Pub. 62 2021-2022 Issue 1

18 S tu Zalud was probably always going to work in the dealership industry. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Denver, he started his auto career working in the family dealership. At the time, the industry was different from what it is now. There were no publicly held companies. Most dealers owned 1-3 franchises in the market, and you learned the business by working in the dealership’s departments. Stu received some training from a six-month-long program at General Motors Institute that had been set up for general managers and dealer sons and daughters. It taught him how dealerships work, and he learned that sometimes departments don’t work effectively when their goals are not aligned. Stu has worn many hats in the auto industry over several decades. He was a dealer in Ohio for 30 years. Stu also served on the NADA board of directors for seven years while he was a franchise dealer, and he worked for NADA in McLean, Virginia, for 10 years after selling his last dealership in 2007. In 2017, thanks to a recommendation by the Ohio Auto Dealers Association, George Chamoun called Stu and invited him to a meeting in New York City. George is the CEO of ACV (originally called ACV Auctions). He told Stu ACV was planning to expand into the Cleveland, Ohio, market, and the company’s leaders wanted to find a good fit for someone who could build the market from scratch. When Stu met with ACV executive team members at the Manhattan Hyatt Regency, they talked in detail about ACV and why it should become part of any dealer’s strategy. ACV, the first startup in Buffalo, New York, to be valued at more than $1.5 billion, was started by Joe Neiman. At the time, Joe was a young auto dealer in New York who owned his own independent, used- car dealership. (He is now ACV’s chief customer success officer.) Joe saw the inefficiencies that are part of physical car auctions, and he was certain he could come up with a better solution. ACV sold its first car in July 2015 in Buffalo, New York. Joe used money from friends and family to get started but soon needed more money to grow. Buffalo, New York, has an annual startup competition called 43North, which began in 2014, receives money from the state and other investors, and has given $5 million annually in award money to 51 high-growth startups, including ACV. Each winner receives up to $1 million. In 2015, ACV was one of the winners in the business plan competition. The founding employees used the award money to build the platform and tested it in three upstate New York markets. The test was successful. “If you can inspect and sell cars in upstate New York between December and February,” said Stu, “you can sell anywhere.” When Stu drove home to Virginia after that initial meeting with ACV’s executive team, he wasn’t sure at first that ACV’s strategy would work on a large scale, but the more he thought, the more convinced he was that it would. Stu talked to his wife and asked if she would go back to Cleveland. She said yes. They moved, and he started work Jan. 3, 2017, as the company’s 68th hire. Growth since then “has been unbelievable,” said Stu. “ACV has proven how needed its services are.” Bringing transparency to the wholesale and retail used markets was a big change for dealer partners. Today ACV employs nearly 1,700. When Stu started working at ACV, he had one inspector to work with. Today Cleveland has three territories and 12 vehicle condition inspectors servicing that market. Stu currently manages the ACV relationships with both franchise and independent dealer associations across the U.S. TADA recently spoke with Stu about ACV and why he thinks it can increase the success of TADA dealerships. Please tell TADA members about your job. What does it involve? My work helps the company from a marketing and growth perspective. TADA Q&A with Stu Zalud Endorsed Partner Focus: