Latest / Auto Collabs / Making M&A About More Than The Acquisition with Dave Cantin

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Making M&A About More Than The Acquisition with Dave Cantin · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Welp, we did, uh, an NADA show, so I wanna see- [singing] This is Auto Collabs... who has the lower voice. This is as low as I can go. I'm back in business, baby.
• 0:18
  Oh, Kyle's back in business. I'm back in business. You know, you were, you were losing your voice. I got my head voice back and everything.
• 0:23
  You were losing your voice more than I was on, like, day two, and I was kinda surprised by it, but- Yeah... uh, y- it was the Eagles game got me. That's what got you. At the end. Yeah, I had that rest on Sunday.
• 0:35
  That's what it was. Gotcha. Grant and Cirillo, you're, you're still, you're still in Morgan Freeman mode. I'm Morgan Freeman. Yeah, it's just- [laughs] I mean, I think Cirillo is Morgan Freeman.
• 0:44
  [laughs] Oh, he looks just like him. Looks just like him. [laughs] Spitting image. It's unbelievable. It's, it's the AI. [laughs] T- Morgan Freeman's pretty tall too, isn't he? Yeah. I don't know these answers.
• 0:55
  In another life, Michael is a tall Black man. [laughs] From, from the United States. And this is why everybody listens to the podcast. No, you know why they listen- Or doesn't... to the podcast, Michael?
• 1:05
  Show us your socks right now. Come on. Oh, boy. Yeah, all right. All right. Get that leg up there. We're gonna have to describe this. [laughs] It's easy to describe. This man- American flag socks from Stance.
• 1:17
  Not sponsored. Yeah. They go, they go all the way up past his knee. It's amazing. You know, today's guest, if you- When I crossed the state line into Texas, it just came out of me.
• 1:27
  I was like, "I'm proud to be an American." Socks. [laughs] Right. [laughs] Yeah. What? Yeah, 'cause I think of socks the first thing I think of being an American. What, they don't have socks in other countries?
• 1:38
  What, do we invent socks? Paul's trying to start this podcast. He's been trying the whole, the whole time. I d- I keep trying to start the con- [laughs] I mean, I had a good segue from American socks.
• 1:47
  You're losing me a little bit. But if you've ever met today's guest, Dave Canton, you know, like, immediately this is Northeast through and through. Oh. The accent, the attitude.
• 1:57
  Um, and he's the guy where it's like after you talk to him, like, you know, some people think of a Northeast accent, they think New Jersey, they think Long Island, they think Boston, and Philly maybe even.
• 2:09
  And so many of those people that might come across as having an edge, right? But deep down, like, they do so much for caring for people, but the, the accent throws people off.
• 2:19
  Dave's probably one of those guys, when you hear the accent. Um, but we're gonna talk to him today about all the things he's doing. We hope...
• 2:25
  I don't know, maybe we'll we ask him what socks he's got, but I don't know if that's too personal. [laughs] I don't know. But we hope you enjoy this conversation we have with Dave Canton.
• 2:37
  Dave, thank you so much for being with us today. It's great to be here. Thanks, guys. Appreciate the invite. Okay, so, uh, a couple things. There are some similarities between you and I.
• 2:45
  Number one, we were both born in 1979. [laughs] Number two, we both, uh, have lived in New Jersey. I grew up in Philly and South Jersey. So the second we met, I was like, "I'm gonna ask you if you're an Eagles fan."
• 2:56
  He's a Jets fan, which is cool. Eagles fans and Jets fans. Yeah. I'm Central Jersey, so I could have went either way. Ab- [laughs] absolutely. It's an easy switch. It's an easy switch.
• 3:03
  Like, that guy- These guys and their New, their New England football... if it was up to my son, we would be Phillies fans. He just called us New... He, Kyle just said these guys and their New- You're New Englanders.
• 3:11
  You're just way up there in the side of the world that nobody needs to worry about. This is not New England. This is one place Kyle is never- This is far from New England, man. Yeah. This is the tri-state.
