June 5, 2025 • 24 mins
Curbee CEO Amit Chandarana has held leadership positions at companies like Toyota Motor North America, Edmunds.com, and Roadster. He now heads the fastest growing mobile automotive service technology platform for car dealerships, transforming how auto service is delivered and experienced. Curbee empowers dealerships with cutting-edge solutions to optimize operations, enhance customer engagement, train staff and drive revenue growth. curbee.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you so much for listening to the Art of Improvement.
I'm Karen Klaus, my guest today, Kirby CEO Amit Shandarana.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
If you've never heard of Kirby, there's a reason.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Kirby is a company that is hired by car dealerships.
It's the only B to B mobile service platform designed
to integrate directly into a car dealership's existing dealer management software.
I know it's hard to understand. It was for me too,
but in just a minute my conversation with a Mitt
(00:30):
will explain it all. Stand By coming up next, the
Art of Improvement. Thank you so much for joining me today.
This is the art of improvement. And I have a
guest that he's probably going to be sick of me
by the time this is all said and done. But
it's Amit Shandarana, and he is the CEO of Kirby.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Amit. Thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Thanks Karen, appreciate you having.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Absolutely Okay, So now your question, I'm not talking to you, admit,
I'm talking to everybody else.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What is Kirby.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well, I've read so much about this for the last
several days and the bottom line is on your website.
It says Kirby is the fastest growing mobile service technology provider,
and that to me didn't explain it. But then it
goes on to say that Kirby helps dealerships offer mobile
service with your platform platform. And what that means is
(01:32):
when you say mobile service, that means actually servicing cars.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
That's exactly right. You know, you bring up a really
good point. I think somebody may assume that we are
fixing their phone, right, We'll need to we will need
to work on that. That is exactly right. What Kirby
does is we enable, or we offer, we support dealerships
to offer mobile or at home service. So essentially, think
of the service department at a dealership coming to you
(02:00):
instead of you having to go to it. And the
way we do that is with our software and our
best practices and our support. So we're what you would
call a business to business technology provider, but we are
enabling the dealerships to offer a much needed service, such
as the ability for a dealership to come to your
home to fix or repair your vehicle, or do an
(02:22):
inspection or a recall.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I don't mean to sound negative or like a big
cry baby, a bit. But when I have learned about
a recall or something that's wrong with my car that
can be fixed easily at the dealership, it's almost by accident.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
And I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I don't open every single piece of mail that I get,
but I don't open up every single piece of mail
that I get, and so sometimes a recall or a
software update is something that I miss. And I never
feel like it's a big push for dealerships to, you know,
come out and reach out to me. So to me,
(03:02):
this is an incredible idea because not only can these
recalls be corrected, but you're saying that somebody's going to
come to my house.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Essentially? Yes, And don't feel that way. You're not alone, Karen.
There's seventy million open recalls in the United States.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Right, Oh my god, what?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Why?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
How does this happen? And how are people driving around
with cars that actually work?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Let's double click this real quick. It happens because the
technology and vehicles continues to grow, just like it does
in our phones with chips and computers. So they're building
cars faster, they're building them for different use cases, and
so manufacturers ultimately want to make sure that they can
put out really good product, but as soon as they
(03:55):
hit the real world and the use cases show that
something is incorrect, the manufacturers are very quick to recall.
A recall in it of itself is not necessarily a
bad thing.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I'm so glad that you said that. I'm glad that
you said that. That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, yeah, think about it. It's a manufacturer, Toyota for
Chevy saying something we saw in this vehicle, in this
range of vehicles that we built, and therefore all of
the you know, ten builds before that and ten builds
after it, we want to fix all of those, or
we want to provide a new software updates, or we
want to replace this part. And look, to your point,
(04:31):
it's a little old school. They send a letter to
somebody's house which you may or may not open, to
your point, but maybe you do open it. I mean,
I have one in my house. It's sitting on our
dining room table, and I haven't completed it yet. Because
to our point, we live in a world where you
get an email, you get an alert, you get a
piece of mail, you get a phone and call, and
(04:52):
then you get a text message and that's the only
way I can remember to do. So, Therefore, it's not
lost that there's seventy million of these open recalls, because
sometimes people forget to do them. And to your point earlier,
when you get to the dealership and you're there for
your oil change, they might say to you, hey, miss Karen,
by the way, did you know you had this open
recall that we're going to take care of? Also, yeah, clearly, again,
(05:15):
the numbers show that most people are not going there
convenience time, whatever the reason.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Do absolutely, I mean, it seems I know you've probably
heard it a thousand times, but it seems almost too
good to be true. How can you give me a
little bit of your background on how you even got
to this point?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Sure? Absolutely, I'll address the first part last.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Oftentimes I think some of the best technology or innovations
or ideas are the most simple ones because they're right
in front of your nose. And we say this all
the time. It passes the me test. Everything comes to us.
