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On Cornerstone Conversations, we explore the unique dynamic of fathers and sons who work together, whether they built something from scratch or carried something forward.
Our mission is to create a space for intentional conversation and storytelling around family business transitions and legacy by enabling more dads to see working with their kids as a discipleship opportunity and more sons to see working with dad as an honor, not a handout.
Learn more about Cornerstone Coaching at www.cornerstoneco.com
Kile Graves: [00:00:00] Welcome to Cornerstone Conversations, where we discuss timely topics impacting communities, cultures, and economies. First topic we're gonna dive into in this series is family business. Currently, there are 32 million family businesses in the US generating over half of our GDP as a country. They also employ 83 million people.
What's interesting is only 30% of family businesses make it to the second generation, and only 12% make it to the third. You've probably heard of the great wealth transfer that is taking place across the globe in the next five to seven years. 40% of all the small businesses in the US are owned by a baby boomer who is reaching retirement age pretty soon.
As coaches, we're really interested in what those impacts do to communities and cultures at large. We've had the privilege of walking alongside a lot of family business leaders over the past few years, and we believe this major intersection is something that can really, uh, impact communities well. We're gonna talk to six, uh, dads and sons that are working together and are trying to navigate what it means as a [00:01:00] son to carry forward what their dad started, and as dads trying to let go of something that they've held onto for so long.
Thank you guys for doing this. Doug and Tristan Beatty are sitting here with us today. This will be a fun one. Uh, like I was just saying, you guys are in a unique spot, and you have some unique edges to what you're doing and your story, just given your life stage and what you're doing in your, your career, Doug.
Throughout this series, there's kind of been two categories of family businesses that we've talked to. One would be legacy businesses, legacy companies, so these are third, fourth generation businesses that have been passed down, um, you know, for, for decades. And the second category is this kind of newer one that, uh, we've just, we're just calling joint family ventures.
So this is when a dad and son decide to team up and start something new together. Um, not on your own and not on your own, but you both come together with your unique skill sets, stage of life, um, interests, [00:02:00] and you start a new entity, and you pursue something, whether that's full-time, on the side. You guys are kind of a, a hybrid model.
Um, and I think that is something that's gonna start to show up more. You know, there's more, I think, dads that are reaching retirement age-ish, and they're like, "Why..." This was a conversation we had with one of the other dad-son duos, but his story was basically like, "Why would I go invest in another apartment complex?"
Or he's big in real estate, so he's like, "Why would I go do that when I could..." They bought a small business together. He's like, "Why would I do that when I could go start something with, with my son?" And so that concept is kind of the, the spark for this podcast series. Um, and you and Steve's relationship obviously came to mind, and then we got to meet a few months ago.
Mm-hmm. And so I wanted to have you guys on here and just kind of hear- Yeah, thanks for having us. Yeah. Absolutely. Hear the story. Um, so before we get into your background, just tell us what Carve AutoLab is. Maybe just explain- [00:03:00] very, you know, what's your elevator pitch? How do you describe it to a stranger?
For sure. And then we can get into kind of your story and your background.
Tristan Batie: Yeah. So, uh, Carve AutoLab, uh, the way we're describing it, we're, it's a automotive, uh, market intelligence company. Um, so essentially we're implying investment logic into the car market and simplifying, uh, ownership from, uh, an emotional decision to a strategic one.
So a lot of people when buying cars, they, they're just buying a car, when in reality they're entering into a market that they don't understand whatsoever. So that's the, the quick pitch- Okay ... just kind of what it is.
Doug Batie: Have you both been into cars forever or, or- Yeah, it's funny, Kyle. Like, uh, you know, a lot of, like we, we both just got back from, from vacation, but like, I remember, uh, early on road trips, uh, both the kids were big into sports, so we were traveling all over the place and like early on, uh, the game that the family would play is lovingly known as the car [00:04:00] game.
So like we would go on a road trip and instead of like counting license plates or trying to find, you know, different letters on road signs or whatever to keep the kids busy, uh, he was like, "No, let's play the car game." The car game went like this. It was, uh, if we're on a long trip, you get five cars and, and first one to see it gets to claim it, and that's, that's gonna be in your garage.
And then occasionally you could have trades and of course he just made it more and more complicated as we grew. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, he was, he's been into cars for a long time and it's been a passion of mine for a while, but it's been fun to kind of share this passion together and see what it looks like to turn it into a business.
So yeah. Yeah. A long time. Okay. I mean, from little, uh, I remember him in the back seat like probably looking the wrong, uh, the wrong direction instead of- Yeah ... saying car. Yeah.
Kile Graves: Yeah. Uh, so- That was way back. Still been in the, been in the story for a long time. Sure. Maybe give us your background, Doug. Start with you, kind of where-
Doug Batie: Yeah
Kile Graves: quick career- Yeah ... you know, fly by. For sure. What you've been doing, where you are now. So
Doug Batie: right out of [00:05:00] college, just, uh, born and raised in the Walmart bubble, if you will, in, in Bentonville. And so had the opportunity to go work in-house at Walmart for a few years, and spend some time in Germany for them, some time in Puerto Rico.
Jumped to the other side, to the supplier side. Spent 17 years working for Welch's for 1,800 family farmers. Had a blast doing that. And then really just got this entrepreneurial bug, and so I tried a little basketball analytics business while still, um, working with Welch's. Graves was, uh, Steve was a big, big help in that.
And, um, then, uh, jumped out for real and, uh, started a, uh, of all things, a water bottle company. Like, if you're gonna pick one of the hardest categories to jump into- Yeah ... it's bottled water. But we, we kinda did that intentionally and just had a blast doing that, and learned a ton, and eventually exited that company.
Sold it to a company called Langer's Juice that bought it n- in a little under 18 months. The idea was really just take that through the cycle of concept, launch, prove, scale. Instead of scaling [00:06:00] in the very expensive bottled water category, to go get that exited. So sell instead of scale, and that was a blast.
And then so now where you find me is running a family office that I get to work with Steve on, and, um, managing a, a very healthy perimeter of the store business that we, uh, service Walmart and others on, uh, protein categories, largely in eggs and beef. And then, uh, since it's a family office, we also get to do a lot of other fun, fun things that are either adjacent or, uh, wildly unadjacent.
So it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. How about that for a wrap up? That's close. That was
Steve Graves: absolutely. Nailed, nailed it with the ambiguity. Yeah, that's good.
Kile Graves: What are some of the wildly unadjacent, uh- Well, um- ... activities ... golf True. Golf. Golf. Uh, travel space. There you go. Gen-
Steve Graves: Gen Z travel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
Doug Batie: That's good. It's a lot of fun stuff.
Kile Graves: Um, and Tristan, you're still in school, about to wrap up.
Tristan Batie: Yes, about to wrap up. So- Give us your story ... I, uh, I'm currently at John Brown University. Uh, I'll be a senior. This is my [00:07:00] final semester. Let's go. Thank goodness. I'm so ready to be done. Um, but kinda had a, to get to CARVE, a, a come to Jesus moment, and I, I am going to graduate with a biology degree and a minor in chemistry, um, from JBU, which has nothing to do with cars.
What the... Yeah. For sure. The opposite almost. Yeah. So not even close. Um, I had wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a pediatrician. Uh, always great with kids. Love kids, and I like to know how things work. Cars is one of them, but the human body was another. And so going into JBU wanting to do that kind of stuff, and so last summer, um, heading into my, my senior year, I was studying and prepping for the MCAT, getting ready to take it.
And kind of just a lot of uneasiness and a lot of questions on i- is this really how I want to spend the next eight to 10 years of my life, is more studying and more doing a bunch of this? And i- if you know me, I don't sit still very well, and I am not a big reader in, of textbooks. And [00:08:00] so- ... more studying was not something I wanted to- Yeah
really do. Yeah. And so, uh, just having a, a heart-to-heart with, uh, with God and realizing that maybe that wasn't the plan that I thought that he had had for me. And so then deciding, uh, pr- what was it? Beginning of August? Yeah. Beginning of August to not take the MCAT and not go to medical school anymore.
And so after that it was a big, uh, well, now what? And so- This is past August? Yes, past August. Okay. That's recent. So very recent. Um, and also I, uh, am an athlete, so I play basketball at JBU as well. And so combining the school and the basketball, knowing how to... All of the, the time management and all that kind of stuff, and then thinking of what is this what if, what am I gonna do next, and him throwing me in with a bunch of, uh, different CEOs of startups and him being in the startup world with Gen Z and, um, with Actionable Analytics, just kind of seeing that.
