FORTVILLE — An online marketplace that provides anonymous, dealership-free car shopping recently added to its leadership.
Scott Jones is the latest addition to CarSnoop’s board of directors, and Shawn Schwegman has joined as an advisory member.
Cole Keesling of Fortville, formerly of Pendleton, with more than two decades in the vehicle sales business, started CarSnoop in Fortville’s downtown.
Customers use the company’s website or app to build the vehicle they want, and can upload information on a vehicle they’d like to trade in.
All of that information goes out to the dealerships in CarSnoop’s network, who review it and reply with offers. A customer’s personal information is not shared with any dealerships until they choose to.
“It levels the playing field for many people,” Keesling said.
In his role on the board, Jones will focus on technology and other areas. Jones comes from a long career in early-stage technology, including co-creating a voicemail technology that sold for $843 million in the 1990s.
“I think this is a transformative business, built by industry insiders, that saves hours of time for car buyers,” Jones said in a news release. “It’s high time that the car buying process was brought into the age of high-speed transactions that simultaneously makes it much easier for anyone to buy a car with minimum hassle. This is great for both consumers and car dealerships.”
Schwegman will focus on marketing and technology. He is co-founder and chief strategy officer of DemandJump, an Indianapolis-based marketing firm.
“In all of my past experience with startups, CarSnoop may be the most needed change to the way of doing business I have ever seen,” Schwegman said. “They have literally invented the new way to purchase a car.”
Keesling said that throughout his career in traditional car sales, the top complaints he heard from customers were how long it took to buy a vehicle and the process they had to go through to get one.
“I just saw a real need to change,” he said. “Other industries were changing, but the car business was stagnant. I was frustrated with the dealership life, like so many professionals are. I decided to do something different.”
About a couple years ago, he started helping clients buy vehicles in a way that kept them anonymous.
“I was doing these by hand initially,” he said. “And I just thought, if we can figure out a way we could automate this, it could be bigger than what we envisioned. And that’s where we are.”
Furthermore, the coronavirus pandemic has made for a better environment for the service because it removes the need to visit a dealership and offers delivery, he said.
“COVID played into our hands,” he said.
CarSnoop is on the Mark Cuban Companies list, having attracted investment from the billionaire entrepreneur and television personality, he said.
At markcubancompanies.com, the business is described as “the first auto marketplace where dealers compete against each other for the right to win your business.
“With CarSnoop, you never need to negotiate, step into a dealership, get spammed with emails or calls, or suffer buyer’s remorse again. We’re industry experts working for you, uncovering the deals that dealerships are willing to make — but try their best not to.”
Editor Scott Slade contributed to this story.
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