Traveling Through the Matrix with Chris Adams

Michael Cirillo: I'm still trying to picture Rick Reichart, rickart How do you write Right, right, right?

Paul J Daly: I'm still trying to picture him. You had the Canadian price.

Michael Cirillo: Recap.

Unknown: This is Auto Collapse.

Paul J Daly: Right Cars.

Michael Cirillo: Hmm. I'm still trying to picture him on a motorcycle. That's too small for himself, that's easy for me to picture You, kidding. Is it?

Paul J Daly: Yeah, of course. Just think like knees up high right, elbows out Right Goggles, that's all. that's all going to go. He's on like a Honda.

Michael Cirillo: Grom, i think he goes to 7-Eleven on Exactly.

Paul J Daly: That's exactly what it is, michael. this is Wait. is this your first like beginning of summer in Texas?

Michael Cirillo: No, second You sure.

Paul J Daly: Yes, ok, yes. So now you know what to expect.

Michael Cirillo: And and also, by the way, this is why I'm wearing a hoodie. I was wondering that Because the AC never turns off.

Kyle Mountsier: It never turns off. It actually feels colder in the summer indoors. everywhere in the south It's unbelievable.

Michael Cirillo: You can set your thermostat here to 75 and your chattering. Your teeth are chattering indoors because It's like climate, freezing cold, Because the AC is like I know if I turn off for five minutes.

Paul J Daly: I'm going to lose this fight.

Michael Cirillo: Exactly.

Paul J Daly: Yeah, there's never like in an upstate, new York, there's always this weird option like it gets cooler at nighttime. Maybe we're going to have it on today, but I guess in the south it's like nope that suckers on.

Michael Cirillo: It's just on.

Kyle Mountsier: Actually, you know that little wine that you hear in an AC. Yeah, that's actually the AI taking over going.

Paul J Daly: Well, speaking of Texas, our next guest is from Texas, chris Adams from Car Offer. I believe it was headquartered in Dallas And I don't know. I don't know, michael, maybe the two of you could go get some ice cream.

Michael Cirillo: You guys, there it is. So we do it cool down, cool down on a summer day.

Paul J Daly: But yeah, it'll be interesting to talk about what's going on in their world And, as always, we like to ask people their backstory, which is kind of our favorite part of this podcast. So we hope you enjoy this conversation with Chris Adams.

Kyle Mountsier: All right, chris, thanks for hanging out with us today. man, yeah, i appreciate you guys. Yeah, so the first question that I have for you and I know that typically when we start the show we talk a little bit about your background and your history, but I cannot get over the fact that, literally, your title begins with the word matrix. You are the Matrix Operations Director, which sounds like something either out of 2001, when, like Matrix 2 was done, or something like in 3053. So start with that. I want to hear, like, what does Matrix Operations Director mean, so that we can level set and all know we're on the same page here.

Chris Adams: So I won't make you choose Blue-Pillar, red Belt. So that's a good place to start, i guess. Perfect. And so it's great too, because my two and a half year old daughter, she knows that Matrix means work. Now She's like oh, work, it's beautiful. So, but being the Matrix Operations Director here essentially means all things buying I'm pretty much responsible for it car offers. So really making sure that we are kind of poised to make good offers over the platform and just I mean also monitoring everything buying considered, and that comes with a lot of market analytics, a lot of strategy on our end to figure out how to get our sellers the best offer on our platform.

Michael Cirillo: This means that you've got, like you said, red Pill, blue Pill and then I immediately thought Red Car, blue Car, and how nobody wants those. Do you have data in your system that highlights for the end user Hey, if you're going to be acquiring inventory, make sure it's these colors, like. do you get that level of data And, if so, what are you seeing as a common thread? Do people want red cars and blue cars, or is it black, silver and white, like everybody talking?

Chris Adams: about. You know, typically you have black, silver, white and gray or the predominant, like you know, the what people want the most. And I think what's been really fun I've been, i've ran the matrix here, i mean, really for almost four years now and what's been neat about and I know what y'all know about the platform is that the analytics that we have and really kind of what the matrix does is you know really what you're talking about is going in there and going okay, what are people looking for?

