Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures Dan Park, CEO of Clutch on The Future of Auto-Tech
The market for cars in 2021 has been one of the most pandemic-affected markets. The supply of both new and used cars has never been tighter and our guest today is seeing it from all sides. Dan Park is the CEO of Clutch, Canada's first and largest online car retailer. We talk to Dan about the automotive industry, his path to becoming CEO, and about his plans for the $60M he recently raised from Canaan Partners, FJ Labs, and Real Ventures.
About Dan Park:Dan is CEO of Clutch, an online platform for car buying and ownership. Prior to Clutch, Dan was GM & Head of Uber Eats Canada. During his time at Uber, Dan led the growth of Uber's food delivery platform in Canada. Previously, Dan was a Venture Partner at Azure Capital Partners and led the firm’s Canadian investment efforts.
A word from our sponsor:
For anyone that is lucky enough to be a part of building startups, we’ve all seen that mad-rush to answer extensive security questionnaires and implement SOC 2 controls the moment that big whale of a client is on the hook in order to not lose the deal.
Which unfortunately ends up swallowing the entire organization's time and resources in the hopes to land that whale, right? Lucky for us at Ripple, we have partnered with compliance automation provider Drata.
Drata saves our portfolio companies from these same issues when it comes to effectively proving a strong, ongoing security posture and achieving frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001.
Drata allows startups to put Security and Compliance on Autopilot. Companies using Drata experience an average time savings of 85% when compared to running the SOC 2 process manually.
Build trust with customers by proving your commitment to security, and maintain continuous compliance in between your audits. Don’t take it from us, Drata works with all kinds of startups like ClearCo, Lemonade, FullStory, Slice and countless others.
They're backed by top venture funds such as Okta Ventures and GGV, and are currently G2's number one ranked cloud compliance software provider for customer satisfaction.
Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Drata and take advantage of a 15% discount offer and waived implementation fees by visiting drata.com/tanktalks to get setup today.
In this episode we discuss:
02:44 How the auto industry is evolving and why now is a great time for disruption
04:56 The effect of the pandemic on modernizing the automotive industry and how its effected supply and demand for cars
07:39 How consumer behavior during the pandemic pushed forward app adoption
09:18 What the enduring lessons from the pandemic will be for the automotive industry
10:30 Why the dealership model is ready for disruption
11:42 How established players in the industry are fighting back against being disrupted from outsiders
13:18 Breaking down the existing legal structures between dealerships and automotive brands
16:16 How Clutch is using their data to analyze the aftermarket and used car market
18:59 Why Clutch is a better way to buy a used car
20:43 Real-world lessons Dan and his team have had to make while building Clutch
22:06 How Clutch has captured market share
23:18 How Dan defines Clutch’s company culture
24:26 Why Dan left Uber Eats to become the CEO of Clutch
26:46 Plans for Clutch’s recent $60M raise
Fast Favorites:
Favourite PodcastHow I Built This
Blog/NewsletterThe Peak
Tech GadgetGoPro Max
TrendCanada’s startup scene
BookShoe Dog by Phil Knight
Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!
Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com