It’s not easy for a business service company to break into the mom-and-pop auto dealership industry. But once you’re in, business snowballs via word-of-mouth, and it gets a lot easier.
That’s how Peter Carusone described the way business went for his Malta software startup, VisionAST, which helps auto and powersports dealerships more easily analyze sales performance data.
The startup has nearly doubled its customer base to 135 in the past six months, with plans to reach at least 250-300 customers by the end of year, Carusone said.
“By the end of the year, we'll be considerably profitable,” Carusone said.
The VisionAST software can be integrated into any existing deal management system, which is the software platform that dealers use to track inventory, services, finances and all other metrics. He says the product offers a user-friendly interface that helps dealers analyze product and service sales performance metrics and understand where leadership should focus on training and business development.
The company’s business projections are just based on organic growth, mostly through referral. But Carusone's also targeting contracts with insurance companies that manage warranties and ancillary products for dealers. Insurance companies could use the software to analyze performance of dealers and focus resources on individual stores that are lagging in sales.
If one of those contracts comes through, that would add hundreds or thousands of dealers to the VisionAST portfolio.
“That's going to be life-changing if one of those happens,” he said.
Carusone said he came up with the idea for the software over his 10 years as the director of operations for Zappone Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealers in Clifton Park and Granville.
His job included dealing with customer relationship management products and different types of software products. He was frustrated with how difficult it could be to navigate those different products to generate specific reports.
“As time went by, we started to realize we can't be the only people struggling," he said.
Carusone started VisionAST with backing from an unnamed local dealer. He spent a few years developing the product before working on it full time starting in 2017. He previously had sold advertising, particularly to auto dealers, for media companies. The majority of that time was spent at The Post-Star in Glens Falls.
Using the VisionAST platform, Carusone says tasks that took him hours to complete now take minutes. The simplicity has enabled existing customers to improve their businesses by including the analysis in their everyday routine. Normally, that type of task doesn’t get the priority it should, he said.
“It’s just literally one, two, three clicks, and you know how everyone's performing, where your challenges are, where your strengths are, and you can play to them in real time," he said.
There are more than 18,000 franchise auto dealers and 5,000 powersports dealers in the U.S. Carusone says his biggest competition is the software company StoneEagle, which says it has about 5,000 customers.
That means nearly 70% of the market is untouched, so there’s a lot of work to be done.
“We’re coming into an age of data that is becoming mainstream, where people realize if there's information out there and you're not using it, you're missing something," Carusone said. "A dealer has so much information sitting in their DMS, that in 70% of the cases is untapped. They're not even looking at it in the way they should and leveraging that information, so it seems to me that people are starting to understand that.”
VisionAST moved into an office in one of the Stewart’s Shops headquarters buildings in Malta about 10 months ago. Carusone thinks the synergy between workers has contributed to the company’s recent success. There are 10 people on the team now, and he expects that to grow with the company.