Chris Adams: And it's really neat to sit there and see. You know we go and basically take buyers from our customers or our dealers where they're saying, hey, i want you know 15 Camrys and I want a couple of forerunners and I want you know some Corollas, whatever it may be. And they go in there and with my team, with our dealer sales managers, with our national sales managers, we sit in and they really go in and kind of preface. It's almost like a limit order when you're placing a stock saying I want you know five shares of Apple and I'll buy on when it hits $120 a share, and then you own that stock. Same thing with a car where you go in there and you say, to your point, i want you know four blue Tos said no one ever but going in there and going in and kind of prefaceing those orders, and then we provide the analytics.

Chris Adams: So, since everyone bids the exact same way on our platform using these kind of like limit orders, if you will, i can really go in there. And on the analyzer side of things is what we actually have a data scientist that's on our staff, where he came in and kind of reengineered our matrix to do exactly what you're saying and go, okay, how many people are looking for X cars, how many people are looking for these? And then we can actually like we, we reverse engineered it to go, okay, which cars on our platform can you buy? kind of at the least expensive variable, like where, where are people not bidding? And I think most of the time that you'll find it's cars there. you know like, like that, the red or the blue or the 2.7 liter, you know F 150, that's to all drive you know I mean.

Michael Cirillo: Well, this is the thing that grinds my gears is when I hear the industry go but like, but like. So really, oh man, like we have, we have the most day supply of inventory in the market. How come nobody is like? because, bro, i don't wear enough wife beaters to buy an orange truck. You know what I mean.

Paul J Daly: I don't know how Cyrillo just went from surfer dude.

Kyle Mountsier: That's what.

Unknown: I don't know.

Paul J Daly: I don't even know where that accent came from. And then the wife beaters and orange truck. You know like I don't know I can't grow Jake.

Unknown: Paul's hair.

Michael Cirillo: What I can't grow Jake Paul's hair. I'm not buying an orange. You know what I'm saying Like.

Kyle Mountsier: I can't get over that. I think the main, like they some, at some point I feel like they should change your title to be like the the we're proving you're not original operations.

Paul J Daly: Oh, that's, so much better.

Chris Adams: It's very true. It's like, okay, hey, you're going to compete and you're going to go after and buy the exact same cars. Everyone else is Yeah that's great. It's so interesting to see, like you know, we have, you know, some, some dealers that are looking for, like core, very, very, very specific inventory. Well, guess what? You have to pay a lot of money to get those cars. You know, our average offer on the platform right now is it's almost 107% because of people going after these like really, really specific and they pay up to get those cars, and so it's.

Chris Adams: It's been very unique, i mean. I think the the cool part about it is looking through, and I used to be on calls with dealers, like I mean, almost once a week. Every week I was talking to hundreds of dealers all over the country, which is again kind of like it's almost like a stockbroker, right, like you're listening, hearing, understanding and knowing what's really like going on pulse related all over the market. And that's where it's really neat to go back and see like, okay, i know kind of what the market's doing before it even happens. And I think that's where, like, the power of our analytics especially if you get, like a dealer that I'm getting on a call with and they're using JD power to bid on that book doesn't change for a month, right, so I can literally see the bids move around that book on a week over week, day over day basis and we refresh our data every night So our buyers can go and see like I don't know another platform out there that you can go and say, okay, tell me exactly to the dollar what I need to do to buy this car right now, today.

Chris Adams: I can tell you that on our platform. I can tell you where you need to be the most visible and then you can go in there and there's two degrees. It can tell you where you need to be to win a vehicle, but it can also tell you where you need to be to not overpay, right, and when the market's shifting and when it's transitioning, i can go. Hey, on this one, right here, you're actually a little bit high. We need to back this up. Fifty one hundred five hundred dollars, whatever that may be.

Paul J Daly: I mean, it's like what they say with contractors, like they'll say, if you win every bid, then you're doing it wrong, right, right. And that's like very similar, like if you're just getting everything, it's an indicator you're very much overpaying for everything. I mean, obviously you're going to win some. You should be losing some, right, because it can't be right fit for everybody. Just reminding me of that, kyle, what were you going to say?

Kyle Mountsier: Well, i'm like how do you go? When do you become in charge of a matrix, right? Like, how does a career trajectory be like? I'm now in charge of watching and determining how dealers buy and sell inventory across the nation. What did that like? How did you get there? And then like what? what learning did you have to have to be able to be in this seat?

