Buying a car should be simple, and safe. Really, really safe.
A win-win for both buyers and sellers.
From listing a vehicle to mandatory inspections and applying for financing, Gavel handles it all in a simple, transparent process that can be completed via any smart device. 13.2 million private party auto sales took place last year. That’s a mountain of headaches, fraud and unnecessary waste that could’ve been prevented with Gavel.
And aren’t online classifieds a really bad place to share your personal information?
So what do we do?
Go to a dealership? Nope – car salesmen are notorious for ripping people off and being way too pushy.
Go to eBay, the fraud capital of the web? No, thanks.
Craigslist? Ugh… get ready for a ton of back-and-forth texting, emails or, even worse, visits from someone you’ve never met (and whom you probably don’t trust to begin with).
Gavel is simple. It’s honest. It’s transparent. Best of all, it’s everything you could want in a car-buying experience, and you can do it all from your phone.
Trust is the most pervasive problem in the used car business, and for good reason. To make a truly great experience buying and selling cars, you have to start with a transparent process that covers all the bases.
That’s Gavel.
Gavel is a completely unique mobile auction platform. It has all the tools buyers and sellers need to educate themselves before the transaction, and to carry out the transaction without worry. Achieving the best price possible, whether buying or selling.
Everything you want in a car-buying experience is included in the Gavel platform, and the process couldn’t be simpler.
Every Gavel buyer will know their car’s comprehensive history and condition in advance of the purchase.
Every Gavel seller is provided with all the tools they need to determine the precise value of their car before listing.
Most importantly, both the buyer and seller are verified before an auction begins.
Inspections are provided by TrueFrame. They’re incredibly thorough, but should the inspection miss anything, the buyer will have the option of selling the car back to TrueFrame.
How’s that for assurance?
Many sellers aren’t aware of Diminished Value, which makes this feature such a huge benefit. Any vehicle listed on Gavel with an accident history, may be eligible for Diminished Value compensation, which could add thousands to the sale price. Consumers can come directly to us to get their diminished value compensation.
That’s big.
Through our partnership with the largest used car buyer in the nation, every Gavel vehicle can be sold at the “Sell it Now” price..
Both buyers’ and sellers’ contact information is kept completely private, and the entire transaction takes place within the rock-solid security of the Gavel platform.
Want even more features? How about the ability to secure competitive auto financing within the app? Or booking a complimentary ride to pick up your new car, courtesy of Uber or Lyft?
Yeah. That oughtta do it.
We recently completed our first round of fundraising, which helped us reach our first milestone: the core iOS user interface is completely developed. Soon, we’ll launch in LA and then take our easily scalable platform global.
Ready to hear more about our plans for Gavel? Click the “business plan” tab at the top of this page to find out how Gavel will disrupt and reshape the auto industry!
Joseph Symond, CEO
A full time entrepreneur and car enthusiast from birth, Joseph was awarded Citizen of the Year by the Rotary Club of NSW (Australia) in 1986. He co-founded the largest post production facility in the Southern Hemisphere at Fox Studios Australia in 1999. In 2000, he pioneered the first set of online collaboration tools and an exclusive portal for all the major Hollywood Studios and global film and television post-production industry. In 2006, Joseph invented and launched the best selling Mosquito Band®, expanding the product line globally into 80 countries. His first car was a 2-door 1976 Range Rover.
Foad Afshari, CTO
At the age of 21, Foad won his first technical Emmy award for his work on the TV series Firefly. At 22, he founded a successful visual effects and design company in Los Angeles. Within 10 months, the company expanded to San Francisco, and New York. Foad’s clients have included Nike, SAP, Vidal Sassoon, Maverick Records and Sony Music. His first car was a blue 1997 Dodge Ram.
Ryan Cowan, GC
Ryan Cowan is an attorney who is immersed in developing technology and innovative thinking. While in law school Ryan worked in a variety of different fields and offices, including in-house counsel for Docstoc Inc. just before their acquisition by Intuit. He also worked for the Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service regarding business and non-profit tax compliance. Additionally, Ryan spent time at Andersen Tax helping provide financial and tax consultation, and the lobbying firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck doing lobbying work on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. for intellectual property, tax, finance, and energy issues. His first car was a 2003 2-dr Chevy Blazer (Sport).