It's like, maybe, maybe that's something I wanna, I wanna go do. Um, and so got into some conversations with, uh, some very [00:09:00] knowledgeable people, and consensus was, well, if you're gonna jump into this, you, you've got somebody world-class sitting right next to you that lives in the same house you do. Yeah. Why not take advantage of that, take advantage of his network and his knowledge and his experience, and jump in headfirst?
I mean, the best way to learn is just to do it. And so that's kind of where it, uh, came from and just the background of that.
Doug Batie: Yeah.
Tristan Batie: Um, and so that really led to another big decision of not medical school, but deciding not to play basketball for my final year as well. And so being able to open up a ton of space in my, my time and my calendar with eliminating two very large things- Yeah
brought in the ability to, to start Carve and to bring it to life, so.
Kile Graves: Cool. Yeah. Have you started or tried, owned little small businesses before? I haven't. Is this your first- It's the first one. Okay. Nice.
Tristan Batie: Yeah.
Kile Graves: And have y'all done anything together in the workspace, like interned with, with Doug or anything in the past, or worked together in any capacity?
Not on, not on paper. Okay. No. There's- Cleaned, cleaned out the warehouse- Yeah ... with the pallets of water bottles- Slave labor maybe.
Doug Batie: Yeah ... yeah. Of water. Yeah. He was, uh- Horse stalls, I mean, uh. He was [00:10:00] our, uh... Yeah, he did a, clean a lot of horse stalls at the farm. There you go. Um, but he was our voice, uh- Oh, yeah.
I forgot about that ... for all of our Gen Z stuff that we were pitching to retailers. Oh, cool. So he did all that for us. Yeah. Um, yeah. And man, we've had the opportunity to do a lot of fun stuff together. Sure. Yeah.
Kile Graves: For sure. Yeah.
Steve Graves: That's
Kile Graves: good. Um, so maybe unpack the business for a little bit. How- Sure. So are you, are you founder and you are advisor?
Like, how do you describe- Are you co-owners? Yeah, yeah. You need to make that up. Yeah ... go through all that stuff. Is this- Yeah,
Tristan Batie: that, that's on you, man. Yeah. Have you, have you done any of this work?
Kile Graves: I'm sure it's all fleshed out at this point,
Doug Batie: but- Yeah, it is. Um, I think the way probably to, to characterize my involvement is probably investor, advisor.
Um, but he's, he's operating it. Like, he's, he's running it and, um, and I get to, you know, check in every now and then, see if he needs anything. But, uh, we're definitely figuring out what that season looks like, Kyle, for us. You know, it's, [00:11:00] it's making that evolution of, like, from the, the parenting arc the way I have it in my head, too, and, uh, Steve, you can probably tell me who I stole this from, but, like, from, uh, coach to cheerleader to consultant and, you know, the consultant role is only when asked.
Kile Graves: Yeah.
Doug Batie: And so now jumping into a business partnership, we're kind of, uh, going back- Sure ... like, okay, I'm coaching 'cause, like, okay, it's my money as well. Yeah, yeah. So, like, now you don't ha- you don't get to ask all the time. I get to input. But, like- Sure ... that's never really been a problem for us. Yeah. Like, we've, we've navigated that through basketball, through cell group leadership, whatever it looks like.
For sure. So...
Steve Graves: That was the model I gave Chip Jackson 22 years ago. Okay. That's who I stole it from. I was wondering. I stole
Doug Batie: it from Chip. Yeah. Yeah. To
Steve Graves: you. Yeah. Hey, uh, so go back just a quick second to the origin story. Um, v- uh, I get it that you both have a background in cars. Love that. But the, the, the idea of the niche itself.
Tristan Batie: Mm-hmm.
Steve Graves: Like, sometimes it comes from an [00:12:00] epiphany where somebody says, "Man, I..." Like, personally, the thing I hate doing the most in the world is buying a car. Yeah. So does everybody else. And so, okay, okay, so, like, it could, could- This has been true for, like,
Kile Graves: 20
Steve Graves: years. No, it, it's my whole... It is literally. Yeah, yeah.
Anybody that knows me well knows that- It's the antithesis of life ... is the one thing. Yeah, yeah. You know, it is it. It's it. And so, you know, so did the idea come out of, was it more just a, a moving around in the space and the category knowing that you wanted to find something? Or was it just, did you kind of fumble into, after buying a couple cars, you kind of like, "Look at this, man."
I mean, like- Yeah ... just stay on the origin story long enough- Yeah ... to know how, how the- For sure ... how Carve came to, out of the- So- ... out
Tristan Batie: of the abyss. So it, it really started, again, like you said, the just us being car people, the obsession into, um, a pattern recognition. And so really the epiphany moment, um, came when the two of us are like, "Well, we wanna, we wanna start driving some cool cars.
Like, how, how can we get ahold of some of these cars?" And so [00:13:00] ended up, um, was it two years ago now, uh, had the ability to buy a pretty cool car. Or he did, not me. I don't have enough money for that, but- Um, so he got the ability to buy a pretty cool car. Definitely the nicest car that our family's ever gotten the chance to own, and, um, it was at a really good deal.
It had been sitting on the market for a really long time. Um, and so we ended up buying that car and, eh, didn't think anything of it. We were just trying to figure out, you know, where am I going next, what's happening? And me constantly looking at cars through auction websites- Constantly. Yeah, constantly ... I mean, it's, I probably spend six to eight hours a day just looking at cars.
At auction, auction sites? Yeah, auction sites- Okay ... listings, just, just looking. Mm-hmm. And so that pattern recognition of understanding, like, the car that he had is like, whoa, some of these cars are get- are, are starting to sell higher than, than what we bought it for in a lot worse spec or less mi- or more miles or older year, and they're selling for more money than what we bought it [00:14:00] for.
How's, how's that work? And so just kinda starting to dig into the data, do a lot of... I did a lot of scraping, not anything automated, and it was all, all manual- Oh, wow ... scrolling through m- thousands and thousands of listings of cars, just looking at all these different numbers. And so really where the, that moment came was when...
what was it? In, uh, September of last year, um, there had been a few of his exact car sell on, uh, Cars & Bids. I don't know if you're familiar with that auction website. Mm-hmm. And I'd been... I was like, "Hey, dude, I think, I think it's about time. We, we need to get rid of this thing." He's like, "Well, we, we just bought it.
What do you mean?" 11
Doug Batie: months in. Yeah. 11 months. We're, we're 11 months into this thing. Not, not the model. Not the model. Not what you wanna hear. Yeah. Yeah. And
Tristan Batie: I'm like, like, "Hey, this, like- Like, "Trust me. Let's try it" ... we have a, we have an option here to, to almost break even." And so we, we kinda played around with that idea and, um, we decided to look into some offers.
And so the first place we went was, uh, [00:15:00] Carvana. If y'all are familiar with Carvana, they, they sell convenience. You know? Yeah. I've used it. You don't have to do much. You, you sit at home, they come pick it up. It's great. They bring it to you, all those things. So, um, the car that... When we had bought the car, we, uh, he had paid $75,000 for it, and so Carvana offered 63,000.
So 10 months, 11 months into ownership, and that's $12,000 difference. And so we're like, "I don't really m- don't really wanna lose $12,000 in 10 months. That's a, that's a lot of money to lose that quickly." Yeah. So like, "Okay, let's go, let's go look around closer places." So we go through dealerships and just pull up, have them give us a bid.
Um, ended up it was like 63,000, 65, 67, 68, 68. And so the highest bid that we got was 68,000. Like, all right, well, these... all these other cars are selling on this, this auction site. Well, might as well give it a try, see what happens. You can set a reserve. If you don't wanna sell it, you don't end up having to sell it at all.
So it's a risk we can, we can take. Um, ended up selling the car, uh, to a guy in Colorado for $74,000. So [00:16:00] dad paid $1,000- Hmm ... in 11 months to drive, uh, an MSRP car of $120,000, um, and put 11,000 miles on it. Paid $1,000. Wow. And so we're both just sitting in there when, when we saw the, the, the sell at 74,000, and we look at each other like, "We just, we just made out like bandits right here."
What did, what did we, what did we do? Yeah. Yeah. And so that's really where that, the, the model Just opened up, uh, to the two of us just showing like, "Hey, this is, this is something nobody thinks about." Like, they're just not looking at the numbers this way. And so I think just realizing that epiphany moment's kind of where that, the idea and the model started showing up.
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Doug Batie: You know, one thing that I'm a big fan of is, like, a lot of people go try to find businesses based off of, like, total addressable market, and I'm a huge fan of, like, total addressable problem. And Steve, the point you just articulated, like, the data screams that everybody hates the car buying experience.
Nobody wants to spend four hours in a dealership and, and that's why Carvana's got a business. Yeah. But what's the data point, Tristan, for Carvana? What's the... You've studied a few of them that's shown- Mm-hmm ... like, what kind of percentage are we... are you walking away with? Yeah,
Tristan Batie: I mean, you're typically losing, I- I mean, a pretty decent percentage, but the, the dealers in Carvana, they end up...
They have to make their own money, and so they're offering, um... It, it'll vary on different cars, so I don't think I could give you a specific number. But when you go in or sell to [00:18:00] Carvana, if we would've sold it for 63,000, they would've turned around and listed that car anywhere from 74 to $75,000. Mm. And so they would've made that percentage difference of, you know, 8%, and that's where they have to make their money.
And so realizing that those, that niche is there and losing that amount of money, so-
Steve Graves: So g- so going from that to let's start a business.
Tristan Batie: Exactly. Yeah.
Steve Graves: Let's, let's stand up a business. Yeah. What happened? Just a lot of conversation? A
Tristan Batie: lot of conversation. Um, more looking at cars. Yeah. Just is, is, is this replicable, you know?
Doug Batie: I think he had me though, Steve, when he started talking about, like, the asymmetry of the- Mm ... data. Like, if you look at how much data is out there for cars and, and for the marketplace, there is unbelievable amount of data. Yeah. But it's all on dealer- Dealer side ... or manufacturer side- Yeah ... and little to no for consumer side.
Mm. So much so that he's having to scrape like a maniac, you know, scrape all the data back [00:19:00] to at least have a fighting chance, and that's when the advent of, like, STAMP occurred for him. Mm-hmm. Maybe, maybe talk a little bit about that. Yeah,
Tristan Batie: so, um, finding all that, the, the asymmetry in the market brought us to, uh, s- to our two models, STAMP and DRIVE.
Um, but STAMP is really the main one. So STAMP is, uh, the spec, trim, age, mileage, and price of a vehicle. So we've broken it down into five different sections. Okay, one more
Steve Graves: time. Give me those.
Tristan Batie: Spec, trim Age, mileage, and price. Okay. Got it. So, um-
Kile Graves: And that's a valuation model?
Tristan Batie: Yes. So s-spec of a car is the, the different...
Like, if you go onto a, a Porsche website right now and you wanna go click the different color or the different wheels or the different interior trim, that's the spec of a car. Okay. Um, trim is the trim level, so that's a, you know, a 911 versus a 911 Turbo. That's a trim level. Um, and then age is obviously age, age gap, so year.
Um, mileage is a, a very big one, [00:20:00] and that's the one people typically look at the most. Right. Like, if you're looking to buy a car, you're like, "Well, I want low miles," right? And so that one is, uh, that one gets a little interesting because low miles is good, but in some instances, higher miles is better. Um, and I can get into that more.
But then also price. And so the MSRP or sticker price of the car, what it was originally sold for versus what it's selling for now, um, that percent difference of the actual depreciation of that car. Um, and so then tying all those together and having them weighted in different, different areas in our algorithm really brings it into a simplified one number out of 100.
Um, so 100 is the best stamp score, zero is the worst stamp score, and just simplifies it for a consumer rather than you have to go do all the scraping that I have been doing. So if I've already done it, why not let you be able to use it?
Kile Graves: So a consumer sees that number, and that helps them have confidence in how good of a purchase this is or not.
Yeah. How good of a deal.
Tristan Batie: Yep. Yeah. Got it. And so, um, Stamp has really [00:21:00] opened us up into, uh, our, our four things that we're doing, and you guys are part of one of them, uh, with our email. Um, so free weekly email kind of piloted with, uh, 100 individuals, um, just gives tips and tricks, kind of, uh, our recommendation on, you know, what the, the target price for a vehicle will be, what it's selling at right now.
Um, that's the first one. And then, uh, the new one that's probably the most scalable, uh, we're calling the Carved Ledger. So the Carved Ledger is a group of 20 of the best of that specific car in the nation. And so using our stamp value, um, looking at s- typically we're 200 to 250 plus of a specific vehicle in a trim or a spec that a client wants, and then narrowing it down to the top 20 of our stamp value.
And so I think our top 20, I don't know what our lowest stamp has been, maybe 75. Yeah, it
Doug Batie: kind of depends on the vehicle, but yeah, usually- Yeah. Yeah. And so- Number one on the list may be in the 90s. Yeah. And then number, number 20 on the list may be in the 70s. Yeah. But
Tristan Batie: yeah. Comes [00:22:00] out the ledger, and then, um, we have acquisition strategy, which includes ledger, but then that's where I get to go do all the work for somebody.
So that's, you know, for somebody like you two who doesn't like buying cars, you don't wanna spend that, that four hours at a dealership negotiating and looking at all those things. So, um, get to come in and do that for, uh, for some clients, which has been a lot of fun, learning to negotiate on cars, learning to, like, kinda how dealers are acting.
Um, but then also exit strategy, so that's on the back end. If you already have a car, um, one of the hardest part about people is selling cars. People do not like to sell cars. It takes forever. It's sitting forever. Yeah. Um, and so that's where Carvana's convenience comes in. Mm-hmm. Um, and so doing the exit strategy and finding what that car is currently could be worth, what it is on low end or high end of the market.
Um, and so that's been a lot of fun to get to just see the four of those things kinda show themselves just from our, our stamp model.
Doug Batie: Yeah, I think that ledger for me is, is what, uh, kinda crystallized that maybe he's got something when he put [00:23:00] together a ledger for a, for a client/friend, one that was in the 100 test, and, uh, sent it over to him.
It was around New Year's Eve. Mm-hmm. And so it was right up to, you know, January, let's say. Sent it to him, and the guy sat on it for, like, three days, and by the time the guy, uh, the client opened it up and looked at it, he was kind of frustrated 'cause he's like, "Man, 13 of these cars already sold. Why'd you-" Exactly
"send this to me?" Yeah. And I, and I was like, "Tristan, that's a great thing." Yeah. Like, that's amazing. Yeah. I was like, 13 of those things sold because they were not sold January 1st. They were sold January 4th- Yeah ... whenever he, he got to it. Yeah. And so that, that was really interesting, and that's continuing to prove itself and- It's been happening on a pretty consistent- And I think on average, someone is using that $750 ledger that, uh, is, is basically telling you the top 20 of that car, and people are using that either to go buy one of those 20 or better yet, go negotiate with the power of those 20, saying, "Hey, I know [00:24:00] this car's in Northwest Arkansas, but I'm getting ready to go buy this one that's in Tennessee-" I'll, I'll go drive for four hours or eight hours- Yeah
to go buy this one and save $10,000, and it's amazing how those prices- Mm ... get adjusted. So largely saving 4 to $10,000- Yeah ... um, just by having more information on your buyer side. Right. So that, that part's been fun.
Kile Graves: Yeah. So tell us who the customer is. Is it only, you know, high-end luxury vehicles, or is it your average Joe also?
Yeah. So, uh,
Tristan Batie: really, um, you're really starting at about $75,000 and going up from there is really where you can really see the, the value of, of finding the 20 best and saving that money. Now, there are a few underneath, but they're very, you know, niche vehicles. Um, but really where you get to kind of the... We got, I will say, really lucky with ours in, in saving that, only spending that $1,000 at the $75,000 level.
But when you get to, you know, past 125 to $150,000, that's really where you can start almost making money back-
Steve Graves: [00:25:00] Okay ...
Tristan Batie: with vehicles, which is a lot of- Hmm ... fun to see. For sure. Um-
Steve Graves: I've got something new to talk to my wife about. Right? Yeah. We can make money. Sounds like- Honey, we can make money. Yeah. Yeah. It is
Doug Batie: interesting, Steve, and I think that's, uh, some of the language that he's learning to articulate- Mm-hmm
that you'll see on social media is like, you know, price is what you pay, value is what you get. But like, that, that whole idea of like sticker shock, um, might you... 'Cause one of his, uh, tenets is, core tenets is like you could actually buy two to three cars over a five-year period and save substantially more money than if you just play the normal game and buy one and ride it out five years.
Wow. And those-
Steve Graves: But see, that's totally opposite of what most people- For sure ... are gonna think is the right- Absolutely ... the right behavior. Sure. Exactly. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, and then they
Kile Graves: hear that, I mean, it sounds like a huge customer education... Like half- It is. Absolutely ... your business is customer education.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And getting them to just understand that, and then [00:26:00] be like, "Oh, I believe that. Now what? How do I- Yeah ... how do I plug in?" Right. Right. How do you make that happen for me? Yeah.
Doug Batie: Yeah. You know? And, and the, the idea and the concept of like, "Hey, sweetheart, I need to go spend 120,000 rather than 70,000, because in a year from now, that's gonna be 118,000 rather than 50,000."
You know? Right. And it's like that delta, and yeah, that is a foreign concept- Yeah ... you know, for a lot of people. Well- Yeah ... is the,
Kile Graves: is the cu- I mean, I guess follow-up on the customer question is, is it also people that are flip- used to flipping cars and making multiple car purchases? Or is it- Yeah.
Tristan Batie: I mean, I think it, it can be ideally, I think in that sense, really...
I mean, the timeframe, I think the one that we've been playing around with the most is anywhere 12, 12 to 18 months, um, is about, uh, the short end of the stick of ownership. Yeah. And so his was, uh, 11 months. Um, that's really about where you wanna get rid of it. Two years might be an extent, um, especially if It is [00:27:00] a more niche vehicle like the one that we had purchased, whereas, you know, Tahoe, Suburban, Escalade, whatever it may be, a lot of people, like you said, want to buy that and drive it for the five years to 60,000 miles.
Where, I, I mean, really you can go buy the same Tahoe three times in a year and only lose, you know, $1,000 to $2,000 every time. Yeah. And so I think really you're trying to, trying to find the, the ones that... And it'll be a specific vehicle. It's not just, it's not just through the entire, the market, but that where you can hold onto it for the, a normal amount of time that doesn't seem like you are a flipper.
Yeah. But that you just enjoy cars, and so I think the 12 to 18 months is about the sweet area. So a little bit,
Kile Graves: a little bit of it is c- is, uh, vehicle driven. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Graves: It's gonna be, it'll be really fun to see your, your, uh, social, uh, uh, strategies- Yeah ... because I see s- the creative side of who I am- Mm-hmm
sees so many places for you to actually-
Tristan Batie: Yeah ... you [00:28:00] know,
Steve Graves: press into the market- For sure ... with, uh-
Tristan Batie: Yeah ...
Steve Graves: felt needs, curiosity- Mm-hmm ... imagination, education. Yeah, yeah.
Tristan Batie: Yeah. I mean, on- one thing that, that people overlook is, you know, throughout a lifetime you lose more money on cars than you do on houses. So everybody's like, "Well, a house is such a bigger purchase.
It's an investment." You think of it as an investment. Well, cars are investments as well, you just... Nobody ever thinks about it. It's just to get you to point A to point B, but throughout a lifetime, people are losing more money through the depreciation of cars than they are the depreciation of houses.
Without a doubt. Yeah. Yeah. Without a doubt. 100%. Well, but even your overall
Doug Batie: ticket, you may end up spending more money. Spending more money, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Wow. Yeah.
Steve Graves: Again, more, more social opportunities. For sure. For sure. Education. Yeah. That's great. For sure. 'Cause that's not what people would think. No. If you put that on a, on a, on a test- Yeah
and said, "Answer the..." No way. Most, most people would miss that. Yeah. They would get it wrong. Yeah. Yeah. You know? That's great.
Kile Graves: Yeah. Yeah, you gotta retrain. I mean, we just bought Esther a new car in December 'cause she's pregnant and we need... Her car was small, and we needed a bigger space. We got a used, a used Yukon.
Yeah. And, uh, [00:29:00] you know, our head is like, "Well, we'll just-" Ride this forever and just- Yeah, for sure ... you know, until- And that's
Doug Batie: not a bad strategy. It's not a bad strategy. Yeah. And, you know, I think there are clear, um, designations of, of how you use the vehicle, and it's something that we really didn't get much into- Yeah
but drive- That's part, drive ... but, like, if, if you relate to your vehicle of like, "This is my daily driver that I'm gonna put 20,000 miles a year on," then that, that bumps you to this type of vehicle. Do you happen to have in your family, Kyle, a third car that maybe that's fun and, and you guys go out on the weekend, and you treat that car fundamentally different?
Kile Graves: Yeah. Yeah. And then like
Doug Batie: what's your commute? So- Looking
Kile Graves: for a, a used Jeep Wrangler, two-door, white, Sahara trim. There you go. There you go. There you go. There's your- With, with- There's your phone call ... with the tan interior- Yeah There you go ... ideally. That's, that's my dream for the third vehicle. Actually appreciate the phone call.
Yeah. Send
Doug Batie: him a note. He'll, he'll crank that out- But those are cheap, so it's like, yeah ... ledger. Oh, that's great. That's great. I'll shoot
Kile Graves: you a note. Uh, so go back to the formation one more time. Was this like, "Hey, here's a, here's a strong use case"? [00:30:00] Were you like, "Hey, I wanna start a business. Dad, I need some money to invest in this," or you just started working on it, and then- Yeah
conversations happened organically?
Tristan Batie: I mean, uh, it... We kinda just started working on it, you know. I was- Yeah ... in that, that gap of, you know, what do I do now? So I had nothing else to do, and the studies had lightened up, no more basketball, so just kinda playing around with some of the idea and the figuring out the algorithm model of Stamp.
And so we really just got to, to mess around with it, and it's funny that there was one defining day, and we- Yeah ... I don't think we've, we've figured it out, but- It was August
Doug Batie: or September. It was...
Tristan Batie: I think it was after my first week of classes. So I just... My very first week, you know, syllabus week. We don't really, you know, do anything during syllabus week, so it's the weekend, and it's pouring rain.
And we're like, "Well, there's... You know, it's August. There's nothing to do in the rain. So let's... We'll just go to the office. We'll just mess around and kind of stuff." I think we spent, I don't know, eight or nine hours- Yeah ... in the office just hammering out kinda all these details- Wow ... and that's really where Carve was born.
That's fun. And so- Yeah, you talk about a fun-
Doug Batie: A fun day ... [00:31:00] a fun eight or nine-hour Saturday with me getting to hang out with him and- Yeah. I mean, we had- And, yeah ... papers all over the place. Created a business plan, for sure. Whiteboards covered. Let's just do it. Yeah.
Tristan Batie: Yeah. That was fun. That was a lot of fun.
So that's- Yeah ... yeah, that's really where it, it came to life.
Kile Graves: Okay. So business plan created in August-ish. Where are you in the, in the life cycle of the company right now? Yeah. Yeah. So- Are we pre-launch?
Tristan Batie: Out in the market? Pre-launch at the moment, but it's exciting. We're, uh, probably going to be launched before this podcast comes out.
Sweet. Um, so that's exciting. Um, hesitation really for me is, is social media. I- I've grown up with social media, Gen Z. I mean, I've always been on the other side of the phone, but man, I do not like- ... to be on... in front of that camera- Yeah ... on social media. I do not wanna post. I don't wanna be- You don't wanna be the face.
Oh, no, I don't wanna be the face. Yeah. And he fought that so hard. I fought tooth and nail to not do that. Yeah. But then, you know, just seeing, um, everybody Even if it, it's a, a niche business or whatever, as soon as they post on social media, that viewer count just skyrockets. Yeah. And that's just this day and age is how you get traction.
Yeah. And [00:32:00] so just swallowing my pride a little bit on that and, uh, starting to do all the filming and, uh, stuff for social media has really been the, the biggest step. And so getting all that hammered together right now and got a lot of videos done and ready to go. Um, working on developing website and getting a landing page and all that stuff so people can get into us that aren't just from Bentonville.
Yeah. And so we're, we're getting really, really, really close to launch- Yeah ... which is exciting. That's
Kile Graves: great.
Steve Graves: Yeah. One fun thing I think to, to, um, highlight would be, uh, you know, I've, I've had the fun privilege of being in so many partnerships. Mm-hmm. It's one of the, one of the beautiful things about being an older person.
Um, I've had a ton and tons of partnerships over the years. When, when you partner with someone who's a peer, they're generally the same age, same s- season of life, whatever. I mean, there's a... You get, you get certain upsides. Mm-hmm. You know, it's kind of a one for all, all for one, all that kind of stuff. When you partner with your dad, who's got some muscles behind [00:33:00] him, you know, what happens is, is the, the dad can compress the learning.
Tristan Batie: Mm-hmm.
Steve Graves: And you c- you can literally shortcut so many things that you're not having to bootstrap. Because if, if it's just with another peer, you don't know what you don't know.
Tristan Batie: For sure.
Steve Graves: Well, your dad might know what you don't know. Exactly. He might not too. Right. Mm-hmm. I mean, it might be something he hasn't discovered either.
But so the chances of moving through your, your, your launch and prove cycles- Mm-hmm ... can be so much faster- For sure ... when you do partner with, you know, somebody that has some business experience like- Oh, absolutely ... like your pop over there. Especially,
Kile Graves: I mean, we had the same conversation. I remember before I got into coaching with you, tail end of Bearded Goat days- For sure
I was on a mountain bike ride with a buddy who's in the crypto space and not relevant. But he, uh, he's like, "What are you gonna do?" I was like, "I don't know. I might do my own thing or if I get into some kind of like..." I thought about e-com consulting just 'cause we had, we had so much- For sure ... experience there.
Yeah. And, uh, we had t- we had talked a few times about working together, and I was like, "I think I'm actually gonna [00:34:00] work with him." He's like, "Yeah, I mean, why, why would you go start your own thing when you have a huge on-ramp?"
Tristan Batie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Other than
Kile Graves: pride, you know? It's like- Exactly. Exactly ... it's, it's an easy decision.
Yeah. But that's shown up, that same concept has shown up over and... throughout all these conversations. For sure. Sure. You know. And I j- I just love, I love the chance- It's a cool advantage ...
Steve Graves: I love the chance that you get to move through the learning gates- Yeah ... so much faster. You know? Yeah. I mean, because you have trust, you have respect with each other, et cetera.
But, 'cause if you don't have that, then you just, you have to, you have to try it. For sure. You have to spend some money, spend some calories, take some risk, and then you find out, "Oh, that didn't work, so let's try this one. Let's try that one." Yeah, yeah. Versus a compressed learning saying, "Hey, what about this idea?"
Absolutely. Yeah. For sure.
Kile Graves: So it sounds like you're doing most of the day-to-day, the grunt work, getting things set up. When does Doug show up? How does he show up? How does- Yeah ... what is that dynamic like?
Tristan Batie: I mean, I think, uh, obviously the, the learning that you were talking about, this dude's got e- experience out the woodworks.
And so, um, really, I, I think the... one of the [00:35:00] biggest things and biggest help that he is, is just the knowledge of how the business world works. I am a biology kid. I have no, I had no idea what the business world was about. Yeah. And so really, that has been, uh, such a huge help in, in learning quickly. And I'm gonna go back to the guys that he had set me up with.
With Paul, one of the things that I had been considering after, um, not doing med school was, "Well, maybe I should go to business school." Um, and again, that consensus was, "Why not just jump in with him- Yeah ... and use his knowledge?" And so I think the, the help of him being able to have already been through that just makes me...
I, I don't have to go through all that now. I get to use his knowledge, and I get to... And so I think that's been the biggest help- Yeah ... at least for me, so. Yeah.
Doug Batie: And I, you know, doing the, the basketball analytics thing, Kyle, while I was still running Welch's, like, he saw all that. Mm. Like, he would... I would come tuck him in between doing reports for coaches or whatever.
Yeah. And so it's, it's kind of bringing back that season a little bit of [00:36:00] like- Yeah ... "Hey, check my work." You know, he's authoring and, but I'm editing a little bit. Yeah. Or, um, "Hey, I'm thinking about this is what the email is gonna look like." And, and so I- it's actually entertaining. It gives us great opportunity to connect- Mm
and spend some time together and, and doesn't really feel like much of a burden. Yeah. Uh, we do wish for some rainy weekends sometimes. Just 'cause, like, it's tempting on a beautiful day like today of like, man, yeah, I'd love to go, go, go do something else with him. But, uh, yeah, it's, it's been fun so far. It's been, uh, really rewarding to, to be able to invest and see, like, the growth that you're talking about, Steve, just happening so fast for him.
Yeah. And I'm a huge believer in, like, 10,000 hours or, like, Naval talks about, um, like, you know, disciplined research and just seeing, like... I- one thing that I preached to him early on was like, "You can become, like, one of the world's experts in understanding the value of cars if you just spend the time."
Right. 'Cause nobody else, nobody else really wants [00:37:00] to, right? Right. Like, nobody wants, and that's a pain point that you can go solve. So it's been fun seeing him kind of lean into that- Yeah ... and just continuing to ur- encouraging that in that. Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Graves: Yeah. I, I
think, uh, most of
Tristan Batie: the, most of the things you see on social media these days, especially revolving around the car market, again, is like you said, the, it's the negotiation. Like, the cars are listed at this, and you wanna buy it at this, so how do I talk to this person in a way that's gonna get it closer to my number?
Whereas looking into the depths of the data and using that to, "Well, that guy's car is priced $10,000 higher than it should be, and there's three others over here that are already at my price, so why wouldn't I just go [00:38:00] use those instead?" Um, and I think one of the biggest things, uh, from experience with dealing with a few clients, um, and dealing with the first vehicle that we used with him was a lot of people are-- don't want to compromise on what they want in the vehicle, and so really trying to find the, the car with that spec and the trim that the client wants, um, but still finding it at the best value that you can.
And so, um, for me, seeing all those numbers and all that data, I'm like, "Well, why wouldn't you just go buy this one? Like, you're missing two of these things in the spec. Maybe it doesn't have heads-up display or whatever, but you're saving $8,000 on this one." And so that's been a, that's been a big learning curve for me there is, um, just knowing, hey, they're, they're saving no matter what, and just get, get the client what the client wants and help them learn from it in that, in that sense.
For sure.
Steve Graves: That's fun.
Tristan Batie: Yeah. Yeah.
Kile Graves: Uh, I'm curious, is there... So in early-- I mean, a lot of startups, and you know this, Doug, but, [00:39:00] uh, risk can vary. There's, there's certain levels of risk that shows up when you're starting a business. Yeah, for sure. How does that-- how is risk showing up with this business and this industry, and how are you handling that- Yeah
as a father-son duo? Because- Yeah.
Doug Batie: I'll take a stab at it. Yeah, go. I'll take a stab at it. Um, uh, our friend Lamar, uh, has, always coins this phrase of like low-cost probes, and, and the idea is like what can you do for like minimal cost? And so some of the early thoughts that, that Tristan had, um, had high inventory, and, "Hey, let's get a building," and I'm like, "Hey, man, like what, what are we talking about?"
You want me to sign a lease? Yeah. Yeah. Let's l- And
Kile Graves: so- We
Doug Batie: need to car lot ... the way we have structured the whole thing is more as SaaS than it is, you know, a, a, a brick and mortar. And so what I mean by that is like there's literally nothing outside of his time and a little bit of data fees of, you know, scraping and, and some AI work and getting, you know, hiring best in class people to help us with [00:40:00] that, some design stuff, et cetera.
Um, but All in all, it's, uh, there's not a whole lot of, uh, outflow of, of capital- Yeah ... outside of, "Hey, he's got an apartment he's gotta pay for," right? Yes. And I guess he's gotta eat every now and then. And so- Yeah ... um, that, that part's been, been really fun. But I think, uh, also, like, the, the insights of seeing that, uh, he's got four or five key insights when, when I had him kind of build, "Okay, convince me, but probably more important, right?
Convince Mom that this really could be a business." Yeah. And, and some of those key insights that, like, not, uh, every de- depreciation curve looks the same, and like, "Okay, well help me understand that." And, and seeing some of those things with little to no spend outside of his time just continued to validate, like, man, he could go turn this into a business without it being, um, huge overhead.
Sure.
