Company Report
Last edited 3 months ago
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#Meeting Notes
Added 3 months ago

Another frank and detailed meeting with the CEO, Aaryn.

Seems calm, methodical, across the details, competent, adaptable. Investment background.

What he thinks you should understand

  • how customer-concentrated they are with the Courtesy management system contract for GM dealerships and
  • what they are doing to branch out -- Aaryn intends to lay out more detail at the AGM


Good background on the company. They stumbled into this and ran with it.

What are they doing to diversify customers

While keeping their eye on the ball with GM's retail incentive team, the small unit who are their current primary contacts:

1. Find other decision makers outside of that team in related areas of GM. For example employee vehicle programs. Some success.

2. Other OEM dealership networks. Not yet. This takes time, there are competitor SaaS providers and the OEMs don't all procure in the same way. Some already contract exclusively with the main competitor, some have approved supplier lists that you need to get on. Have got on lists but then figuring out the decision makers takes time.

3. Sell complimentary software direct to existing dealer base. In this way move from being a one OEM company to a 4000 dealer company.

a. The lowest hanging fruit and what we have most clarity on

b. We need to work on integrating with various DMS - dealer management software.

c. Services related to courtesy car, since that's what we're known for (Courtesy shuttle, ride hail, tollway management.)

d. Launched a marketplace in Jan. Steadily increasing sales but not a material income yet.

We're no where near getting into the DMS space but we're playing at the edges.

Competitors

  • TSD Web - the incumbent, 16,000 dealerships. They have all the exclusives except GM. Can't worry about them yet.
  • Dealerware - the up-and-comer. Need to stay ahead of them.


Sales force

3 US based sales, plus mgmt make regular sales trips for insight and feedback because it's not easy to keep dealers attention in their busy retail environment. Learning the reality of different dealerships across US, figuring out how to engage, in person or within the software. Data analytics. Locate the bottlenecks.

Board members

one Detroit based founder of Onstar (the GM emergency assist service), one runs a VC fund, knows startups (sounding board)

Capital allocation decisions

First: Organic growth. No dividends for a while (no tax credits due to history), buybacks as long as suitable. Conservative investment of cash to stay ahead of inflation. M&A considered, 2 investigated but ultimately passed on. Hard to find suitably sized profitable target.

Shareholder base

Previously shit, now good. (my words not his)

The potential for a bigger business is there but it would take time. The current business generates cash. They will not fluff the share price, only update when something happens.

The courtesy ride hail project

Previously announced agreement with undisclosed ride hail partner. Taking longer than they wanted. Details to iron out eg tax.