• 3:18
  [laughs] This is absolutely- If you haven't known, the Yankees and Red Sox haven't liked each other forever. Yeah. Like- That's true.
• 3:24
  [laughs] So Dave, but I, I would love to talk about how you got into the industry, because you got in at a young age, and you were a general manager at a very young age.
• 3:33
  Um, and now you've, like, really f- walked this full path and you're doing some amazing things now, just not only in the industry, but also in philanthropy.
• 3:40
  So, but, like, tell me about your very first step into the auto industry. Why did you get into the car business? Well, my, my very first step, so here's how it went, right?
• 3:47
  I graduated high school, and I'll never forget, for those from New Jersey, I picked up the Asbury Park Press, right? And, uh, it was, it was literally an article in there for a sales position.
• 3:57
  So I'm like, all right, well, you know, I gotta do something. I got a sales job literally, like, a week outside of high school. How much did it say you could make your first year? It probably said something. Six figures.
• 4:05
  Yeah, of course. There you go. Absolutely. Yeah, they wanted me to walk in. And we're still bringing that home, baby. [laughs] So here, so here's the greatest story.
• 4:10
  I walk in there with this newspaper, and everyone's ignoring me. I couldn't get anyone... I mean, because I wasn't there to buy a car.
• 4:17
  So every salesman's walking up to me, they're all trying to talk to me, and they're like, you know, um, "Are you here to buy a car?" I'm like, "No," and they just kept walking by.
• 4:23
  [laughs] So I'm, I'm in the showroom now for like 30 minutes. I'm holding this newspaper and I'm like, "Can I speak to the general manager?" And everyone that's walking by me is ignoring this 18-year-old kid, okay?
• 4:35
  [laughs] True story. But it, it literally intrigued me not to leave. I was like, there's no way I'm walking out. Absolutely.
• 4:41
  So an hour later, the general manager comes up and goes, "I understand you're waiting to speak with me. Is everything okay?" I said, "I'm here to apply for this position."
• 4:49
  He goes, "Well, look, son, you know, if you look around you, these are all really sophisticated salespeople." [laughs] "They're much older than you." He goes, "I suggest..."
• 4:58
  He goes, "I suggest you go down to the mall and, and, and apply for a job." And I was like- Well, what kind of... What type, what dealership was it? What type of... What, what are you selling?
• 5:05
  I can't call them out, but it was, uh- Okay, okay. Well, well, go ahead... well, you know what? I'll throw it out there. No, it was a CDJR dealership. Okay, great. In Monmouth County.
• 5:12
  The, the essence of sophistication- Throw that out there... back in the '70s. Right. I got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So here we are. I walk into the dealership. An hour goes by.
• 5:20
  The GM finally comes out to me, and he goes, "Look, you know, this isn't for you. Like, we only hire the best of the best. You're 18 years old." I was like, "Look, here's something I'll promise you.
• 5:28
  I'm hungrier than everyone you have here." [laughs] "I, I'm a sponge. I will learn it all. Give me the opportunity." So he goes, "All right, sit and hang out." Three hours later, now I'm there four hours.
• 5:38
  He comes out- Yeah, now they're just testing you... now he's just messing with me at this point, but I'm like, "You're not gonna win. You can't trigger me." [laughs] So I stay there.
• 5:45
  Um, he, he comes over to me and he goes, "All right, I'm gonna give you a shot." From that moment on, I was the first one in the dealership, the last one to leave the dealership.
• 5:54
  I learned the entire sales process in 72 hours. I quickly gained the respect of everyone in the organization. I think my first 30 days out of the gate, I did a better job than the guys that were there 20, 30 years.
• 6:06
  I'm sure you did. And I was, I was a good guy, so I made friends with everyone, but it was a competition. I was there to win. Um, out of, after my first year there, I got promoted to sales manager, then finance manager.
