December 28, 2016. I was running the mystery shops for a big Cleveland dealer group: our own stores and our competitors, every week, with a made-up name and a real question. That week's shop went out across the market. I asked both Porsche stores in town the same thing: how many sets of golf clubs fit in the back of a used Panamera?
Our own Porsche store sent an e-price template: picture, price, mileage, everything I'd already seen online. It didn't answer the question.
Porsche of Beachwood, across town, sent a video, and sent it just as fast. David McCaig said the name I'd made up, joked that his GM's clubs were in the office, carried them out to the exact car, popped the trunk and loaded them in. Then he told me that whatever happened with this car, he'd be there. He was my guy.
The rest of the market sent what stores always send: auto-responders, templates, a few quick calls. His was the only video. He didn't sell me the car. I already knew the car. He sold me himself and his store. People buy from people.
What happened next is the part that built the company. We took it to the owner and ran a free month of the same video tool on our flagship Mercedes-Benz floor. The floor said no: too slow, too clunky, and the managers said too expensive. So I asked, "Can I try to make us something?"
My cousin and I built it at his kitchen table. On my drive in to hand it over, he called: "Don't just give it to them. Make him a subscriber." The group became our first customer.
Ten years and a million videos later, CarFilm is still built for the floor that said no: fast enough that people actually use it.
I've spent my career around dealerships. CarFilm is built by car people, for car people. No software theater. No jargon. Just the thing that already works, put in everyone's hands.
— Sean Weaver, Founder · Cleveland, Ohio