Robert Hollenshead, CEO, R Hollenshead Auto Sales
With 44-years of experience buying and selling cars, Bob has more experience than just about anyone in the industry. The pioneer of many backend tools used by most auto dealers to conduct business today, Bob has become the ‘go-to’ person for the industry, and is preceded by his credibility, dependability, and overwhelming ability to buy and sell vehicles quickly and profitably. As a result, R Hollenshead has become the single, largest volume dealer of used automobiles…in history!
Herbert Appleroth CEO, Ferrari Australasia
A globally successful and awarded executive of luxury and FMCG brands with over 15-years in the automotive, wine, merchandise/licensing, e-commerce and financial services industries. 20 international business and marketing awards are testament to a team driven, innovative and delivery orientated approach via a “lead by example” management style. Having lived and managed manufacturer teams for Chrysler, Volkswagen, Audi, Maserati and Ferrari in Europe, Asia and Australasia, in importer, subsidiary, regional office and headquarter functions, a diverse exposure in culturally sensitive markets has provided a rich, adaptable and successful experience.
Rani Aliahmad General Partner, VenVest Capital
Rani recently served as CEO of Trend Media, an innovator in the new media and television space, incubating TV shows through an innovative and disruptive development process. Prior to Trend Media, Rani was director of Craftsman Capital Advisors, providing venture structure, financing and merchant banking services for both entrepreneurs and venture investors in the technology, biotechnology, hospitality, entertainment and fashion industries. While President of USA Link, a provider of end-to-end mobile solutions and services for the marketing arena, his team launched the first text messaging marketing campaign in the US for P&G. Rani was co-founder and Chief Strategic Officer of Enverta, a B2B platform for the US confectionery industry, where he led the corporate strategy and business development of its e-business software activities. He received his BA in Economics from Yale University and his MBA in Information Technology and Entrepreneurship from MIT. While at MIT, he worked on some of the first Internet commercial applications and on IT healthcare startups. He is still closely affiliated with the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and the E-Lab. He has also helped raise over $250 million for different ventures and investment funds and serves on the board of several companies.
Guy English Co-Founder, Aged & Distilled
Guy English is a long time game and Apple platform developer. During his time as a game developer he worked on platforms ranging from MS DOS to the Sony PSP and games as varied as age of sail simulators to a Star Wars third person shooter. He was a project lead at Strategy First and eventually served as Director of Programming. While at Ubisoft he was responsible for porting and maintaining their audio engine and parts of their Unreal engine based Playstation Portable code. He left the games industry to work on independent Macintosh software at Rogue Amoeba where he was the developer of Radio Shift, an application that would record internet radio in a manner akin to DVRs. With the introduction of the iPhone he wrote the OpenGL based engine for the Tap Tap Revenge series of games which went on to be downloaded over 15 millions times and became a huge success for first Tapulous and then Disney. He currently develops Napkin for Aged & Distilled with his partner, Chris Parrish, co-hosts the Çingleton with Luc Vandal and Scott Morris in Montreal, speaks at various events, and writes occasionally for various popular Apple-centric sites. English also hosts Debug, a popular podcast about development and the history of the industry.
Terry Miller General Manager Sales & Service, Galpin Motors
Terry Miller has been a part of the Galpin Motors family of dealers for over 28 years. He has moved through its ranks to become the General Manager of Sales & Service of all of the Galpin Motors brands, including Ford, Aston Martin, Honda, Jaguar, Lincoln, Lotus, Mazda, Subaru, Volvo, and Volkswagen. Terry is very well known and respected in the US dealer community, and has been instrumental in Galpin Ford maintaining its status as the #1 Ford dealer in the entire world.
Seth Yakatan Co-Founder, Katan Associates
Seth Yakatan brings more than 20-years of experience as a corporate finance professional, actively supporting small cap and major companies in achieving corporate, financing and asset monetization objectives through the successful structuring and management of strategic transactions and investments totaling more than several billion dollars in value. Seth holds an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Irvine and a BA in History and Public Affairs from the University of Denver.