• 6:16
  [laughs] And I climbed every single step of this store in two, two and a half years. And I remember the day that I walked up to the general manager who interviewed me.
• 6:25
  Now, at this point I was making, I don't know, 3, 400,000 a year, right? I'm, I'm, I'm not even 20- At 21. I'm not even 21. Oh. Oh my gosh. Goodness. I'm 20 years old. I'm making 3, 400,000 a year.
• 6:36
  I'm working 60 hours a week. I mean, look, all my buddies are going to South Beach and Cancun, and I'm working 60, 70 hours a week.But, you know- Right...
• 6:44
  moral of the story is I walk up to the GM and I said, "Look, there's only one position left here for me, and that's yours. And that's the... You gave me an opportunity, and I would never take away yours.
• 6:55
  It's time we have to part ways." And he just- Mm... looked at me, and he just looked at me and he was like... And I gotta tell you, that gentleman is one of my greatest mentors to this day. That's so cool.
• 7:06
  His son actually works for me, okay? Unbelievable. No way. All these years later, his son is actually one of my most talented managing directors, incredibly skilled, unbelievable valued asset of our company.
• 7:19
  But then, you know, the funny part is for, so then I go out there and I'm working with the OEMs to find a great partner.
• 7:24
  I wanted my name on a building, and I partnered with the former left tackle of the New York Giants, as a Jets fan, Brad Benson. Wow. [laughs] That's great.
• 7:32
  [laughs] And we've, and, and we, we built one of the largest dealerships in the entire world. Um, I sold out in 2013. Um, I was always involved in real estate and a lot of other things in the finance world.
• 7:42
  Uh- What dealership was that? That was Brad Benson Auto Group. So we owned the largest Hyundai dealership. We would always go back and forth with one or two other stores in the country. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
• 7:50
  We would sell 6, 7,000 cars a year. Um, I was a minority partner, and then, you know, 2013 rolled around and I was just so involved in so many other things, I sold out. And, um- All right, wait.
• 8:02
  Before we g- [laughs] Before we keep going, because I need to, I need to go into this. A couple things. One, did you play- Sure... sports growing up? I did. Okay.
• 8:12
  I think that this is something that, like, when we talk to younger generations, 'cause you were 18 when you got in the business, and I, I can tell that you're probably passionate about this, is
• 8:24
  there are so many people coming out of high school and college that are very hungry.
• 8:30
  And right now, a lot of that, like, the, the people that are the most hungry are going into these, like, creator positions or net new entrepreneurial.
• 8:40
  And I was watching a, a, a, uh, like, a podcast, um, if you ever have seen, uh, um, uh, oh, the Diary of a CEO podcast yesterday. Sure. And,
• 8:53
  uh, he had a gentleman on there that was like, "You know, one thing that you can do right now is find a person to, to get alongside that has an entrepreneurial spirit, spirit- Intern...
• 9:04
  young in your life- Intern, yeah... to, to, to, to, like, gain the knowledge around that entrepreneurial spirit." Sure.
• 9:13
  And I think that there are a lot of people that could find auto today that have, like, paid attention to Gary Vee or that understand, like, what the hustle game, and Gen Z is ripe for this right now.
• 9:24
  Like, it's- Mm-hmm... a very hustle generation. And find that in auto, because we still have that. Well, it's auto, it's finance, it's so much more, right?
• 9:32
  I mean, look, when you look at a- when you look at auto, auto is combined of so many different sectors. And you're right, it does have that hustle mentality of getting involved.
• 9:40
  But, you know, as technology grows and everything, you know, kind of elevates, it needs greater and more, more skillsets, right? That's different- Yeah...
• 9:48
  than, that's, that's much different than when I grew up in this industry. But it also needs the, the level of tenacity and grit and resiliency- Yeah...
• 9:55
  that you find in the younger generation that can overcome adversity and other things to be able to hang in an industry like the auto world.
• 10:02
  You know, look, when I got into this industry, it's completely different than what it is today. It's evolved light years ahead. That doesn't make it worse. It makes it greater. Yeah.
