with the inherent risk of it either becoming an expensive paperweight or, worse, a potential fire hazard at the most inopportune times. This incident serves as a cautionary tale for consumers: investing in high-end products from startups may eventually leave you without warranty or after-sales service. [For a detailed account, see this article on Axios](https://lnkd.in/dkk3nQVA).

🚗 🌍 The future of car dealerships might look radically different than what we're used to. One company right at the forefront of this change is "Fleet", an Ireland-based startup. It’s managed by the innovative founder, "Maurice Sheehy". Fleet's mobility as a service solution is changing the game, allowing dealerships to diversify their offerings by providing their own branded mobility solutions. 🚀 🔮Imagine a world where dealerships offer not only sales but short-term and long-term vehicle hires. Potentially, you could grab a car for a single day or even a multi-year car subscription. With all fees (including insurance and maintenance) rolled into a single price, and the car delivered right to your door! 👉Find out more in our latest article about the future of mobility as a service and how it could reshape car dealerships across Europe: https://lnkd.in/dgyDXMbk With start-ups such as Fleet leading the way, we might be witnessing the dawn of a new era for the motor industry. ⚙️💡 #StartUps #Innovation #MobilityAsAService #Fleet #FutureTech #CarDealerships #Europe

💲 The skyrocketing annual cost of owning a new car just set a fresh record as it climbed to $12,182 in 2023, up from $10,728 in 2022, according to the latest data from AAA. 🚘 Based on those indicators, buying a used car is the way to go in today’s fragile economy. Of course, that hasn’t always been an easy route – the used car sector of the automobile industry can sometimes be as difficult to navigate as the new car market. 💡 That’s the way it has always been – until now, until Motobyo. The tech startup has revolutionized the traditional and outdated process that used car buyers have grown accustomed to. 👏 With Motobyo, the consumer—both buyers and sellers—takes precedence. 🚗 With over 250 used cars listed for sale on the Motobyo marketplace daily (a number that is expected to reach over 400 available this spring), Motobyo has become the go-to resource for anyone looking to purchase a top quality used car without the markups and hassles associated with middlemen. MORE: https://bit.ly/3OYp49P #usedcars #carbuying #carselling #automobiles #Automotive #automotiveindustry #tech #ecommerce #marketplace #motobyo #Startup

Everything You Need to Know About Euro Truck Simulator Renault Trucks E-Tech!! Best Collaboration in the franchise?: … system works. Euro Truck Simulator Renault Trucks are here, … franchise? 5 Euro Truck Simulator Renault Trucks- Welcome Change … franchise? 6 Euro Truck Simulator Renault Trucks- Peaks of … did in Euro Truck Simulator Renault Trucks update.Everything … #truck #trucks #cars

"RENTING A #TESLA AS IF IT WERE A SCOOTER: THE ASTURIAN IDEA TO DISCOURAGE CAR OWNERSHIP." #Guppy is a startup for shared car rentals by the hour or minute. It is part of a trend that is growing in Spain, where there are already 3,500 vehicles of this type https://lnkd.in/d8_t38UE | #technology | #urbanmobility | #eMobility | #MaaS | #sharing | #startup | #ops | #sostenibilidad | #Delivery | #Marketing | #ecommerce | #crm | #automotive

Great conversation today with Cate from Tech.eu We discussed Cowboy’s journey in 2023, notably 💰 "2023 was a transition year from loss-making to profitability. So now in 2024, we have to demonstrate profitability and a positive cash flow. So it's going to be the year where everything comes together." 🤖 “Most talk about innovation is about customer-facing wins, but everything goes on behind the scenes regarding supply chain optimisation and manufacturing technologies. And that's what makes this business work." 🚗 "The number of cars for European households went from 12 million to 9 million a year. And e-bike sales went from 3 million to 6 million a year. — I don't think that's a coincidence." 🦸♂️ “Our new board members offer something quite rare. And having independent board members with an external view who have a couple of more grey hairs is helpful.” ❤️ "Be optimistic and innovate" Full article https://lnkd.in/gam-3CWp

Bumper UK secures £2 Million in Series B extension, fuelling expansion across the UK and Europe. #Bumper, UK based #fintech company revolutionizing the way car dealers and customers approach car repair payments, has successfully secured an additional £2 million in its Series B extension round. This strategic infusion of capital comes from two new heavyweight investors, #Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures Inc., setting the stage for Bumper's accelerated growth across the UK and Europe. The partnership with Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures is not just a financial investment but a strategic alignment designed to propel Bumper's expansion. Suzuki’s impressive European dealer network and Marubeni’s RRG Group, HPL Motors Used Car Supermarket Group, and Norton Way Motors Ltd in the UK provide Bumper with an unparalleled advantage in scaling its operations. Suzuki’s reputation for customer satisfaction, as evidenced by its top rank in the Institute of Customer Service’s 2024 UK Customer Satisfaction Index, underscores the synergistic potential of this partnership. Following a year of record growth, where Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and customer numbers saw significant increases, Bumper is poised for further success. The company's total investment now stands at £55 million, following a substantial £40 million Series B fundraising effort last year with prominent automotive investors including Autotech Ventures, Shell Ventures, JLR’s InMotion Ventures, and Porsche Ventures. James Jackson, Bumper’s Co-Founder and CEO, shared his vision for leveraging this latest investment to solidify Bumper's position as the leading payment platform for car dealers in the UK and Europe. Emphasizing the universal challenge of unexpected car repair bills, Jackson highlighted the company’s commitment to developing flexible payment solutions that benefit both customers and dealers. Kinji Saito from Suzuki and Tristan Jennings from Marubeni Ventures both praised Bumper’s unique approach to addressing the financing needs of automotive repair customers. They underscored the potential for Bumper’s technology to reduce friction at the point of sale, improve user experience, and integrate seamlessly into dealership IT infrastructure. The announce on #Bumper website in the first comment. Want to stay up to date with the market? Here my newsletter: - Linkedin: https://t.ly/s541W   - Substack: https://lnkd.in/dzfGJzmW