How A Tech PM Built A Vertically Integrated Turo Fleet With Investor Backing

What if the best car rental experience isn’t a rental at all? We sit down with Adrian Sun, the founder of Crownstone Incorporated, to unpack how a single Turo trip snowballed into a vertically integrated car sharing company that acquires, reconditions, operates, and ultimately sells vehicles for profit. Along the way, he challenges the biggest myth in peer-to-peer mobility—that quality lags behind traditional agencies—and shows how disciplined systems, precise tracking, and a hospitality mindset can deliver smoother trips and stronger ratings.

Adrian takes us inside the business engine: sourcing the right vehicles, building a maintenance plan that extends lifespan, and crafting guest onboarding that removes friction before it appears. From signature listing photos to crystal-clear pickup instructions, every touchpoint is designed to increase trust, reduce cancellations, and lift utilization. We also explore the investment side. Instead of real estate, he offers an alternative: returns generated by vehicle operations over a roughly five-year lifecycle, with careful attention to risk, seasonality, and exit timing. Compliance limits broad advertising, so he relies on relationships and transparent conversations to ensure alignment.

There’s a personal story under the hood. After a decade in product management at top consulting and tech firms, a layoff forced a choice. Adrian doubled down on the side project he’d been refining and watched the fleet grow fivefold in a year. The lesson is sharp and hopeful: constraints create clarity, and with the right playbook, a setback can become an on-ramp to something better. If you’re curious about Turo hosting, investor-backed car sharing, or simply how to run an operationally tight service business, this conversation delivers practical details you can use.

Email Adrian Sun: [e-mail]

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Rachel Five.

SPEAKER_01 (00:14):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Now, if you're looking for a newand different approach to the
car rental, to renting a car, Ihave just the resource for you.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
Adrian's son, with CrownstoneIncorporated.
Adrian, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_02 (00:32):
I'm doing great.
Thank you for having me on.
This is uh such a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 (00:36):
Well, we are really excited to learn about your
business.
You sound like a reallyentrepreneurial young man.
So tell us all about it.

SPEAKER_02 (00:44):
Yeah, so my business um primarily focuses on um car
sharing.
And that's uh technicallylegally different thing than car
rentals, but um we uh own andoperate um Agriens All Rental
LLC, which then takes theirassets and generates the cash
flow from investors that caninvest in our company.

(01:05):
And so those these two lanes ofour business allows us to
basically get take the fuel frominvestors, we promise um and we
invest that into an auto rentalbusiness where we operate it in
a vertically integrated sort ofmanner.
So we acquire vehicles, we canrecon recondition them and we
operate them, and then we thensell them and um uh take our

(01:27):
profits from that.
And so the general investmentlifecycle is probably around
five years, and we um have havesince grown about five times in
the last year.

SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
Wow.
Well, how did you get into thistype of business?

SPEAKER_02 (01:42):
Well, it was a little bit of a mistake.
Uh like I um first rented um uha car on Tura, which is the ride
sharing platform that we use.
There are other ones out there,but we chose to centralize onto
one of them just for ease ofoperation.
And as a user, I thought aboutthe math behind it and thought
that it was gonna be profitable.

(02:03):
And then a couple years later, Ijust decided to just try it out
for a little bit.
And then um I was doing productwork at uh one of the big four
consulting companies at thetime.
And then um when I had changedjobs between back to smaller
tech companies, I just continuedto grow the fleet a little bit.
And then um I then I developedthe idea around the ability to

(02:27):
accelerate this by creatingessentially a financial um
method for people to basicallydiversify their portfolio.
So um instead of say investingin real estate, um, you can
invest in the returns fromgenerated from uh vehicles.

SPEAKER_01 (02:45):
Interesting.
Interesting.
Well, I mean, what do you thinkare some myths or misconceptions
in your industry?

SPEAKER_02 (02:53):
Well, um, I think one big misconception about um
car rentals in general is for onpeer-to-peer platforms, is um
that the quality is going to belower.
And there are some amount ofpeople on the platform that
maybe don't take it seriously orjust um they might have not have

(03:14):
the right mindset.
But overall, um a car can berepaired um and uh maintained
for a very long period of time,a lot longer than what most
people think.
And so a lot of it comes down tothe tracking, um, the
operational efficiency, and alsoum just your attitude towards
making sure that you're tryingto give your guests the best

(03:36):
trip possible.