• 10:11
  It makes it more of an opportunity for the younger generation. Fully agree. So you were saying you're a minority partner. You were doing all these other things, and then what happened?
• 10:22
  Yeah, look, I had huge ambitions, right? My goal, I come from nothing, okay? Minus nothing. So my goal in life was always to be able to create so much that I could give back and never stop giving, okay? Mm.
• 10:33
  My goal in life was to be able to help others that kind of had similar paths of mine, and maybe couldn't find the, the, the, the ability to dig deep and, and, and really figure out what it takes to get out there and create greatness.
• 10:45
  So sometimes, you know, everyone could use support. My goal was to do as much as I can, to create as much as I can, to give back as much as I can.
• 10:53
  And with doing that, my goal was always to not just own car dealerships, but to create myself a, a, a, a legacy aspect in multiple different industries. Mm-hmm.
• 11:04
  Everything that I get involved in, I try to learn everything I possibly can. So in 2013, I knew at that time my days of op- owning and operating dealerships came to an end.
• 11:14
  I was highly invested in finance, um, in, in different investments, um, in real estate and other areas that were doing really well that needed my attention.
• 11:24
  Well, in 2015, I started really getting into mergers and acquisitions, really understanding- Mm... what a merger and acquisition is, how would I, how would I, how it really benefits the world.
• 11:36
  I want you to think about it like this. What sports agent should, what or what athlete shouldn't have a sports agent representing themself? None. Is that a real question? Yeah, I was gonna say. It's a question, right?
• 11:47
  Absolutely. Think about it, right? Yeah. You're this incredible athlete. Do you not hire a sports agent? You have to. Do you think, like, like, yeah, absolutely, right?
• 11:53
  You cannot be, yeah, you ha- you can't operate at that level as an athlete- Okay... and understand the other world and operate in the other world. Okay, so think about it like this, right?
• 12:03
  When we were growing up, A-Rod, right, you know, would, had that monster contract for $225 million over 10 years. Yep. Now, that $225 million contract- Monster, yeah... is nothing, right?
• 12:14
  Now we're seeing 500, 600, $700 million contracts. Those are properly negotiated. Mm-hmm. So those are legacy contracts. Well, now you flip it into M&A.
• 12:24
  My goal always was to create a merger and acquisition philosophy that creates legacy acquisitions, acquisitions that separate themselves apart from, from the others. Yeah.
• 12:35
  Um, the auto industry was the industry that, in my opinion, did not have the proper representation. Understand something. For decades, dealers were negotiating their own contracts, their own- Yeah... acquisitions.
• 12:48
  Like an athlete- Isn't that wild? Yeah... it, it's, it's brutally wild. It's like, it's unimaginable.So now I get into this space and I start speaking with dealers that knew me.
• 12:57
  I sat on multiple boards in the automotive industry.
• 13:01
  Philanthropy has been a big thing for me since I'm a teenager, and, you know, r- understanding the importance of giving back, and I had a lot of credibility in the space.
• 13:10
  So as I'm sitting with, with friends, they quickly become clients. And they're like, "Wait, I don't know why I don't have someone representing me in this acquisition.
• 13:19
  I don't know why I'm trying to attack it myself and go through the emotional steps- Hmm... of trying to think I'm gonna do a better job than a third party."
• 13:28
  And once you remove yourself from the situation and allow someone that has the proper skill set, you immediately see the value.
• 13:35
  2017, I handled the Prime acquisition, which at that point was the second-largest acquisition- Yeah, I remember that. Yep... the York Buck- Buck's Van Mile deal. And that kind of just opened my eyes.
• 13:45
  So I was like, "Wow, there is a lot of opportunity here." Mm-hmm. So in 2017, I traveled all 50 states for about six months. I interviewed- Really?...
• 13:54
  hundreds and hundreds of people in the space, former, former attorneys, accountants, dealers, wealth management advisors. I interviewed as many people as I can. This is...