Nowadays we can engage in it via our phone, and
it just didn't make sense that you have to go
into a dealership for service. Again, Don't get me wrong,
(06:00):
there are certain things that should happen there, certain things
should be able to take care of when they come
to you. To unpack a little bit of my background,
you know, I grew up in the automotive industry, if
you will. I worked for Toyota Corporate for several years
in the field, working directly with dealerships, continuing to keep
my head down and work with all of these dealerships
(06:21):
across the country, and then I was back into our headquarters.
So I've worked with the manufacturer and I've worked on
the dealer side. I also worked at Stillansis for a
short period, and then ultimately I pivoted and started to
work for tech companies in the automotive industry. So when
you work with dealers and then you work with manufacturers,
you start to see gaps in the process. You start
(06:44):
to see gaps in the experience for a consumer. And
so there are a lot of companies that develop technology
to support the dealerships and the manufacturers from a customer
experience standpoint, or an efficiency standpoint or a productivity standpoint.
And that's where I fell in love with the opportunity
to do that, and more specifically with Kirby. I wasn't
(07:04):
you know, I can't take all of the credit for
Kirby by any means whatsoever. In fact, Kirby started back
in twenty twenty. It was the real of a birth
child of some of the executives that left Tesla. So
our founding team where the folks that Tesla, who, if
you think about it, doesn't have physical dealerships, and so
everything they did was primarily done via mobile service. So
(07:26):
these executives after they left Tesla, thought that this was
a really great problem that they could solve. Let's go
do repair, Let's go do service in the field with
our own bands, our own technicians, and our own tools.
And that's how it started in twenty twenty and then
early twenty twenty four we realized that it was going
(07:47):
to take significant effort in funding to operationalize this thing nationally.
While that was taking place, dealerships, individual dealerships, your mom
and pop Toyota store or your large board dealership on
the street started to ask us about how we got
the right van to the right place at the right time,
with the right tools and the right technicians. And that's
(08:09):
when the light bulbs went off into we could help
the automotive industry. We could help consumers like yourself with
this convenience if we licensed this technology to the dealerships directly.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That is an incredible story.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I after reading about Kirby, I just I obviously before
we started recording, I had about a thousand questions because like,
how how did you come up with this? How did
this you know, develop? So going back to the whole
Tesla idea, I mean people that drive Tesla as they
(08:43):
know it's it's basically a computer. But when I started
to think about that when you were talking, I mean
basically all of our cars or computers, they're just not
as advanced maybe as a Tesla. Is that true even
for you know, used cars or cars that are not newer.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, I don't I'm going to mess this number up.
I don't have the stat in front of me, but
you know, if you were able to look it up,
the number of computers and computer chips and vehicles nowadays
are astronomical. So to your point, some of them might
be ev like a Tesla or a Rivian, which it
is an elect you know, it's a battery powered electric vehicle,
(09:24):
and so there are there We always said there's less
oily bits because there's no engine at it vehicle. However,
ice vehicles or internal combustion engines or non evs or hybrids,
those have just as many computers and chips. So to
your point, yeah, we're basically building computers on wheels now.
And if anyone's owned any computers or any technology, you
(09:44):
know that there's bugs and there's things that take place.
But the good thing is they can also be solved
pretty quickly with software updates or patches.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
And so obviously you are a startup. Kirby is a startup.
But from our conversation you said that Kirby is really
it's growing so quickly. How can people find out if
there is this service available maybe in their state or
their city.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yeah, great question. Interestingly enough, we pride ourselves when you're
a business to business provider, a B to B provider,
as they say, you pride yourself on no one knowing
your name as a consumer any longer.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
That's so true. I get it. I get it.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So for example, if you go into a restaurant and
give your credit card and you start punching away on
the iPad and then pay and get a receipt, you
don't know that shift for or micros is the technology
behind that, but you don't care right true, in that
same vein you don't know who Kirby is per se.
But if you're working with Ewing, Mercedes Benz in Dallas,
(10:55):
if you're with Autobon Volvo in the Fort Worth area,
they're using our technology in the background to schedule the service,
to optimize the communication with the customer. But those dealerships
individually are starting to adopt our technology to answer your
question directly. Look at their websites. Have all the dealerships
to ask if they offer mobile service. That's one of
(11:15):
the ways the adoption increases. And again we start to
get to a place where, say for vehicles, more customer
convenience and look, you're more loyal to those brands when
they offer that level of service orner.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So there are some people, and I've known them, that
actually have a whiteboard in their garage and they, you know,
write down notes saying this is when I got my
car service, this is when I changed the air filters,
this so.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
That they'll they'll know even if they.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Aren't going to keep the car, because they want it
to be in tip top condition. And then there are
those on the other hand that don't know that you're
supposed to change the fluids every.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Now and then.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
See that piece of information doesn't really matter when it
comes to the dealerships. But when there is a problem
with the car, I guess that's when the personalities of
their customers really come out. So, no matter who you are,
who doesn't want somebody coming to their house to fix
(12:17):
a problem, whether it be a software update or a recall.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I mean, you're so right.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Today in this world there may be something urgent that
falls through the cracks that you didn't mean for it
to fall through the cracks. And this is the answer
to that problem.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I agree. We started with the very simple thesis of
it passes the me test. Would I like to have
something come to me. I'm in the automotive industry. I
know tons of car dealers. I can get a car
fixed pretty quickly. However, time is money, time is energy.