Chris Adams: So y'all love this story. I'll tell it really quick.

Paul J Daly: It'll be the judge of the show. We can't take him anywhere. He's extra special today.

Michael Cirillo: I don't know what's up with me. Okay.

Chris Adams: Lay it on us.

Michael Cirillo: I can't wait.

Chris Adams: No, so I, i actually um. so I studied history in college, nothing to do with automotive.

Paul J Daly: Um and then yes, Now you're predicting the future.

Chris Adams: I predict the future now and it's perfect, um, but now I, i went through, uh, i worked for a soul automotive in Dallas for um about nine years, um, so I sold for two of the nine um, and then I essentially uh went and worked in new cars um for about two and a half years And then they, uh, i worked for the last five years of my career, um in used cars and really at a couple different sizes of stores, um, anywhere that you know sold 60 to 80 use cars a month, all the way up to um about 450 use cars a month.

Chris Adams: I worked at the, the number one uh certified pre-owned Cadillac dealer in the country, um, the number one certified pre-owned Lexus dealership in the country, um, both of which are about half a mile apart from each other. And so, um, i mean, sewell really gave me this like incredible foundation um, not only of, like you know, car automotive expertise, just with these like amazing giants that I got to learn from Um, but also, just like you know, kind of running a business and processes and things like that. And so, um, in 2017, i actually resigned from school and I went and traveled the world for two years, um, so okay.

Chris Adams: But I told you this is the part of the story you're going to like, Um so the first part, when you said Hey, i sold cars before.

Paul J Daly: if I was you and I say this to every industry partner we talk to that would be the first statement out of my mouth all the time Yeah.

Michael Cirillo: All right.

Paul J Daly: So you travel the world.

Chris Adams: Yeah, and so I uh, i was 31 and uh decided to go and uh, I'd never been overseas and I was like I just want to go do it. I, you know kind of, had been successful in the in the automotive world and and uh went and did it for two years and went scuba diving and traveled and just did a lot of fun stuff. And then uh got back in.

Kyle Mountsier: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You just like I just went scuba diving and did some fun stuff. Tell us about some of that. Where did you go? What was? what was the coolest place?

Chris Adams: Yeah, So so, 2018, I went around the world twice and went to like 25 countries. It was, it was sick, So when and uh, so, yeah, I went, I, I, I did some diving and most like some of the most remote places in the world, So I went to, uh, Malapasca and the Philippines. That was pretty cool. Um, which you probably have never like has been to the Philippines.

Michael Cirillo: He spent a yeah, i lived in the Philippines for two years. Oh, no, kidding. Yeah, i wonder if those were at the same time.

Kyle Mountsier: What years are we talking about here? No, no, i was like 2018, 2019. Yeah, this was back when I had hair.

Chris Adams: So yeah, i went to. I went to Bali a couple times, did some really cool dives there And I mean, how did I go into all these places, if, if at all.

Michael Cirillo: But I, i mean I, i know it did for me. I can only imagine going to going to 20 to 25 different countries around the world twice. How did this Shape or change your perspective about Us here in North America, like just everything in general, how we conduct business, how we think about things like did Did you get a glimpse into? like oh dang, like we've got it really good over here?

Chris Adams: I think so I think it's unique to see how other countries like what their perspective on Americans is and like what our perspective is on other countries. So that that's pretty unique. But I think, like overall, like if I I think I just like really found out, like I just like I love like talking to people and hanging out and like You know, like just being invested and like getting to know and understand, like how people think, and like That was like one of the most fun things because I really I tried to stay at like like community style, like hostile, you know style environment hotels where I could really get to like know The people, know the culture, or get to know the food And all that kind of stuff. Like I, i just really like that Environment. So it was, it was really fun.

Chris Adams: So what's the best food you had out there? Man, if you Want to go like the the best food you're ever gonna have, you got to go to Peru. Yeah, like like lima is just Unbelievable. Um, it like overall, like everything I had there was like oh, that's the best burrito I've ever had, like that's the best like steak. I mean, it was just like Unreal. Um, so, yeah, but it's like it's renowned for having the best cuisine in the world. So But I'm a, i'm a foodie, like man. I love to, i love to eat, i love to do like, cook, like all those sorts of things.