• 14:05
  Honestly, it's a flashback to your learning the entire sales process in 72 hours- A-... when you guys opened the store. Literally. He's like I was, 72 hours in. Yeah. Nothing's changed. Yeah.
• 14:13
  But, but, but here, here is the best part, like, I don't know what I'm doing. I just know that I'm gonna do it and I'm not gonna... I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna work harder than anybody else and I'm gonna figure it out.
• 14:23
  I'm a sponge. I'm gonna read. I'm gonna ask questions. I'm gonna get on calls with people that know what they're doing.
• 14:28
  So 2017, I'm traveling the country and I interviewed hundreds of people to establish and build the Dave Canton group. It's been the most incredible journey over the last- Hmm... eight years.
• 14:39
  You know, we've grown from a one-man show to, you know, dozens and dozens, hundreds of, of the most incredible advisors, um, partners. You know, today I brought in...
• 14:50
  I'm, I'm the only mergers and acquisitions firm in the automotive industry that has a strategic partner, um, Steve Coltis, who's the co-founder of CVC Capital Partners, um, one of the largest private equity firms in the world.
• 15:03
  Um, his family office, Caltroco, um, purchased a percentage, bought in as my partner of, of, of DCG, of Dave Canton Group, last September. And that was an intentional move to- Interesting... expand and grow in the space.
• 15:18
  You know, our thought process isn't just to be a transactional advisor and do 30, 40, 50 acquisitions a year.
• 15:25
  Our true goal is to earn a right to have a seat at that table for our clients when they're not considering an acquisition or divesture. Wow. I- I mean, I, I'm trying to process all this right now. So you- I, uh- [laughs]
• 15:39
  My... Here's... M- my question- How have we not talked before, is my first question [laughs] How have we not talked? I'm like, I'm pumped.
• 15:46
  Um, the, the, the big question that I have is, like, there's, you know, there's like four or five major players in auto and, and M&A, right, um, at this point now, today. Sure. Yeah.
• 15:57
  And then there's just some long tail, right? There's some people that handle one, two, three transactions across the country. Sure. Obviously, there's 17,000 dealers. You can't split that amongst four people, right?
• 16:06
  Or four groups.
• 16:07
  But when you think about, like, the consolidation of the industry, and there'll always be, like, the onesie-twosies transactions, but as the consolidation of the in- industry is increasing and we're seeing these, like, mid to large size groups line up in, in droves to kinda, like, pick out the onesie-twosies- Mm-hmm.
• 16:24
  Mm-hmm... what's the... Like, where's the long tail of that kinda end? Like, do you think...
• 16:30
  A- are you seeing the pace such that we're seeing four or five years down the line there's so much consolidation that we can't get out of it? Or is it backing away from that i- in your perspective?
• 16:41
  Because I have to imagine, like, we've kinda built this M&A, you know, craft over the last eight, 10 years in the industry, but it's also built this behemoth of like, "Yeah, let's consolidate this thing at the same time."
• 16:53
  Yeah. It's so much bigger than that, right? So, okay, let, let me back up a little bit for you guys. The reason I chose M&A in the automotive industry is because the biggest institutional players can't hop into it.
• 17:04
  The JPMorgans, the Goldman Sachs, the Jefferies, the Baird, the Bank of America. Right. The biggest names in M&A don't have the automotive relationships, okay? So it starts with the relationship.
• 17:14
  Consolidation is evolution. It's going to happen. The idea isn't to be living on a hamster wheel and constantly do 500, 600 acquisitions a year.
• 17:24
  The idea is to create an initiative and value that your clients see, not just in an acquisition, but in your company. That's sad.
• 17:32
  So we're so much, we're so much larger than, than an M&A firm because our goal isn't to just advise on acquisitions. There's so much more.
• 17:42
  You know, we have the MOR report, the Market Outreach Report, the Market Outlook Report. That report, it, it creates so much incredible data. We, we, we, we bring it out two to three times a year.