It's the most important currency we have. So the more
things become convenient, the more people vote with their wallets.
(12:56):
And again we talk about this. If you don't believe me,
the Chipotle burrito that was twelve dollars and fifty cents
that was delivered to your door earlier today, thirty eight
percent of that cost or something like that was just
the delivery, and they seem to be doing fine. Yeah,
So I do think there's a couple things you unpacked there.
There's certain demographics, right, there are certain audiences. You know.
(13:18):
We did a story on LinkedIn of the lady in
the automotive industry who is a mother of two small children,
and she did a podcast where we reposted it. She
talked about the Ford dealer locally coming to her house
by nine am while she was cleaning cheerios off of
the top on a zoom call. Both oil changes of
her vehicle were completed in her driveway and she was
(13:41):
able to see the technician, she had transparency, take care
of it, and be able to move on with her day.
And then there's another side that we talked about I
think earlier, where there's generations of customers who have seen
their parents only drive evs, so they don't know that
you have to go in for an oil change every
three thousand, five seventy five hundred. In addition, they're not
(14:04):
going to do anything unless they get an alert on
their phone first.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So I think the automotive industry, and in particular particular,
the dealerships are starting to recognize the shift of demographics,
the shift of character, the shift of behavior, and they're
addressing it with things like mobile service or at home service.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I love it, and so then I guess the bigger
question is what dealership wouldn't want you to come help
them out? How do you get your dealerships to participate?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Listen, I couldn't agree with you more. Which dealership would
not want us to come and help them? How do
we get our dealerships to participate? It starts with a
I would say a typical business to business approach. We
are in the trades, if you will, meaning we are
talking to the automotive industry. We're talking to dealerships, we're
(14:54):
talking to manufacturers, whether or not it's through publications or
conferences or channels within LinkedIn. What we're doing is we're
elevating the awareness of the demand that you have as
a consumer. Care you want this, Most consumers want this.
I want this A lot of times. We have to
elevate that demand. We have to create that awareness with
(15:17):
the manufacturers, we have to create that awareness and demand
with the dealerships, and then we have to be able
to show our value propositions or the features of our
platform that helps solve for that demand. There's others out
there that do it. Personally, I'm a little biased. I
think we do it better than others because we have
a lot of street credit from what we've done. But
that's really how how we have to approach it. We
(15:37):
have to show them that this is this is a
thing that is really necessary. And you know, there's a
couple of different ways that we lean into that. We
talk about the vehicles, you know, we talk about those
seventy million open recalls. I think all of us understand
that we want safer, thoughtful, effective vehicles on the road
because anytime there's a breakdown or anytime something goes wrong,
it costs time and money.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I mean, it is it's so funny to joke about it,
but I mean car salesmen, dealerships, dentists. You're thinking of
the things that just kind of make you cringe. This
is this is a facet of this entire group of
you know, automotive dealerships that would I don't know, adding
(16:20):
this to me would seem like making life so much easier,
not only for them as a dealership, but for their customer.
And I just can't I can't believe that you wouldn't
have great comments from from the dealerships. But have you
heard besides these stories that you tell us about the customer,
have you heard from the dealerships on how it makes
(16:42):
their lives happen.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Sure, certainly there's there's a couple. There's a couple un
obvious if that's a word.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I know, I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
There's a couple of non obvious or maybe opaque reasons
that dealerships also do this. For example, a dealership, you know,
let's just pick a standard toy of the dealership in
a city. You know, they might have fifty service bays
behind the showroom. Right, So in the front of the
dealership there's a showroom where they sell the new in
the US vehicles. In the back there's a parks department.
(17:16):
There's also these fifty service bays where the customers are
coming in and getting the vehicle service. Well, there's inflection
points during the service side of the business in the morning,
when there's a recall or if there's new products that
are released, where the shops hit this capacity where if
you were to call that local dealership and say Hey,
I have a XYZ model and I need to come
(17:38):
in for my thirty thousand service, thirty thousand mile service.
Pardon me, They might say you have a four or
five day wait because we're so busy. Well, part of
the value of this is to take some of the
smaller jobs. We talk about fluids and filters, We talked
about bulbs, batteries and blades, or these recalls, or maybe
(17:58):
some you know, small inspections. If we take those jobs
for a dealer, and when I say we, they their technicians,
is their tools, is their trucks. If they take those
jobs using our platform and come to you, then it
unlocks that capacity. It flees up more space at the
dealership to bring in that vehicle for the thirty thousand
miles service. So we do hear a lot about that
(18:18):
from the dealership. It's not only they're offering a convenience.