Steve Graves: Yeah, I mean, the interesting thing is, is your business model, it's got some really nice, interesting upsides because, [00:41:00] you know, you don't have to have a car lot.
Tristan Batie: Mm-hmm.
Steve Graves: You don't have to really ever own the car yourself. Right. I'm not saying you wouldn't ever wanna get into that space. Right. Right. But your business model doesn't require you to do that.
Exactly. Your business model allows someone to own it over here- Mm-hmm ... and somebody else to own it over here, so there's just very limited, you know, capital required- Sure, sure ... for that. You know? Yeah. Maybe, maybe the capitals will be all b- be completely around either technology or other people being- For sure
able to carry the load of scale and expansion. Exactly, yep. We can get to that later, but that's, that's interesting. So, so the risk factor is pretty mitigated because of the business model.
Kile Graves: Agreed.
Steve Graves: Generally speaking. Yeah, agreed. It
Kile Graves: sounds like you were able to speak into that pretty quickly- For sure ... and help steer some of that stuff.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Graves: Hence one of the dad learnings that- No doubt ... you can share. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. If you didn't have that, you might be out- Yeah. I'm- ... like, "Hey, good news- Trying to, yeah ... we bought a, we bought a car lot." Yeah. Like, why? Now we gotta fill it. Why? Yeah, I mean,
Tristan Batie: it's pretty hard to, to fill it with some of these cars that, you know, they're, they're hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Yeah. Yeah. It's not just laying around on the couch, you know? Yeah. For
Kile Graves: sure. Yeah. Yeah, I [00:42:00] mean, that, that example is something that we've seen is... And I don't know if it's shown up necessarily as much for you guys, but, uh, basically there's, there's two, there's a lot of tensions that show up when you're working with family.
Uh- Yeah. One of the key ones we've seen for dads is how do I steer wisely with my experience- Mm-hmm ... my knowledge, my career, but how do I also just let go and let- Yeah ... them run and figure stuff out? 'Cause he needs to learn that way, too. Yeah. And then the son side, your tensions are, "I need a lot of ambition, and I wanna push and chase, but I also need some hum- humility to accept that, like, maybe- Yeah
I don't know everything." For sure. Uh, has there been any examples of, of you being like, "I wanna push the envelope here"? And, and Doug's been like, "I don't know. I don't know if that's wise." Yeah. And you have to just be like, "Okay, this is, this is a hu- this is a humility moment."
Tristan Batie: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kile Graves: Or vice versa, where you've had one where you've had to like- For sure
let go of something where maybe you didn't want to. Yeah, yeah. Is
Doug Batie: that showing up at all? Oh, yeah, I think so. I mean, I think the whole social media thing, like I've, I've had to put my hand in Small of his back and say, "Hey, you've... There's no one else, right? If not you, then who- Yeah ... is [00:43:00] gonna be the frontman- Yeah
and, and who's gonna s- show up? There needs to be a human, uh, showing up, uh, for CarAvtoLab." Yeah. "And, and that human is you." And so I think that one was one that he kinda kicked and screamed, but also understood, like- Yeah ... "You're, you're, you're right." Like, and that's, uh, is a good example of Dion himself. I loved the fact that he didn't wanna be a Lamborghini bro and be an influencer, right?
Yeah. And like, "Yeah, Dad, buy me a new car and I'll, I'll go- For sure ... I'll go..." You know, and so like he's the antithesis of that which is so, uh, aligned to the brand- Right ... of what- Yeah, yeah ... what it's gonna go be. Um, so I thought that was, that was actually really healthy tension. Mm. What other ideas do you have?
Yeah, no, I was,
Tristan Batie: I was going social media, too. That's definitely the one that- Yeah ... I just, I was so anti, did not wanna be a, a Lamborghini bro. And just seeing it constantly on, on TikTok and Instagram- Oh, sure ... like all these guys. Yeah. I'm like, "These guys are just annoying." Yeah. That's just not, this is not what I wanna be.
Oh, they don't know what they're talking about. No. What are they even doing? And half of their, [00:44:00] half their facts are wrong and all that kind of stuff. I'm just like, "Why don't I go be the opposite of them?" You know? Yeah. And just dig into the actual data and just be very set in the facts and the data. Well, that would be off-brand, to your point.
It would be way off brand. It would be off-brand. Well, yeah. You know, when your
Steve Graves: brand is not- Mm-hmm ... you know, your customer is not looking for a Lamborghini bro to-
Tristan Batie: No. Exactly ... hype
Steve Graves: them into buying something. No, exactly. They just need a little help-
Tristan Batie: Exactly ... you
Steve Graves: know, getting to the finish line on a, on a, on an idea- Mm-hmm
or on a dream- Absolutely. Yeah ... or on that, you
Kile Graves: know. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Um, another thing that we, we say often is, is working in a family business is uniquely challenging and uniquely rewarding.
Tristan Batie: Yeah.
Kile Graves: Um, where has that shown up? Has that statement been true for you guys? Have there been super rewarding moments?
I mean, you touched on it a little bit. For sure. Um, where, what are some of those for each of you? Yeah.
Doug Batie: I remember, uh, it wasn't even three months ago that he had a client that was, um, uh, interested in like a really, uh, nice SUV, and the only place they were available was like [00:45:00] in Scottsdale or Vegas. And so I was already going on a trip out to Scottsdale and brought him along with me, and just seeing him like in his element.
Like in his element, and just walk in, I had already called ahead, not because I had told him to call ahead, but because he had the foresight, "Hey, I'm getting ready to go touch some half a million dollar cars, and maybe I ought to call ahead. I, I acknowledge I'm 22 years old, and, and I'm gonna be walking around this place."
And everybody knew him, was waiting on him, expecting him, and he just walked in like he was meant to be there, and I'm over there opening the doors like this. You know? And he's just like, "It's just a car, man." Yeah. Like, "Just jump in." And so that was fun, but it was also so aligned to just who he is. I remember...
I'm gonna go way back- Mm-hmm ... and then you guys can edit this all later, but I think it's, it's really part of just how God uniquely wired Tristan. I remember we were on a college campus one time. We were at, uh... It was an alumni event for my wife and I, [00:46:00] and he's a little two-year-old, and the campus is completely empty, and we're at this water fountain, and it's a beautiful day, and I say, "Hey, buddy, you wanna go sit down?"
He's like, "Yeah." Well, there's one guy sitting on a bench, like across the way from us. Instead of sitting at any of the 12 other benches, this guy just walks all the way around, sits right next to him and says, "Hey, I'm Tristan. What's your name?" And I'm like, "That is so opposite of me." Yeah. But it's fun to see, like- That's cool
his unique gifting- Yeah ... and then how that's applying and showing itself in, like what he's doing right now. So yeah, that's, that's pretty rewarding to see- That's cool ... of like, yeah, you've, you've always had that. And then, uh, the, the ability to memorize Bible verses early days and applying that to memorizing data points or people's names and, and, you know, it's still a very relational business.
Yeah. And so you see how he's wired to, to be successful in this, and so that, that part's been fun. That's awesome. Yeah.
Tristan Batie: Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, I obviously don't remember that being [00:47:00] two years old. But I, I think one of the most rewarding things for me, and this is, this is gonna be... This is really funny, but my mother unders- finally understanding the whole point of Carvana Lab.
Yeah. Um- Hmm ... and so just finally getting her, and she's... If you know her, I love my mother, but man, she's stubborn, and so am I. And so the two of us battling it out, trying to like, "Hey, this actually means something. This actually works. You need to understand that this car can sell for this, and you're not spending $80,000 to buy a car.
You're losing $12,000 in a year on- Yeah ... this car." And so really I think the most rewarding thing for me was when she realized that I'm not spending money anymore. I'm losing this money in this year, in this amount. And so just seeing that, using the, the knowledge of Carve, um, that she is seeing the car market differently now, and I, I just, that, her, her opening my eyes to that, I'm like, "Wow."
Like, that's what I want to go chase now, you know? Like, sure, money's awesome, but if I can get [00:48:00] everybody in this room to understand the car market like I do and save you guys all thousands of dollars over the next, you know, 20 years of you guys buying cars, that's really, that's really what I wanna do.
Yeah. So I think that's definitely the most, one of the most rewarding things that I've seen.
Kile Graves: That's great. Yeah. Uh, are any of your relationships, network, showing up in a way with this business? I mean, sometimes- Uh- I mean, this is very different than your day job. Sure. And there's some analytical pieces that seem similar, but a lot of times If a dad and son are starting something together, it's adjacent to an industry that, you know, the dad used to work in or something, and so a ton of those networks roll over.
This seems kinda different. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Is any of that showing
Doug Batie: up? Well, I mean, I think, you know, a l- large degree of those 100 that we were piloting are probably half of them are within my network- Okay ... because I'm the, I'm the target market. Yeah. Exactly. Not his- Exactly ... not his generation. Right. You know?
You're the customer. I'm the customer. Yeah. And so, um, definitely on that side. But then, [00:49:00] uh, one thing I've found, and it's almost opposite of what you're trained in the, in the bubble of Bentonville, if, if I may, you know, we treat data in, in Bentonville largely with guards up. You know, I c- I gotta be careful who I'm talking with at lunch because I don't know if my competitor or my merchant's across the way.
Right. You know, Walmart or, or my competitor. And, um, in the startup community, you know, and you know this from your example, your experience at Bearded Goat, like largely it's guard down because everybody's just trying to survive it. Right. And so, like, I was, I was always amazed through the Gen Z journey of like how many competitors, if you will, wanted to help me.
And so I've been really pushing that- Mm ... of like, okay, Tristan, maybe adjacent categories or whatever or, or, um, any of my creatives, uh, 'cause neither one of us are, are super creative. But I've been blessed to work with a bunch of cool creatives in my experience, and man, how willing they are [00:50:00] to give guidance or counsel or advice.
And so I think two of the CEOs that he met with early days, probably in, in July or August, were, uh, creatives that have their own design agency and just like they're, they're cheering him on, encouraging him- Mm ... and also on the, on the email list and giving him feedback all the time. So yeah, it's showing up.
That's cool. Yeah. For
Kile Graves: sure. Is, uh, is Owen... Have you talked to Owen about this at all? Oh my gosh. He's a big car guy.
Doug Batie: Owen's, Owen's killer for it. Like, uh- He got rid of his G recently. He did. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and, uh, we were trying to get him to get a, a new station wagon, and he came in second. He ca- he didn't get it bought.
He came in second. He will bu- He
Kile Graves: will be a customer at some point. Oh, yeah. It's only a matter of time. No, no. He's,
Doug Batie: he's great. But like- Yeah ... he was so excited. I was, I was watching the auction, um, while he was bidding, and Tristan was texting both of us, and we were... It was fun. Uh, uh, he was at work. I'm telling you, he would've gone that one more number.
Yeah. He had it. He had it. He had it. He probably- That guy wasn't going any higher. You know what's- He had it ... been also fun is [00:51:00] like via guidance is, uh, Tristan helped me, and we actually helped Owen like establish a number because like you get into the, the excitement of an auction- Oh, yeah ... and it's like, uh, you know, uh- drinking way too much and being at the gambling table.
Like, you gotta set limits- ... whatever that is. Yeah. And man, if you, if you have that limit of like, "Okay, don't go over this," it's really healthy and, and comforting. It's also crazy how close this number gets to being like- Yeah ... man, it's sold. Like- Yeah ... we've come in second quite a few auctions. Four times now.
Yeah, four times. Yeah.
Tristan Batie: Yeah. Before the, before the new one you bought, we were... How many did we bid on? Probably five or six different cars- Yeah ... with different price ranges, completely different models of cars, and every s- I mean, three out of the four times, I think we were in second and one more number away, but I was like, "Hey, our...
This is our cutoff number." Like- Yeah, we're done ... we're done. Yeah. Um, and yeah, when those guys bought it I'm like, "Man, do I, do I wanna take that next step one more time?" But just, yeah, just making sure- Being disciplined ... stick to your guns, you know? Yeah. [00:52:00] So. Yeah. Yeah.
Doug Batie: If, if you think of the normal car purchasing cycle, uh, in, uh, areas like ours is, I'll just pick on the, the Yukon Suburban example of go- We just bought a Yukon.
Just buy a brand new one. Drive it until it's got 60,000 miles, 80,000 miles, and what you don't understand is, like one of his core concepts is the first 100 feet. I know you guys have seen the email and seen some of that, but it's the, the steepest depreciation curve largely is that first 100 feet. You know, like that's when you're gonna take the big bite, just as soon as that thing rolls off the lot and literally becomes a used car.
But understanding those depreciation cliffs and then understanding that in the marketplace, if you just play the game like everybody else, like you are not just buying a 90 or $100,000 Yukon, you're, you're throwing away $60,000 if you [00:53:00] don't get out at the right time, and then the opportunity to flip that on the head, because there's some really nice, uh, U- Taycans.
Yeah. I, I think Steve, you talked about a friend that bought a, a Taycan. A Taycan, uh, Porsche electric vehicle, really nice vehicle, but man, priced sky high, and that depreciation cliff for them was not 10%, it was like 40%. Yeah.
Tristan Batie: Like early. I think a, a 20, like 2025 Taycans, if you've got it all kitted out, a Turbo S, you're paying like 240 grand for it, and then you...
I can find you probably 20 with less than 5,000 miles at $160,000. Wow. I mean- Yeah, and- ... it's barely been driven. It still smells new Still smells new, yeah. I mean, still under warranty- Wow ... still under everything, and you're saving almost 100 grand- Wow ... just buying a second-hand- For a brand-new car ... for basically a brand-new car.
Doug Batie: And then that, that depreciation cliff is, like, if you do the 11-month deal and drive it for, you know, a year to 18 months, you can probably get out of [00:54:00] that for, for less than $500 a month. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And so, like, just finding those times and, and the data's really just kinda screaming at that.
That's crazy. That's, that's, that stuff's fun. So,
Steve Graves: so, so guys, where are we going? Yeah, where are we going, Tristan? Where, where, where, where are you gonna be, where are you gonna be, Tristan, uh, let's call it two years from now? Where, where's the business gonna be?
Tristan Batie: Yeah, I mean, I, I think in the, in the hopes of, of Carvo Lab in the future, really just, um, I think one of the, the big things is just continuing to prove that, um, the outcome, right?
So that outcome of his G- of the, the car that he had bought, um, like just proving that that loss is gonna be a lot less consistently in front of a lot of people to earn the trust that does not naturally come in the car market. There's zero trust in the car market. And so, um, I think in, in, you know, hopefully in, in two or three years, really just getting it as close to automated as I can.[00:55:00]
Um, and by automated, I mean that the scraping and all of the hard effort that I'm putting into finding all these data points, um, is as close to automated as possible, and then that ease and convenience like Carvana is selling, we have the opportunity to, to, to sell that convenience to other people as well.
Um-
Doug Batie: Can I build on that one real quick? Yeah, go for it. Like, one data point that I had is, uh, we built that, kinda hand-built it, uh, New Year's Eve. It's- Yeah ... how, how, how, uh, great your social life is. I don't know what that, that says about your social life. But it took you about six hours with both of us working on it, so let's call it 12 man-hours- Yeah
to crank out a ledger. Um, and now with the, the help of, of some really smart people coming alongside you and, and, um, automating a lot of it, I think you can get that down to 45 minutes. Yeah. I'm, I could probably get a ledger in that time. So, so what that says to Mr. Steve [00:56:00] Graves is it's, it's becoming scalable- Scalable
where a $750 ledger that looks like magazine grade, I think you've seen a few of them. You know, it's high quality. You're proud to, to have it. Um- You know, cranking out two to three of those a day is well within reason. Sure. And, uh, what we've kind of built is a run rate goal of like, man, if we're, if we're somewhere in this middle, man, we're really happy.
Above it, we're ecstatic. Below it, man, we gotta start questioning ourselves. So it's really about, you know, uh, jumping the valley to, okay, how many strangers are gonna trust a young professional-looking articulate guy, but he is young, and, and send him $750 knowing that they're gonna save thousands? And I said, you know, so can we get two people to do that a week, um, this next sh- [00:57:00] next few months?
And then... Or two people, uh, a week would be, uh, would be great, you know? And, and then what does that scale look like? But that is probably the easiest interaction, um, fairly low cost of entry for him, but then it's highly scalable for him too. So I think that's one that I'm kinda locking in on, is like, "Tristan, I can't wait for you to go live and some stranger out there- Yeah, yeah
in the ethos orders one and then sends you back a note saying, 'Man, you just saved me $4,000 or $10,000.'" Because he's already done it for the 100. Um, he's done it for probably eight or nine people in the 100 of like literally $750, and I get 5 to $10,000, 4 to $10,000 worth of value back out of it. So I think that's the part that I'm locking in on.