• 17:52
  We partner with Kaiser Associates. That is not just a report that we're putting out that's like the Dave Canton report. "Let me walk through what a dealership's worth."
• 18:00
  These are insights and information that dealers, uh, and OEM executives, and attorneys, and accountants, and so many others in the industry don't have the answers for and are significant concerns or questions in the space.
• 18:15
  We put months behind each report that we create with Kaiser Associates, and we actually have our next version coming out this week. Well, let me ask you this. Then we have... Yeah, go ahead.
• 18:23
  Well, while, while we're on that, if it's coming out next week, obviously a lot of the industry heading to NADA show as we're recording this. Correct. Um, what are...
• 18:30
  Like, give us two or three points that are always the topics of conversation when you release the report. The thing...
• 18:37
  Like, what are the things that, like, get, get absorbed right away because there's an appetite for that information? Yeah, that's a great question.
• 18:43
  What we always do is we try to put as much due diligence as we can to be front and center of topics that are highly interesting in that time, right? The moment. In real time. Right. Right.
• 18:54
  We wanna, we wanna always be talking in real time. So right now, hybrid and electric vehicles, right? That's a huge topic. Um, Korean automakers are making significant gains. Huge topic. Um, peak truck.
• 19:06
  We're at the peak with trucks. Mm-hmm. Now they're, you know, they're saying we're gonna sell less trucks. We really stick on topics that are most critical to the industry in real time.Got it. Okay. Great.
• 19:18
  I'll tell, I'll tell you this though, just, just to add onto that. Yeah, go. Our most favorite project of all time, JumpIQ.
• 19:24
  You know, the, everyone says to me, and you were kinda going this road, what happens when acquisitions slow down? What happens when you go from 500 to 300? Yeah, right.
• 19:33
  How do you sustain as much business as you have today? You have to have products and a value that nobody else has in this space. So JumpIQ, you probably never heard of it before. We're three and a half years.
• 19:46
  We're still in beta phase. We have a chief artificial intelligence officer, Bruce Malloy, and a staff of 15 individuals.
• 19:54
  It's the only AI tool of its kind, of its kind, not just in the automotive space, that accesses dealership evaluations. We have, we've inferred data for all 18,000- Wow...
• 20:09
  car dealerships in the continental US, and have 40 points of data that are the most critical to everyone in this space within seconds.
• 20:19
  Um, it's an award-winning technology and innovation fueled by a team of 14 people that work on this every single day. It is literally the change maker in the automotive industry.
• 20:31
  Um- See, see that's, that's really interesting to me, and I've asked this q- question a couple times and, and I, I'm, I'm a big believer, like the, the, you know,
• 20:41
  like historically especially, like when you look at Blue Sky or M&A, there's kinda like three to four factors that are like the top line factors.
• 20:47
  Obviously you get deep into the P&L, you get deep into the statement, you d- get deep into the customer base, all of that type of stuff.
• 20:53
  But there's like three or four main factors around profitability, gross profit, net profit, you know, custom- Top line revenue- Yeah, top line pro- like- PBR, sure...
• 21:02
  there's, there's like your top four or five things that like, like are your little check measures.
• 21:07
  When you're thinking about data, you're thinking a- about obviously all the long tail data points that can infer things about the potential for business or the potential for growth. But
• 21:17
  does that also, are you also looking at exposing what a lot of these other... Like when, uh, I, I got really interested when you said
• 21:27
  giving the access to the relationship plays of the largest M&A people in the world, right? Which is actually not auto buying auto, right? Right.
• 21:34
  It's actually the funds out, out there in like the, the Bank of America or the Chase or the PE firms that- Old man, yeah, yeah, yeah... have the potential to buy up auto dealerships.
• 21:44
  I think they're also looking at acquisitions from not just their P&L, their ability to drive profit, their top line revenue, but they're looking at it from like a data efficiency and a data opportunity to, to allow that data to like cross verticals.
