On CBT News, Steve Greenfield, the CEO and Founder of Automotive Ventures, provides a forward-looking perspective and analysis of the retail automotive industry every week. Steve is a go-to source for industry professionals. In the latest episode of Inside Automotive, we catch up with Greenfield to find out what he has been up to and learn about the industry’s future.
Greenfield, who has been in the industry for 25 years, realized the need to write a book about the future of dealerships in the next five to ten years. To achieve this, he sought to meet and learn from more innovative entrepreneurs in the space. In his book, “The Future of Automotive Retail,” Greenfield describes the automotive industry’s rapid technological evolution and predicts that there will be more changes in the next five to ten years than what dealers have seen in the last century.
Key Takeaways
1. Automotive Ventures is helping dealers invest in solutions that can help their businesses generate more revenue, find efficiencies, or reduce costs.
2. Many dealers are investing in programs that provide entrepreneurs with greater access to capital. According to Greenfield, this is a double win for dealers because they can benefit from the solution and participate in the exit if the entrepreneurs exit successfully.
3. Despite profitability beginning to decrease, Greenfield is seeing a lot of acquisition activity. The buy/sell brokers remain as busy as ever, indicating that there is still a lot of pent-up demand, which suggests another good, healthy year for the market.
4. Over the last three years, Automotive Ventures has invested in 27 companies. Vincue, one of their most recent investments, has accelerated more rapidly and is one platform that achieves the highest authentic value for every vehicle. “At the end of the day, our goal is to drive more profitability,” asserts Greenfield.
5. Greenfield has announced his plans to attend this year’s NADA Show and focus on engaging with smaller booth entrepreneurs. He is keen to learn about their companies and assess their investment potential.
"When we find something that uniquely helps dealerships and entrepreneurs, it's a great marketplace we're effectively building." – Steve Greenfield