It's not only are they satisfying more recalls, which, by
the way, NTS a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, they
want safer vehicles. They're pushing and nudging on the manufacturers.
The manufacturers are nudging on the dealers, so it's a
trickle down effect. Everybody wants to see these recalls completed.
(18:39):
But the side effects if you will are better customer
satisfaction and the capacity at a dealership increasing so you
can bring more vehicles in for service.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It just makes so much more sense.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I know that before we started recording, I'm like, I'm
going to be asking you the most basic questions, but
it really does make so much sense. I mean, why
wouldn't and everybody knows it, I mean, why wouldn't a
dealership want you to take these smaller jobs so that
they could actually do their big money makers? Because I
mean that's obviously part of going to the dealership and
(19:16):
getting your car fixed or whatever.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
But I can answer that. Look, it's not let me
turn the analogy to so maybe something that lands with
all of us. Please, if everybody knows that if you
exercise and eat better, you'll live longer and you'll be healthier, right,
why doesn't everyone do it?
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, it's so easy until you have to do it yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I get it, I get it.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Yes, you're exactly right. So because it's because there's change
management involved, it becomes a little bit different. Look, there's
two things that dealership typically ask us about. Cost. How
much does it cost for me to be able to
implement this. Right, They've got to upfit a vehicle, right,
They've got to get a new vehicle, put the tools
in it, get a technician to come out there, buy
somem insurance, et cetera, et cetera. So they've got to
(20:04):
be able to do these things, which there's a cost
of doing business as anything else. But you know, the
numbers prove out someone like yourself is going to take
advantage of this. So therefore they're going to make revenue,
which they should. But there's a change management aspect of it.
You know, they've been doing business for one hundred years
within those four walls where a customer drives there, so
we over index as a company, we over index on
(20:26):
the change management aspect. Also, yes, we certainly provide this
really cool software that optimizes everything, but we also have
to teach them about change management, how to operationalize this
in the field, if you will. So, like many things,
there's a little bit of change management involved. But once
the change management is solved for or trained on, these
guys really start ramping up and offering these services more prolifically.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Amid for someone that owns a dealership and is just
hearing this for the first time. Is it's something that
takes a long time to teach when they actually do
take on your services.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Oh, great question. No, it takes about forty five days
to ramp up to an effective place, because if you
think about it, these dealerships are experts at fixing your vehicles.
They have factory trained technicians. They get direct trainings, learnings,
access to tools from the manufacturers, so they're very good
(21:24):
at the oily bits, if you will. What we train
them on is how do you answer the phone for
a customer who calls in and say, would you rather
come to you instead of you coming to us? What's
that going to look like? How am I going to
get through the AHOA code? Are you going to spill
oil on my driveway? And that's where we train them. No,
there's oil prevention kits, we have spill prevention, We take
(21:46):
these countermeasures. So that's really where the training comes involved,
is how they operate their business in the field like
we did thirty thousand times over a few years.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I just love this idea.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I hope that there are dealership owners that are listening
and reaching out to you because this is this is
a convenience. Unfortunately, you know that we need because of
today's busy, busy world and trying to get things done
and sometimes being alone and trying to get things done
and to you know, working and besides that, I mean,
(22:21):
you would think that a car dealership, I mean, I
know that they realize, but they must realize that the
greater service that they give their customers, the greater the
chance that they're going to be return customers.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Absolutely. In fact, there's a bunch of data that shows
that I told you that I grew up working for
some of the OEMs, and you know we have we
have data coming out of our ears as you can imagine,
but there's tons of data that shows customers if they
service a couple of two three times with a dealership,
they're more likely to buy from that brand. Are We
(22:57):
say this all the time. Consumers are very loyal to Apple,
CarPlay and technology versus some of the manufacturers. And the
more these dealerships who represent these manufacturers offered this type
of service, the more opportunities they're going to have to
be able to service them in the future and potentially
sell them another vehicle.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Well, I don't need to give out your website too much,
because just like you said, it's really something that dealerships
need to take advantage of. But if you've just now
joined us and you're wondering because I've been a horrible
host and didn't say who I'm talking to, a met
Shandarana is this CEO of Kirby and it is an
(23:37):
idea a met that I just I think it is
time and it's so great that you are growing as
quickly as you are.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
We appreciate that. Thank you, And again I think we
always default back to we think we're solving a real problem.
It passes the me test and it really does offer
the thing that's most important, which is it offers time
back to consumers.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, I have enjoyed this time. I'm telling you, I
finally learned what I wanted to learn after reading one
hundred things, and you've really simplified it. And I can't
say that there's anything that I wouldn't do if I
were you had a dealership to get your services. And
I just think that this is a great, great thing
that you've done.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Well, we'll certainly work really hard to get some more
dealers in Texas close to you, please they can take
care of you please, and I really appreciate you allowing
us to unpack a little bit of our story with you.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Absolutely and I hope to talk to you again. Thank
you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
You're welcome.