• 22:01
  Are you starting to see that as something that people are asking questions of, or are you leveraging that in that JumpIQ to say, "Oh look, the data strategy of this company is so sound and so solid that you can expose this data in your other ventures"?
• 22:16
  All right, so either A, you have someone on the inside at DCG or JumpIQ, or B, um, you know what you're talking about. He knows what he's talking about.
• 22:24
  [laughs] J- JumpIQ, um, was created, okay, three and a half years ago to be able to put dat- to be able to create and infer data that isn't just outlining top line revenue or net profit or PBR or, or how you're doing versus your competitors, but it becomes projectable.
• 22:43
  So we're projecting the future. You take any current event in the news, we could plug that in and it'll tell you exactly what the cause and effect is, okay? Giving an example, the Baltimore Bridge collapses.
• 22:55
  We immediately could plug that into JumpIQ, and within 15 seconds it'll tell you how that affects its surrounding dealers, okay, immediately. The supply chains.
• 23:06
  There's so much more than what it does than just print out a Wall Street evaluation within seconds. But that- I mean, what ha- what happens when you plug in something like, I don't know, say, a presidential inauguration?
• 23:18
  [laughs] It'll tell you exactly what to expect. Did you run it? Of course. [laughs] It'll tell you exactly what to expect from the administration.
• 23:25
  And look, who's not saying the sentiment isn't that '25 is gonna be a monster year? It's gonna be, you know, I think the next four years are gonna be explosive. Yeah.
• 23:34
  That's, I mean, we're, I mean, this is one of those instances where I look up at the time and I'm like... I know. I just had like three more questions, Bob. [laughs] We're gonna do this again. We're gonna do this again.
• 23:46
  I'm, I'm really excited about this because I, I, you know, and I said this a second ago, but I, I think that the data strategy of dealers, not just from like a way you structure your P&L, the way you structure your data, but the way you structure your consumer data, the way you structure your projection data, um, you know, like it's, it's going to be more...
• 24:08
  And, and we'll get the valuations from a multiple perspective if we start thinking of ourselves as tech and data companies and not just like core revenue companies.
• 24:20
  And some of these larger firms out there that are, that are paying seven, eight, nine, 10X multiples for companies that have similar revenue to auto will start to look at auto with the same lens.
• 24:34
  Because like- More than you could imagine. More than you could imagine... it, it's insane. And let me just, let me just give you- Like we don't, we shouldn't be relying on like 3 to 4X multiples- No, no...
• 24:41
  anymore, in my opinion... let me give you the 12,000 view above, right? I want you to imagine this, okay? Um, you're, you're, you're, you're in the market to buy a, a, you know, to, to roll up 15 car dealerships.
• 24:51
  What you don't know is you don't have the data, okay, that's really gonna tell you how these 15 car dealerships are comparing against either the competitive dealerships in market or anywhere in the continental US.
• 25:04
  Here's how awesome JumpIQ is today. You could plug in any single group of dealerships, okay?
• 25:10
  And then you, it pulls up a map, and within seconds it'll tell you how those stores are competing against any other make or competitive make.Within a mile or 3,000 miles away.
• 25:24
  So you know exactly, as soon as you look at a car dealership, how it's performing, where your upside potential is, where your areas of growth are, and exactly where to go to.
• 25:34
  So when you work with DCG and you get the JumpIQ intelligence, this AI intelligence, as soon as you close on the transaction, you instantly know where to go to, where to look at, that you're gonna see the most significant results instantly.
• 25:47
  Oh, my gosh. What- That's awesome. Well, Dave, it's, it is clear that you are just, like, you're obsessive about finding the way in your craft, all the way from 18 year old, uh, today. I know we've gotta do this again.
• 25:58
  We gotta get deeper- Oh, yeah... into your history, and also what you're doing now. But Dave, thank you so much for joining us today on Auto Collapse. Guys, thanks for your time today.