Michael Cirillo: So okay. So let me ask you this Where do you get good asian food in Dallas? Asking for a friend, because, because, like, because, like, growing up in canada, which is like this ethnic melting pot. A blind person could walk down the street in canada and take a right turn, and it's a 50-50. He's in a Thai food restaurant. You know what I mean. Here I'm like where do I go? Where do I get a good pizza? Where do I get good asian food? in this point I'm not talking about a pizza with brisket.

Michael Cirillo: My Nona would be rolling over in her grave to eat a pizza with brisket on it. Wait, he gave you the name.

Kyle Mountsier: He gave you the name. Where was it? You got it.

Chris Adams: You got to go to carolton.

Kyle Mountsier: Carolton's were all okay, okay, yeah, for sure, see, look at that The only reason drill actually does this show.

Michael Cirillo: Learning things about it from here. I'll see myself out. Oh, the guy from.

Paul J Daly: Dallas is on. I'm gonna be there today.

Michael Cirillo: He loves to learn from Dallas wait Trip advisor.

Chris Adams: Yeah so that's how like. So I I guess to to kind of wrap the story of like I got back, was about to get married and I was like I guess I should get a job And so I put on LinkedIn open opportunities. And I had a guy that I worked with at Sewel with who's now he's our basically like executive VP over kind of like product and strategy, and he called me up and was like hey, we're starting this thing called car offer. We want you to be a part of it. And so I literally came and played out when we had it was like a warehouse, concrete floors, the whole nine yards. He was like basically telling me his vision. I met with Bruce Thompson like a week or two later and got to meet him, understand and kind of like see where he wanted to take the company. And then it was great cause.

Chris Adams: We started with like seven people and then we launched out of Pearl technology holdings which I know other folks who are familiar with, like JMS auto exchange, which Bruce kind of developed and sold. He developed and sold Red bumper, new car IQ, like all these different things, and so we use Red bumper when we were at Sewel. I knew of Bruce and of the company. And then kind of what happened is I mean I just, you know, kind of stepped into it with with these other seven people. We had our development team, which was kind of cranking in the background, and really a few of these key individuals that you know started this thing and our you know really our sales team going out there and getting dealers to engage, and then this core car offer team really designing the product and pushing things forward.

Chris Adams: But I mean, really at that point it was like we had a shell of a product and we were just trying to figure out how to make it work.

Chris Adams: And I mean I think that's where, like everything kind of funneled to me, cause I had the buying experience of another guy, jeff Bittencourt, who was with CarMax for like 17 years, and so I know y'all probably have met him before and just like a really you know unique and interesting setup to where we have these dealer sales managers that were like their relationship managers with the dealer and really just trying to figure out, okay, how do we partner with your business the best? And I think like that's where you know me, being from so many different you know styles of dealerships, you know big, small in between. I could get on the phone with a dealer that sells, you know, 500 or 1000 cars a month and kind of understand their business model and get on this, you know, with someone with 30 to 40 cars in their inventory, understand that business model as well and go how do we pair with you the best and how can you use us to like actually benefit? Because not every dealer-.

Kyle Mountsier: I love that question because, like, if you're starting with that as your root objective, like how do we partner with you the best, instead of like how do we solve your problems or how do we fix what you're doing wrong, or how do we like those are the wrongs question starters your question, like your initial starter question for any interaction, is how do we partner with you best? That's like that's gonna solve a ton of problems, right, because then it's everyone looking at the problem together instead of, like, looking at each other as the problem. So kudos to you of like making that your core competency question. How are you scaling that up as Car Offer grows? How are you scaling that feeling and responsibility into others at this point?

Chris Adams: It is.

Chris Adams: I mean, i think the hard part is is sometimes dealers don't know how do we partner with them, right, and I think, like that's one of the it's just we have a more technical product right.

Chris Adams: When you're going through there and like if we get someone on the other end that's invested and like, okay, like I wanna grow, i wanna be an adopter, i wanna figure out how to make this work, that kind of partnership is incredible. On that, you know, really like kind of like foundation level. I think, like some people walk in a little bit going you need to make me better, right, and then I gotta like butt my head trying to figure out how their business model works and all that sort of stuff. Like the more transparent and open you are from the beginning, like we will be like as transparent as we possibly can Cause again, like we're just trying to help. We're just trying to figure out how to either help you buy cars or help you sell cars, help you do both and really make your dealership more profitable. And I think, like the bonus you get is the access to all this information. We're like we're going through and analyzing the market like to the end degree because we have all this book, data and information, so it's pretty interesting.

Paul J Daly: I have a, so our time is running out here, but I have a question to kind of wrap us up What do you think is the biggest blind spot right now that some dealers, or many dealers, might be missing? What's the blind spot?

Chris Adams: Blind spot for me is like they have access to trending market data To see, like, where price changes are week over week. If they were tracking this this is one of the main leading indicators that we look at It could help you make massive business decisions and save literally hundreds of thousands of dollars if you're going in there and looking at that data.

Paul J Daly: All right. Well, chris, this has been awesome hearing about your story, just hearing about what you're doing in the industry and the passion you're approaching the work and, honestly, the intelligence for which you're approaching work. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes for this day on AutoQuality.

Chris Adams: Yeah, thank you guys.

Kyle Mountsier: Honestly, i'm just so happy that we had a conversation where we were able to talk about blue pill, red pill, that.

Kyle Mountsier: Wait because of your whole life, then wait in the podcast with that and I'm good, i can be done. Podcasting No. But you know first of all, really just the fact that, like traveling for two years, i'm sure that his perspective on every conversation, every interaction, the way he approaches dealers, the way he knows about cities and places and conversations that he can bring up, i bet the interaction with him and a dealer is more dialed in, not just because of his his time at Sewell and the stores that he was, but like I'm guessing that there's actually more learning that he's bringing to the table in the way that people approach their businesses from his time traveling the world.

Michael Cirillo: If I had to guess. It's like you know, these pose pose are like business coaches that do their seminars and they're like, in order to change one's perspective, do this exercise.

Paul J Daly: One's perspective. Let's change Yeah.

Michael Cirillo: Stand on a chair in the corner of your room and look at the room from a different angle and that will open your mind. It's like bro actually got out of his natural habitat and traveled the world twice over in two years, like he's bringing all sorts of perspective into conversations. That, and different ways of thinking, i think, is the big part. That that just makes for a much more whole conversation.

Paul J Daly: I still can't believe, when someone has been in like the trenches in the industry and sold cars and spent time, that it's just not the first thing that you say everywhere Every time. I find that I mean, that's got to be the fourth time we figured this out about somebody in just like the last couple of months where they were like, oh yeah, so I did sell cars. We're like what What? You sold car. Why don't you just tell everybody you sold cars? because there is a thing that happens when a dealer knows that you've sold cars. right, kyle, i think. Michael, have you ever sold cars? I haven't ever sold cars, kyle has.

Kyle Mountsier: I've sold lots of cars.

Paul J Daly: You sold lots of cars right, and there is like explain what that camaraderie is. Kyle, i can only say it from an outsider's perspective.

Kyle Mountsier: Man, it's a whole thing. Yeah, like waking up on a Saturday and nobody else is going to work, but you're going to work and you're putting in hours And yeah, it's, it's a whole thing like and, and, just like the late hours. You just know if a guy stayed at the dealership or a gala stayed at the dealership till 1130 to see that the last two wheels roll the curb Like that's just you can't you can't put that into words what that feels like with the people that are there, the finance manager, the family at home, all that type of stuff.

Kyle Mountsier: So it's not just knowing what cars to buy or where to buy, And it's the like little idiosyncrasies.

Paul J Daly: Did you notice Michael Culture? Did you notice how Kyle was like roll the curb, like oh, that's something that He just started throwing lingo at us.

Kyle Mountsier: That's something we say into clink right Like well hey, we really hope that you enjoyed this conversation with the matrix operation director of car offer And Chris Adams said on behalf of myself Paul J Daily Michael Cirillo, we'll see you next time on Autoclaps.

Unknown: Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news and automotive retail media and pop culture. You can get it now at aso2.com. That's ASOTUcom. If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.

Kyle Mountsier: Welcome to.

Unknown: Autoclaps.

Paul J Daly: Why are we recording? We're rolling.

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