Jeff VanderWal knew from age five that he’d end up in the car business. He just didn’t want to become a stereotypical fixture, chain-smoking cigarettes outside a local dealership.
He wanted to do things his way.
In 2003, just a few years after graduating from high school, VanderWal built a private buying network sourcing cars for clients in Colorado.
“I just understood that people didn't really want to go to the dealership," VanderWal told CDG News. “And so if we could give them as good or better deal and drop it off their house or do whatever, and serve people really well, they were like, ‘Man, this is a no brainer.’”
Jeff VanderWal
ClearShift
Fast-forward to today: VanderWal is founder and CEO of ClearShift, a sprawling used-car operation that grew from $20 million a year in revenue to $120M a year.
Now, ClearShift is, well, shifting into a new space, aka the world of franchised dealerships.
Driving the news: ClearShift, with two used-car campuses in Colorado, in the cities of Highlands Ranch and Loveland, will close on a Ford dealership sometime in June.
The goal is to own 10 franchised stores across the Mountain West in 10 years.
Even so, VanderWal still likes doing things differently.
But let’s rewind again: By 2008, VanderWal had pivoted his consulting/brokering business into VMC Leasing Ltd., a custom leasing company built specifically around Major League Baseball players.
He secured manufacturer fleet money and got banks to buy the paper, building a six-month seasonal lease product from the ground up before exiting the business via acquisition by a private venture capital firm around 2014.
"I had absolutely no idea what I was doing," VanderWal said. "I was sitting down with GM and with BMW and with Chrysler and trying to get fleet money."
In 2016, he went all in on ClearShift, a public-facing used-car operation built around a simple premise of transparency.
"ClearShift means clear, transparent shift in a new direction," VanderWal said. "I just really want to do things differently, not kind of the marginalized gray that the car business is.”
In fact, the group’s logo is purposely done in black and white, with no gray.
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Between the lines: The Mountain West market isn't sleepy anymore.
Billions in acquisition dollars from national consolidators have made Denver one of the most competitive auto retail markets in the country.
Vanderwal says ClearShift will stand out because they want to create a unique experience for customers.
“Serving your people internally and serving customers externally with excellence breeds success,” VanderWal said.
Recipe for success: ClearShift believes in "giving and receiving," not "buying and selling.” VanderWal said the group earns business through exceptional service.
“You have to earn that through underpromising and overdelivering... but in the end, that is how you build an organic army of dedicated followers and loyal customers,” VanderWal said. “Giving and receiving...not buying and selling.”
Service matters: The group services its inventory vehicles at an extremely high level.
“We do not ask ourselves, ‘What can we get away with?’” VanderWal said. “We genuinely ask ourselves what we need to do to make the vehicle right before a customer even walks through the door.”
The group also prefers growing employees internally and doesn’t hire industry veterans often.
“Candidates MUST have the right heart posture toward the company and the customers,” VanderWal said. “That is very difficult to find if you are actively looking to be a change agent in the automotive space.”
Looking ahead: VanderWal hopes to repeat that recipe in the franchised world, and says ClearShift's expansion into franchised retail isn't about scale for its own sake.
“I believe the auto industry is ripe for some significant change in the right direction," VanderWal said. "And if we can have fingerprints on that, that's awesome.”
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