SPEAKER_01 (03:38):
Okay.
Now we know marketing is at theheart of every business.
So how are you attracting yourcustomers and even potential
investors?

SPEAKER_02 (03:46):
Yeah, so with investors, um, I guess marketing
is a little bit tricky becausethere's all sorts of regulations
around that.
So um it's been that that's beensomething where I've just been
going through basicallynetworking.
And um, with the vehicles um onthe our car sharing platform, we
basically have a signature umwith our photos that we put on

(04:08):
there and how we introduce theinformation as to how you pick
up the car.
All that is unique to our ownbusiness.
We basically send a customer alink, which then has a very
detailed description of all thesteps that need to be taken.
There's photos, things likethat.
Within the platform that I useto do car sharing, you can't
really share photos within umthe application automatically.

(04:32):
And so finding the car might bedifficult.
And so I spent a lot of timefocusing on making it very easy
for the customer to pick up thecar, to drop it off, and to know
what to expect all the waythrough the process.

SPEAKER_01 (04:43):
Wonderful.
Now, have you ever thought aboutdoing your own podcast?

SPEAKER_02 (04:48):
I have, um, but I felt like a YouTube video might
a YouTube channel might be alittle more fitting for the
stuff that I do because I'minvolved with everything, like
selecting vehicles, um, I'minvolved with diagnosing issues
with the cars, I'm involved withjust um a wide variety of
things.
And I think that what I uh whatI see is actually kind of

(05:09):
interesting.
I think as a uh from starting apodcast, um I haven't really
thought about that one.
I I know it's uh I I think it'dbe very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 (05:20):
Yeah, right on.
Now, outside of work, Adrian,what do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_02 (05:25):
I really like going backpacking, um, weight lifting,
and one of my main hobbies isphotography.
And so um it kind of all goeshand in hand with with itself
because when you're backpacking,you see some very beautiful
things that um you can onlyreally capture with the right
equipment, the skill set,timing, all those different

(05:46):
things.
Same with traveling, you know,in a different country.
And so I'm one of the rarepeople that still owns a
separate camera than the one onher phone.
And I think that with the rightum, I guess, attitude to towards
it, you can capture some uh veryspecific feelings that um that
the iPhone or can't um the phonecan't really capture.

SPEAKER_01 (06:10):
Yeah, right on.
So, Adrian, please tell ourlisteners one thing they should
remember about Adrian's son withCrown Stone Incorporated.

SPEAKER_02 (06:19):
I would say if there is ever a change in direction
with your career, whether it'schosen or unchosen, um sudden
changes or or roads that mayseem to end may lead to
something far, far greater.
And I say this because I was ina decade-long uh career with

(06:41):
product management, tech, andum, you know, it the pay was was
good and it was challenging,gave me a lot of skills.
But now that I'm running my ownthing, it was only started
because I was let go.
And when I was like go, I hadthis going as a side project,
and this really forced me tothink about what I really wanted

(07:01):
to do and the satisfaction youget from starting your own
thing.
And I would say there's nothinglike it.
And I highly recommend everyoneto look at any adversity as an
opportunity instead of umfeeling the negativity inside of
it.

SPEAKER_01 (07:18):
Yeah, right.
Yes.
Now, how can our listeners learnmore about Crown Stoning and
your car rental aspect?

SPEAKER_02 (07:26):
Yeah, you can um find me on the Toro platform,
Adrian Sun's my, you can look meup as a host, but if you want to
learn more about the investmentside, um, you can reach out to
me on my email, which isadrian.sun at gmail.com.
So um right now with the fundingside, um, it's I'm taking a
select few like um investors,but um I'm with a Turo, that's

(07:51):
um you can find me on there, andyou can see all my cars listed
on there.

SPEAKER_01 (07:54):
Good.
Well, Adrian, I reallyappreciate you being on the
show, and we wish you and yourbusiness really all the best
moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 (08:02):
Awesome.
Thank you so much for having me.

unknown (08:04):
My pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 (08:05):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on the
show, go to gnporangecounty.com.
That's gnpoangecounty.com orcall 714 941 2862.