CarWoo (YC S09): Dispelling 3 myths about Y Combinator

http://carwoo.com/blog/dispelling-3-myths-about-y-combinator/

by tommy_mcclung • 16 years ago

80 35 16 years ago

I was biting my fingernails as I read your first paragraph...well played sir.

seldo• 16 years ago

The irony of a 32-year-old considering himself "old" and claiming that therefore ageism doesn't exist at YC is great. I'm not saying YC is at all ageist, but the fact that at 32 he believes it would already apply to him speaks volumes about how endemic ageism is in tech.

pg• 16 years ago

I wouldn't read too much into it. I think he simply meant he's old in the sense of not a college kid-- that he has a wife and kids etc. You probably know better if you are an HN user, but a lot of people still think that YC only funds 22 year olds.

kellyreid3• 16 years ago

as a 26 year old single man, I must say it takes a lot of stress away when I don't have to explain it to my SO, my son/daughter, etc. I also don't have to worry if someone else will starve (I can handle myself, of course).

That said, for those entrepreneurial types, age is rarely a factor outside of family concerns. I"m just glad i have the opportunity to try this before I get married and settle down.

Sukotto• 16 years ago

Out of curiosity, what's the oldest applicant you guys have accepted into the program? How did that person do?

tommy_mcclung5• 16 years ago

That's a great point, although I guess I should have said "old in life situation". I have kids, a house, etc... It's not just about your age but also about how much baggage you carry with you. Obviosly it's easier to do a startup if you are younger because you don't carry the baggage with you.

johngalt• 16 years ago

I've worked in tech since I was very young and I have always had nothing but respect for the older guys. Where do you think I learned from?

We are judged on our skills and not our age. If that wasn't the case I would immediately submit a YC app to start an IT outsourcing shop that hired only people over forty. I'd take all those hungry underutilized experts and crush the competition!

I think the real issue here is precisely that we aren't judging people by their age. In <generic industry> the number of years of experience are the predominate method of determining skill/compensation and that's not necessarily true in tech. So people look at the difference and scream ageism!

btucker2• 16 years ago

I'd love to hear more about how they lined up their dealer network.

tommy_mcclung5• 16 years ago

Through a ton of phone calls :). We followed our buyers and built some scheduling software to help us prioritize notifying existing dealers and contacting new ones to satisfy the buyers. Another great topic for another blog post. Stay tuned.

btucker2• 16 years ago

Very interesting. Looking forward to the post!

myoung82• 16 years ago

Unlike most other marketplaces, we're fortunate that we can build the network in an ad-hoc fashion.

Essentially, every time a buyer pays us, we reach out to just the dealers in that person's immediate area and get them to sign up. It's surprisingly easy because we come to them with a buyer who has paid money to help them buy a car that the dealer who's on the phone has on his lot.

Increasingly, though, as volume increases and dealers become more aware of CarWoo!, we don't even need to call.

random422• 16 years ago

We have raised over $6M and while YC helped us and we are extremely appreciative, the hard work we put into CarWoo! and our determination to build a huge company was the key to our success.

raising venture capital != success. Not for a scalable, repeatable business anyways.

tommy_mcclung5• 16 years ago

I meant our success in getting to the funding milestone. We are very well aware that we are at the beginning, not the end.

random422• 16 years ago

Good to know that you are not counting your chickens before they are hatched.

Best of luck! :)

ora600• 16 years ago

I'm currently searching for a new car, so I thought I'll check out CarWoo.

Here are some issues I ran into:

1. Can we have photos of the different models next to the drop down list? and maybe a short summary of the differences? I know I want a MINI, but I didn't even know there are three different kinds, so obviously I don't know which one I want.

2. Same for trims. At least a link to the manufacturer site to help me figure this out.

3. Mention payments only after I entered all my details? This seems unfair!

4. I feel incredibly uncomfortable to pay for the privilege of you giving my details to dealers. Shouldn't they be paying you because you are sending them buyers?

5. Also, why should I pay upfront? What if I don't get a good deal out of this?

6. I tried to ask all this at the nice chat, but after typing my question and clicking "submit" my text just disappeared and I never got a reply. I'm using Chrome, btw.

7. So no, I'm not convinced, and I see no reason to spend time watching videos of happy customers. I'm not into testimonials anyway. How about some statistics? What's the expected dollar value of savings for the model I'm trying to buy?

I hope my comments are at least somewhat useful, and my apologies if the tone is snarky - I got upset at the non-working chat.

myoung82• 16 years ago

Sorry about that! Let me address your questions one-by-one:

1. We'll consider this. However, the vast majority of our users already know what model they want (i.e. they've done their research before using CarWoo!)

2. Same.

3. Split tests don't lie.

4. Actually, you're paying for the privilege of us keeping your information anonymous from 10 dealers and only giving it to the one dealer you want to work with after you've vetted them all through our app (i.e. we save you from spam), among many other benefits we provide, such as better prices from competition.

5. We have a 100% Happiness Guarantee and we're not afraid to use it.

6. Sorry about that, we use a 3rd-party service called SnapEngage, I'll have to look into this.

7. Some statistics for the analytically-inclined:

- CarWoo! buyers save an average of over $3000 off MSRP (but this is meaningless without context) - CarWoo! buyers save an average of $450 more than any other car-buying service (Costco, AAA, USAA) - For Minis, CarWoo! buyers save an average of about $500 off MSRP (relatively low, but Mini dealers generally aren't that willing to negotiate on price)

Thank you for your comments. Please let me know if you have any other questions or if you'd like a coupon to use CarWoo!

tocomment• 16 years ago

I question that was bothering me: where does the test drive fit into your model? Are you supposed to go to dealers beforehand to do that?

kaiserama• 16 years ago

Thanks for sharing.

On a completely side note I noticed that Brendan Schaub had a CarWoo logo on his shorts at UFC121, so someone at CarWoo must like MMA. Anyway, I've always been curious about how much those fighters charge to have advertisers on their shorts...would you mind sharing how much it cost you? :)

Apologies to the moderator gods for the random and off topic question.

CarWoo (YC S09): Dispelling 3 myths about Y Combinator

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