Dave: Hey everyone, Dave here with another episode of the Philly Tech Connect podcast. Today I’m speaking with David Mumladze, the CEO and founder of CarTool, a leading used car reconditioning software. David has over 15 years in the car business, he’s a partner at a car dealership, and he has a strong background in fixed operations. At CarTool, they help dealerships streamline the reconditioning process to boost efficiency and profitability. David, how are you doing today?
David Mumladze: Pretty good, how about you?
Dave: I’m doing well, man. I appreciate you hopping on the call. I love new products and new industries that I haven’t talked about before, and this is one of them. Tell me a little bit about your background and how we ended up here today.
David Mumladze: Alright, cool. Well first of all, thanks for having me on the podcast. So, my background—originally, I come from the country Georgia. In the early 2000s, we ended up moving here to the states, and then, still in the mid-2000s, we ended up moving to Philadelphia. A little bit later, around 2008-2009, we had a family dealership that opened up, and I was kind of leading the charge as far as reconditioning the cars goes. That’s really where my background in reconditioning comes from. Fast forward about a decade, I graduated from Penn State, went back to the dealership, and still leading the reconditioning, and just saw there were a lot of areas of improvement. There’s a lot of new software that comes out within the industry of car dealerships. However, there were some reconditioning softwares out there, tried a couple, just none that really helped actually streamline the process. So, in early 2020, I started making CarTool. I hired a developer.
Dave: Interesting. So, you mentioned you hired a developer to build CarTool. Tell me a little bit about the business model of a car dealership.
David Mumladze: Absolutely. There are hundreds, if not thousands of auctions every day that are running in the states, which is a main source of acquiring cars for a car dealership. A lot of dealerships do try to buy off-market with private sellers trying to sell their cars privately. Some customers come into the dealership, they have a trade-in; they’ll buy a new one, trade in their old car, so they’ll upgrade. But the majority of the inventory comes from auctions. You’ve probably heard of some of the bigger ones like Manheim and America’s Auto Auctions, and so on. There are a lot of also newer ones, like online auctions like ACV and Open Lane. There are multiple avenues of acquiring inventory for a car dealership.
Dave: Got it. And what would be the source of these cars at an auction?
David Mumladze: Well, some of them are owned by banks. So, if someone finances a car, stops making payments, the bank repossesses the car, sends it to the auction. Some of them come from new car dealerships. So, a person buys a brand new car, three or four years later they go in, upgrade, buy another brand new car, they trade in their old one. If the dealership doesn’t necessarily want to retail that vehicle, they’ll send it to the auction. So, those cars come from everywhere, really. There are even salvage auctions if cars get crashed. You could buy crashed vehicles and fix them up, but there are niches of car dealerships. Some focus on great newer cars with lower miles, some dealerships do just reconstructed title vehicles that have been crashed, some do cheaper vehicles. Everyone has their own niche in a way.
Dave: Interesting. So, for people that want to learn more about you, what you’re up to, maybe get in touch, where should they go?
David Mumladze: You can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. You can go to our website carol.com, reach out to us through there, or just stop by the dealership in Bristol Easy Auto, Bristol location. If you’re looking for a car, feel free.
Dave: Sounds good, man. I appreciate your time today.
David Mumladze: Thank you, Dave. I appreciate you bringing me on.