• 26:06
  Look forward to seeing you guys soon, and, uh, tha- thank you for everything. [upbeat music] Okay, didn't ask the sock question quite. No sock questions, but it's okay because I...
• 26:20
  Like, the tenacity of his journey through automotive, through career path, it is deeply rooted in so many people that have grown up in the industry. Like, this, "I'm not gonna...
• 26:37
  I'm, I'm not going down without a fight. I'm gonna prove to you why I can do this job," and it, like, consistently comes out in every career step that he took, but not without mentorship, right?
• 26:51
  There's, like, this w- there's this interesting thing that I see so often in, in auto.
• 26:55
  It's like, "I n- I have to prove to my mentor that I can do this, yet my mentor is still the authority," like, all the way through every career step. Yeah, that's a, that's a really good point.
• 27:04
  Michael- Those are all the feelings everyone had just making their way to NADA this time around. They're like- That's what it was... "I can do this job. I will get it done." Yeah. You can do this. That's true. I, I...
• 27:14
  It's funny, I, I saw somebody refer to it on LinkedIn as, like, like, a version of The Amazing Race. [laughs] If only, if only- Well, that wa- that was a missed opportunity. There should've been- I...
• 27:25
  That's immediately what I thought of. I was like, "We could have... Be like, 'Send us your videos'"- Just got there... "We could produce a live episode of The Amazing Race on the way."
• 27:33
  Yeah, and then we were, we're standing there at the NADA sign with like, "Congratulations." Oh. Oh, that's awesome. [laughs] Who would be...
• 27:40
  Okay, who would, who would be the person, now that we're not talking about Dave Kenton anymore, which is like... [laughs] 'Cause Michael's like, "I have an idea" [laughs]
• 27:48
  No, but, but we're, we'll talk- [laughs] We're gonna come back to Dave in a second, but if we had to pick somebody who was, like, the host- Who's the person standing there? Who's the host? David Kane.
• 27:56
  David Kane, for sure. Oh, David Kane. Oh, gosh. Right out of the gate, nailed it. Just 'cause everybody's gonna be happy when they get there. Yeah. They're gonna be like, "I can't wait to see David." Nailed it.
• 28:02
  Yeah, he would be standing there- That's who it is... and he'd just say, "It is so good to see you." Aw. Yeah, that's exactly how he'd say it. Well, look at you all beat up and bloody and all.
• 28:10
  [laughs] You look like you just had one heck of a time getting here. [laughs] I'm sorry to tell you, you lost. You gotta go home, though. [laughs] Oh, yeah. Oh. [laughs] That's too good.
• 28:21
  You know, like, this is what we do to ourselves. This is what we do. This... We've done it to ourselves. I know we have. I know we have.
• 28:26
  [laughs] Look, that was the first conversation, though, I'd ever had with Dave, especially, like, long form. Yep.
• 28:31
  I'm looking forward to seeing what else is coming because when he talks about AI products, he talks about all these things, you're like, he's the guy where some people might count him out, right?
• 28:41
  Be like, "So what do you know about tech? What do you know about AI?"
• 28:43
  But if you listen to the beginning part of the story, like, what did he know about s- He will sit in that showroom for 20 hours waiting for you to give him a shot. Yep. And then he'll outwork you, and then he'll win.
• 28:53
  [laughs] Yeah. And yeah, he's winning. He's, he's got this, the, the tech laid on top of, uh, M&A I think is so smart. Oh, awesome. It's something that I've been talking about for a while.
• 29:03
  Uh, so hey, look, you should connect with Dave and his team. They're really cool people. We've gotten to work with them a little bit.
• 29:09
  Uh, but hey, on behalf of Paul Jay Daly, Michael Cirillo, and myself, Kyle Mouser, we really thank you for hanging out with us here on Auto Collapse.
• 29:18
  Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 29:31
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 29:38
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collapse. Welcome to Auto Collapse. [laughs] Why are we recording? Are we rolling yet?
• 29:57
  Not yet.