Thank you so much for listening to the Art of Improvement.
I'm Karen Klaus, my guest today, Kirby CEO Amit Shandarana.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
If you've never heard of Kirby, there's a reason.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Kirby is a company that is hired by car dealerships.
It's the only B to B mobile service platform designed
to integrate directly into a car dealership's existing dealer management software.
I know it's hard to understand. It was for me too,
but in just a minute my conversation with a Mitt
(00:30):
will explain it all. Stand By coming up next, the
Art of Improvement. Thank you so much for joining me today.
This is the art of improvement. And I have a
guest that he's probably going to be sick of me
by the time this is all said and done. But
it's Amit Shandarana, and he is the CEO of Kirby.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Amit. Thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Thanks Karen, appreciate you having.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Absolutely Okay, So now your question, I'm not talking to you, admit,
I'm talking to everybody else.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What is Kirby.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well, I've read so much about this for the last
several days and the bottom line is on your website.
It says Kirby is the fastest growing mobile service technology provider,
and that to me didn't explain it. But then it
goes on to say that Kirby helps dealerships offer mobile
service with your platform platform. And what that means is
(01:32):
when you say mobile service, that means actually servicing cars.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
That's exactly right. You know, you bring up a really
good point. I think somebody may assume that we are
fixing their phone, right, We'll need to we will need
to work on that. That is exactly right. What Kirby
does is we enable, or we offer, we support dealerships
to offer mobile or at home service. So essentially, think
of the service department at a dealership coming to you
(02:00):
instead of you having to go to it. And the
way we do that is with our software and our
best practices and our support. So we're what you would
call a business to business technology provider, but we are
enabling the dealerships to offer a much needed service, such
as the ability for a dealership to come to your
home to fix or repair your vehicle, or do an
(02:22):
inspection or a recall.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I don't mean to sound negative or like a big
cry baby, a bit. But when I have learned about
a recall or something that's wrong with my car that
can be fixed easily at the dealership, it's almost by accident.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
And I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I don't open every single piece of mail that I get,
but I don't open up every single piece of mail
that I get, and so sometimes a recall or a
software update is something that I miss. And I never
feel like it's a big push for dealerships to, you know,
come out and reach out to me. So to me,
(03:02):
this is an incredible idea because not only can these
recalls be corrected, but you're saying that somebody's going to
come to my house.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Essentially? Yes, And don't feel that way. You're not alone, Karen.
There's seventy million open recalls in the United States.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Right, Oh my god, what?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Why?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
How does this happen? And how are people driving around
with cars that actually work?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Let's double click this real quick. It happens because the
technology and vehicles continues to grow, just like it does
in our phones with chips and computers. So they're building
cars faster, they're building them for different use cases, and
so manufacturers ultimately want to make sure that they can
put out really good product, but as soon as they
(03:55):
hit the real world and the use cases show that
something is incorrect, the manufacturers are very quick to recall.
A recall in it of itself is not necessarily a
bad thing.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I'm so glad that you said that. I'm glad that
you said that. That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, yeah, think about it. It's a manufacturer, Toyota for
Chevy saying something we saw in this vehicle, in this
range of vehicles that we built, and therefore all of
the you know, ten builds before that and ten builds
after it, we want to fix all of those, or
we want to provide a new software updates, or we
want to replace this part. And look, to your point,
(04:31):
it's a little old school. They send a letter to
somebody's house which you may or may not open, to
your point, but maybe you do open it. I mean,
I have one in my house. It's sitting on our
dining room table, and I haven't completed it yet. Because
to our point, we live in a world where you
get an email, you get an alert, you get a
piece of mail, you get a phone and call, and
(04:52):
then you get a text message and that's the only
way I can remember to do. So, Therefore, it's not
lost that there's seventy million of these open recalls, because
sometimes people forget to do them. And to your point earlier,
when you get to the dealership and you're there for
your oil change, they might say to you, hey, miss Karen,
by the way, did you know you had this open
recall that we're going to take care of? Also, yeah, clearly, again,
(05:15):
the numbers show that most people are not going there
convenience time, whatever the reason.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Do absolutely, I mean, it seems I know you've probably
heard it a thousand times, but it seems almost too
good to be true. How can you give me a
little bit of your background on how you even got
to this point?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Sure? Absolutely, I'll address the first part last.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Oftentimes I think some of the best technology or innovations
or ideas are the most simple ones because they're right
in front of your nose. And we say this all
the time. It passes the me test. Everything comes to us.
Nowadays we can engage in it via our phone, and
it just didn't make sense that you have to go
into a dealership for service. Again, Don't get me wrong,
(06:00):
there are certain things that should happen there, certain things
should be able to take care of when they come
to you. To unpack a little bit of my background,
you know, I grew up in the automotive industry, if
you will. I worked for Toyota Corporate for several years
in the field, working directly with dealerships, continuing to keep
my head down and work with all of these dealerships
(06:21):
across the country, and then I was back into our headquarters.
So I've worked with the manufacturer and I've worked on
the dealer side. I also worked at Stillansis for a
short period, and then ultimately I pivoted and started to
work for tech companies in the automotive industry. So when
you work with dealers and then you work with manufacturers,
you start to see gaps in the process. You start
(06:44):
to see gaps in the experience for a consumer. And
so there are a lot of companies that develop technology
to support the dealerships and the manufacturers from a customer
experience standpoint, or an efficiency standpoint or a productivity standpoint.
And that's where I fell in love with the opportunity
to do that, and more specifically with Kirby. I wasn't
(07:04):
you know, I can't take all of the credit for
Kirby by any means whatsoever. In fact, Kirby started back
in twenty twenty. It was the real of a birth
child of some of the executives that left Tesla. So
our founding team where the folks that Tesla, who, if
you think about it, doesn't have physical dealerships, and so
everything they did was primarily done via mobile service. So
(07:26):
these executives after they left Tesla, thought that this was
a really great problem that they could solve. Let's go
do repair, Let's go do service in the field with
our own bands, our own technicians, and our own tools.
And that's how it started in twenty twenty and then
early twenty twenty four we realized that it was going
(07:47):
to take significant effort in funding to operationalize this thing nationally.
While that was taking place, dealerships, individual dealerships, your mom
and pop Toyota store or your large board dealership on
the street started to ask us about how we got
the right van to the right place at the right time,
with the right tools and the right technicians. And that's
(08:09):
when the light bulbs went off into we could help
the automotive industry. We could help consumers like yourself with
this convenience if we licensed this technology to the dealerships directly.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That is an incredible story.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I after reading about Kirby, I just I obviously before
we started recording, I had about a thousand questions because like,
how how did you come up with this? How did
this you know, develop? So going back to the whole
Tesla idea, I mean people that drive Tesla as they
(08:43):
know it's it's basically a computer. But when I started
to think about that when you were talking, I mean
basically all of our cars or computers, they're just not
as advanced maybe as a Tesla. Is that true even
for you know, used cars or cars that are not newer.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, I don't I'm going to mess this number up.
I don't have the stat in front of me, but
you know, if you were able to look it up,
the number of computers and computer chips and vehicles nowadays
are astronomical. So to your point, some of them might
be ev like a Tesla or a Rivian, which it
is an elect you know, it's a battery powered electric vehicle,
(09:24):
and so there are there We always said there's less
oily bits because there's no engine at it vehicle. However,
ice vehicles or internal combustion engines or non evs or hybrids,
those have just as many computers and chips. So to
your point, yeah, we're basically building computers on wheels now.
And if anyone's owned any computers or any technology, you
(09:44):
know that there's bugs and there's things that take place.
But the good thing is they can also be solved
pretty quickly with software updates or patches.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
And so obviously you are a startup. Kirby is a startup.
But from our conversation you said that Kirby is really
it's growing so quickly. How can people find out if
there is this service available maybe in their state or
their city.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yeah, great question. Interestingly enough, we pride ourselves when you're
a business to business provider, a B to B provider,
as they say, you pride yourself on no one knowing
your name as a consumer any longer.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
That's so true. I get it. I get it.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So for example, if you go into a restaurant and
give your credit card and you start punching away on
the iPad and then pay and get a receipt, you
don't know that shift for or micros is the technology
behind that, but you don't care right true, in that
same vein you don't know who Kirby is per se.
But if you're working with Ewing, Mercedes Benz in Dallas,
(10:55):
if you're with Autobon Volvo in the Fort Worth area,
they're using our technology in the background to schedule the service,
to optimize the communication with the customer. But those dealerships
individually are starting to adopt our technology to answer your
question directly. Look at their websites. Have all the dealerships
to ask if they offer mobile service. That's one of
(11:15):
the ways the adoption increases. And again we start to
get to a place where, say for vehicles, more customer
convenience and look, you're more loyal to those brands when
they offer that level of service orner.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So there are some people, and I've known them, that
actually have a whiteboard in their garage and they, you know,
write down notes saying this is when I got my
car service, this is when I changed the air filters,
this so.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
That they'll they'll know even if they.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Aren't going to keep the car, because they want it
to be in tip top condition. And then there are
those on the other hand that don't know that you're
supposed to change the fluids every.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Now and then.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
See that piece of information doesn't really matter when it
comes to the dealerships. But when there is a problem
with the car, I guess that's when the personalities of
their customers really come out. So, no matter who you are,
who doesn't want somebody coming to their house to fix
(12:17):
a problem, whether it be a software update or a recall.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I mean, you're so right.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Today in this world there may be something urgent that
falls through the cracks that you didn't mean for it
to fall through the cracks. And this is the answer
to that problem.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I agree. We started with the very simple thesis of
it passes the me test. Would I like to have
something come to me. I'm in the automotive industry. I
know tons of car dealers. I can get a car
fixed pretty quickly. However, time is money, time is energy.
It's the most important currency we have. So the more
things become convenient, the more people vote with their wallets.
(12:56):
And again we talk about this. If you don't believe me,
the Chipotle burrito that was twelve dollars and fifty cents
that was delivered to your door earlier today, thirty eight
percent of that cost or something like that was just
the delivery, and they seem to be doing fine. Yeah,
So I do think there's a couple things you unpacked there.
There's certain demographics, right, there are certain audiences. You know.
(13:18):
We did a story on LinkedIn of the lady in
the automotive industry who is a mother of two small children,
and she did a podcast where we reposted it. She
talked about the Ford dealer locally coming to her house
by nine am while she was cleaning cheerios off of
the top on a zoom call. Both oil changes of
her vehicle were completed in her driveway and she was
(13:41):
able to see the technician, she had transparency, take care
of it, and be able to move on with her day.
And then there's another side that we talked about I
think earlier, where there's generations of customers who have seen
their parents only drive evs, so they don't know that
you have to go in for an oil change every
three thousand, five seventy five hundred. In addition, they're not
(14:04):
going to do anything unless they get an alert on
their phone first.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So I think the automotive industry, and in particular particular,
the dealerships are starting to recognize the shift of demographics,
the shift of character, the shift of behavior, and they're
addressing it with things like mobile service or at home service.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I love it, and so then I guess the bigger
question is what dealership wouldn't want you to come help
them out? How do you get your dealerships to participate?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Listen, I couldn't agree with you more. Which dealership would
not want us to come and help them? How do
we get our dealerships to participate? It starts with a
I would say a typical business to business approach. We
are in the trades, if you will, meaning we are
talking to the automotive industry. We're talking to dealerships, we're
(14:54):
talking to manufacturers, whether or not it's through publications or
conferences or channels within LinkedIn. What we're doing is we're
elevating the awareness of the demand that you have as
a consumer. Care you want this, Most consumers want this.
I want this A lot of times. We have to
elevate that demand. We have to create that awareness with
(15:17):
the manufacturers, we have to create that awareness and demand
with the dealerships, and then we have to be able
to show our value propositions or the features of our
platform that helps solve for that demand. There's others out
there that do it. Personally, I'm a little biased. I
think we do it better than others because we have
a lot of street credit from what we've done. But
that's really how how we have to approach it. We
(15:37):
have to show them that this is this is a
thing that is really necessary. And you know, there's a
couple of different ways that we lean into that. We
talk about the vehicles, you know, we talk about those
seventy million open recalls. I think all of us understand
that we want safer, thoughtful, effective vehicles on the road
because anytime there's a breakdown or anytime something goes wrong,
it costs time and money.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I mean, it is it's so funny to joke about it,
but I mean car salesmen, dealerships, dentists. You're thinking of
the things that just kind of make you cringe. This
is this is a facet of this entire group of
you know, automotive dealerships that would I don't know, adding
(16:20):
this to me would seem like making life so much easier,
not only for them as a dealership, but for their customer.
And I just can't I can't believe that you wouldn't
have great comments from from the dealerships. But have you
heard besides these stories that you tell us about the customer,
have you heard from the dealerships on how it makes
(16:42):
their lives happen.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Sure, certainly there's there's a couple. There's a couple un
obvious if that's a word.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I know, I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
There's a couple of non obvious or maybe opaque reasons
that dealerships also do this. For example, a dealership, you know,
let's just pick a standard toy of the dealership in
a city. You know, they might have fifty service bays
behind the showroom. Right, So in the front of the
dealership there's a showroom where they sell the new in
the US vehicles. In the back there's a parks department.
(17:16):
There's also these fifty service bays where the customers are
coming in and getting the vehicle service. Well, there's inflection
points during the service side of the business in the morning,
when there's a recall or if there's new products that
are released, where the shops hit this capacity where if
you were to call that local dealership and say Hey,
I have a XYZ model and I need to come
(17:38):
in for my thirty thousand service, thirty thousand mile service.
Pardon me, They might say you have a four or
five day wait because we're so busy. Well, part of
the value of this is to take some of the
smaller jobs. We talk about fluids and filters, We talked
about bulbs, batteries and blades, or these recalls, or maybe
(17:58):
some you know, small inspections. If we take those jobs
for a dealer, and when I say we, they their technicians,
is their tools, is their trucks. If they take those
jobs using our platform and come to you, then it
unlocks that capacity. It flees up more space at the
dealership to bring in that vehicle for the thirty thousand
miles service. So we do hear a lot about that
(18:18):
from the dealership. It's not only they're offering a convenience.
