Category Visionaries Adi Bathla, CEO & Co-Founder of Revv: $33 Million Raised to Power the Future of Auto Repair
Revv is transforming one of America's most traditional industries with AI-powered technology that helps auto repair shops navigate the complexity of modern vehicles. With over $33 million in funding and explosive growth from 2 to 75+ employees in just 24 months, Revv has found product-market fit in a massive, underserved market. In this episode of Category Visionaries, we sat down with Adi Bathla, CEO and Co-Founder of Revv, to explore how he built an AI platform that's revolutionizing auto repair workflows and compressing sales cycles from 21 days to just 3 days.
Topics Discussed:
- Revv's origin story and Adi's path from NASA award winner to auto industry entrepreneur
- The regulatory catalyst driving massive industry transformation (government-mandated automatic emergency braking by 2029)
- How modern cars evolved from mechanical devices to "computers on wheels" requiring specialized repair knowledge
- The challenge of acquiring first customers in a traditionally offline, relationship-driven industry
- Revv's approach to integrating with existing shop workflows rather than forcing adoption of new platforms
- The intense transition from founder-led sales to scalable go-to-market systems
- Building a mathematical rebuild of their sales process that compressed cycles from 21 days to 3 days
- Scaling from onboarding 20 shops per month to over 100 shops per month in just 12 months
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
- Meet customers where they are, not where you want them to be: Adi learned early that success in offline industries requires deep integration with existing workflows rather than forcing behavioral change. "Meeting an offline industry user where they are in their workflow rather than asking them to move towards your way of doing things" became a core thesis. Revv integrates with shops' existing scanning tools and estimatics software, running in the background to provide insights without disrupting established processes. B2B founders entering traditional industries should prioritize workflow integration over user interface innovation.
- Leverage regulatory triggers as market catalysts: Revv's timing was driven by government regulation mandating automatic emergency braking in all vehicles by 2029, which accelerated the adoption of advanced driver assistance systems across the vehicle fleet. This created an acute pain point as repair shops struggled to service increasingly complex technology. Adi explained, "The best birthplace of startups is when there is a government regulation or a functional change or net new technology that didn't exist before." B2B founders should identify regulatory shifts in their target markets and align their product development with compliance deadlines.
- Embrace the pain of rebuilding your go-to-market repeatedly: As Revv scaled, Adi made the difficult decision to completely rebuild their sales process multiple times. "There's no shame in admitting that what worked from the 0 to 5 journey is going to not work for the 5 to 25," he explained. The company rebuilt their entire sales motion to compress cycles from 21 days to under 3 days by redefining customer personas, creating targeted talk tracks, and engineering demos that immediately showcase ROI. B2B founders must be willing to tear down and rebuild successful systems as they scale.
- Focus on value propositions that drive immediate business impact: Revv succeeds because it promises both revenue generation and liability protection - compelling value propositions for shop owners. Their demos pull actual repair data from prospects' systems and show concrete ROI numbers, leading to a 60%+ demo-to-close rate. Rather than selling on features or efficiency gains, they demonstrate how their platform directly impacts the bottom line and reduces legal risk. B2B founders should anchor their value propositions on measurable business outcomes rather than product capabilities.
- Double down on unsexy, fragmented markets: The auto repair industry represents 400,000 businesses in the US alone, with 80% still operating as independent shops. While consolidation exists, the fragmented nature creates massive opportunity for horizontal solutions. Adi noted, "The more unsexy the industry, the more rich I think they are." These markets often lack sophisticated software solutions and have customers starved for technology that genuinely solves their problems. B2B founders should consider overlooked industries where technology adoption has lagged behind actual business needs.
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