It's not only are they satisfying more recalls, which, by
the way, NTS a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, they
want safer vehicles. They're pushing and nudging on the manufacturers.
The manufacturers are nudging on the dealers, so it's a
trickle down effect. Everybody wants to see these recalls completed.
(18:39):
But the side effects if you will are better customer
satisfaction and the capacity at a dealership increasing so you
can bring more vehicles in for service.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It just makes so much more sense.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I know that before we started recording, I'm like, I'm
going to be asking you the most basic questions, but
it really does make so much sense. I mean, why
wouldn't and everybody knows it, I mean, why wouldn't a
dealership want you to take these smaller jobs so that
they could actually do their big money makers? Because I
mean that's obviously part of going to the dealership and
(19:16):
getting your car fixed or whatever.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
But I can answer that. Look, it's not let me
turn the analogy to so maybe something that lands with
all of us. Please, if everybody knows that if you
exercise and eat better, you'll live longer and you'll be healthier, right,
why doesn't everyone do it?
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, it's so easy until you have to do it yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I get it, I get it.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Yes, you're exactly right. So because it's because there's change
management involved, it becomes a little bit different. Look, there's
two things that dealership typically ask us about. Cost. How
much does it cost for me to be able to
implement this. Right, They've got to upfit a vehicle, right,
They've got to get a new vehicle, put the tools
in it, get a technician to come out there, buy
somem insurance, et cetera, et cetera. So they've got to
(20:04):
be able to do these things, which there's a cost
of doing business as anything else. But you know, the
numbers prove out someone like yourself is going to take
advantage of this. So therefore they're going to make revenue,
which they should. But there's a change management aspect of it.
You know, they've been doing business for one hundred years
within those four walls where a customer drives there, so
we over index as a company, we over index on
(20:26):
the change management aspect. Also, yes, we certainly provide this
really cool software that optimizes everything, but we also have
to teach them about change management, how to operationalize this
in the field, if you will. So, like many things,
there's a little bit of change management involved. But once
the change management is solved for or trained on, these
guys really start ramping up and offering these services more prolifically.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Amid for someone that owns a dealership and is just
hearing this for the first time. Is it's something that
takes a long time to teach when they actually do
take on your services.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Oh, great question. No, it takes about forty five days
to ramp up to an effective place, because if you
think about it, these dealerships are experts at fixing your vehicles.
They have factory trained technicians. They get direct trainings, learnings,
access to tools from the manufacturers, so they're very good
(21:24):
at the oily bits, if you will. What we train
them on is how do you answer the phone for
a customer who calls in and say, would you rather
come to you instead of you coming to us? What's
that going to look like? How am I going to
get through the AHOA code? Are you going to spill
oil on my driveway? And that's where we train them. No,
there's oil prevention kits, we have spill prevention, We take
(21:46):
these countermeasures. So that's really where the training comes involved,
is how they operate their business in the field like
we did thirty thousand times over a few years.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I just love this idea.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I hope that there are dealership owners that are listening
and reaching out to you because this is this is
a convenience. Unfortunately, you know that we need because of
today's busy, busy world and trying to get things done
and sometimes being alone and trying to get things done
and to you know, working and besides that, I mean,
(22:21):
you would think that a car dealership, I mean, I
know that they realize, but they must realize that the
greater service that they give their customers, the greater the
chance that they're going to be return customers.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Absolutely. In fact, there's a bunch of data that shows
that I told you that I grew up working for
some of the OEMs, and you know we have we
have data coming out of our ears as you can imagine,
but there's tons of data that shows customers if they
service a couple of two three times with a dealership,
they're more likely to buy from that brand. Are We
(22:57):
say this all the time. Consumers are very loyal to Apple,
CarPlay and technology versus some of the manufacturers. And the
more these dealerships who represent these manufacturers offered this type
of service, the more opportunities they're going to have to
be able to service them in the future and potentially
sell them another vehicle.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Well, I don't need to give out your website too much,
because just like you said, it's really something that dealerships
need to take advantage of. But if you've just now
joined us and you're wondering because I've been a horrible
host and didn't say who I'm talking to, a met
Shandarana is this CEO of Kirby and it is an
(23:37):
idea a met that I just I think it is
time and it's so great that you are growing as
quickly as you are.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
We appreciate that. Thank you, And again I think we
always default back to we think we're solving a real problem.
It passes the me test and it really does offer
the thing that's most important, which is it offers time
back to consumers.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, I have enjoyed this time. I'm telling you, I
finally learned what I wanted to learn after reading one
hundred things, and you've really simplified it. And I can't
say that there's anything that I wouldn't do if I
were you had a dealership to get your services. And
I just think that this is a great, great thing
that you've done.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Well, we'll certainly work really hard to get some more
dealers in Texas close to you, please they can take
care of you please, and I really appreciate you allowing
us to unpack a little bit of our story with you.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Absolutely and I hope to talk to you again. Thank
you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
You're welcome.
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