Yeah. Can he hit scale? The, the acquisition, uh, he's also learned a lot from the acquisition. Yeah. Sure. Like, there's some things not to do, right? Yeah. Like, you know, there's-
Tristan Batie: Yeah, I mean, I think one of them is, uh, [00:58:00] an example is the client has got to be ready to pull the trigger when I send you a ledger. Oh, yeah.
Like when I... If I'm, if you're using an acquisition strategy, Steve, you're looking for, you're looking for your Lamborghini, and you want a ledger and you request a ledger, and I send it to you, and you wait for two weeks, I mean, half of those Lamborghinis are gonna be gone, and I'm gonna be building you another ledger again.
And so if I get you- So you both lose. Yeah. So everybody, we're kinda losing. It's just repeating that process. Whereas like if I'm, if I give you that ledger and you within 24 hours have narrowed it down to your top three, man, as soon as I wake up that next morning, I'm hitting those, those dealerships, hitting those guys, and I'm, "Hey, what can you do for me here?
Can you get me two more, three more thousand dollars off?" 'Cause these are already the, the top 20. There's, there's not a whole lot room for negotiation with these ones. Yeah. And so, um, really just getting them as close to I can as ready, and then making sure that you're ready. So if, if you're not ready to go, then I'm just, I'm sitting with these dealers like, "Hey, I- I'm sorry, [00:59:00] I can't move forward anymore.
I'm waiting on this guy. I'm waiting to hear back." And, um, loses a little bit of credibility in that, which is a little frustrating, but definitely learning that, hey, if you're ready to go, we need to be ready to go.
Kile Graves: So graduate in May Graduate in May ... and this is, this is the plan? Like- This is the plan. Okay.
This is the plan. We're gonna do this for a while.
Tristan Batie: Yeah.
Kile Graves: See how it goes, and then, and then scale from there.
Tristan Batie: Yeah.
Kile Graves: Uh, what does... Does your involvement stay... I mean, you probably don't even know this yet, 'cause you're, you're pre-launch, but like, you know, a lot of the conversations we'll have is, you know, the dads over there being like, "Hey, I'll give you 18 months," and then- Yeah
"You got it, dude." Yeah. Seems like y'all are... You're probably further behind on that cycle. Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. And you're like, "We're just gonna, we're gonna stay neck and neck- Yeah ... as long as it takes." Yeah.
Doug Batie: I think, um, there is nothing of his products, if you will, the, the four offerings from the free offering to the ledger to acquisition to exit, that involves me in any way.
Like, it's, it's been more shaping and forming what those look like, [01:00:00] and so now they're to the point where he's just running them. Yeah. So I, I think there'll be other opportunities and, and business questions coming my way, but like, I think he's, I think he's built to go run it, 'cause like he's, he's, uh, he's got a pretty full plate with class and, and everything else right now, and he keeps saying, "Man, I, I can't wait till I'm able to be more focused on it," and that's why we kind of pushed to, to wait for launch to be April.
Yeah. So he's gonna have basically a month that he's doing both, knowing that it's not gonna just happen automatically. Yeah. But, uh, if we woke up tomorrow, if we launched on social media tomorrow, and orders started coming in, he could crank out quite a few, and I think that's a great problem to have of like- Yeah
"Sorry, we gotta limit this to, to only four a week or five a week." "Sorry, I gotta go to
Tristan Batie: class tomorrow."
Doug Batie: Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah.
Kile Graves: Uh, if you were to open the, um, open the well of just advice, I mean, I know, I know you a little bit, Doug, [01:01:00] before this conversation, so I know that you have a deep side of your soul and just, like, how you view life and stuff.
If you were to open that up and just talk about working with your son and why it's a cool opportunity and how you would encourage... You know, if another dad and son were, like, sitting here kind of like you guys were back last summer- Yeah ... kinda like, "Should we do, do a business? Should we not?" Like, how would you speak into that, uh, that dad-son, family- Yeah
dynamic, and how would you encourage them? Yeah, I'll
Doug Batie: take a stab at that. Um, I think- Uh, you, you've gotta have an honest assessment of what your relationship's like, right? Like, I, I coached him when he was little. I had the opportunity to be a volunteer assistant in high school, and coach him his junior and senior year.
And, and understand that, you know, the coaching hat comes on, then it comes back off. Be his cell group leader through church. And so you just gotta have a honest assessment. And I remember specifically for, like, cell group, every year in August I'd say, "Hey, buddy, I don't have to be your cell group leader.
Like, there's a bunch of great guys." He's like, "No, I want you to be our cell group." And so you gotta have an [01:02:00] honest assessment of how do you guys interact, and I, I... that's where I would start as foundation. And we enjoy hanging out with each other. We frustrate each other. We're both human. Um, but largely, uh, we can balance each other out pretty well even though everybody thinks we're identical in a lot of ways.
Um, yeah, he's, he is way more precise, and I'm more, uh, risk, "Hey, just go try it, and let's, let's see if it screws up. If it screws up, we'll fix it." Yeah. And, and he's like, "Man, I want it to be perfect." And so just balancing all of that, I- it's... You've gotta be able to understand exactly how do you relate, because I think it would be a, uh, a mistake to walk into it and saying, "Hey, this is how I'm gonna build my relationship with my son."
Yeah. I would, I would want to make sure that you guys are on some kind of foundation that, that that relationship's already healthy, because what you're really gonna be doing is putting a lot more tension into the relationship rather than creating a way to, um, [01:03:00] bring you guys together.
Tristan Batie: Yeah. If that makes sense.
Yeah,
Kile Graves: yeah. Totally. Yeah. Tristan, what would you say?
Tristan Batie: I mean, I think, I think as the, the kid's side, he really does actually know what he's talking about, you know? Um, he's not just- Are you sure? He's not just, he's not just, he's not just talking to talk just to- Record that ... just to be whatever. Hold on. Paul, Paul- Say, can you say that one more time?
I mean, yeah, you got it. That's your one time. But, and specifically in the car space, like, I mean, I know a whole lot more about cars than he does. Absolutely. Hmm. But he knows a whole lot more about business than I do. And so really just finding the, the balance of where our, our strengths are, you know? And, and like you said, building that relationship.
We've had a fantastic relationship my entire life, and so it... that really came easy when it... we were like, "Oh, let's just go build this business together." I mean, it's just like going to feed the horses outside or go play catch or whatever. It's the same... It just felt like the same kind of thing. Yeah. And so really the, on the son side of things, just knowing that, again, [01:04:00] he knows what he's talking about, and I, I can trust him to, to be behind me and be...
have my back and everything. But then also that I have to have his back as well. Like, it's his money, it's his investment, it's his thing. Like, I gotta go prove it, not just to, to the world, to the market, but I gotta go prove it to this guy that I'm worth that investment as well. And so, um, yeah, I think it, it's been awesome.
It's been a blast, and I, I definitely wouldn't change it for the world.
Steve Graves: That's cool.
Tristan Batie: Yeah.
Steve Graves: We'll, uh- Need to get back together in two years Yeah. Yeah, let's see- See where, see where we are ... see where it's at. See where we are. I look forward to that. Yeah. Well,
Doug Batie: I think, you know, Steve, to that point, like even if we go back, if, if we come back in two years, um, he's already kind of validated it for me through, um, articulating, uh, well, you talked about it, the, the learning curve, like, compared to, like-
Tristan Batie: Yeah, uh, comparatively to- To, like- Yeah
Doug Batie: class or- I mean- Yeah ... he
Tristan Batie: was, he was talking about the precision, and one of the things I've always... I mean, you can say he's like, "When I decided not take, uh, not go to medical [01:05:00] school this last fall semester," he's like, "Hey, maybe you should do some business classes." I was like, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll do, you know, whatever macroeconomics, micro, and I'll do, you know, business stats."
And he leans over me. He goes- Oof ... "Dude, do you, do you really wanna go do business stats?" And I'm like, "Dude, what are you... Have you ever heard of biochemistry or organic chemistry?" Yeah. I got, I got this. That's a lot of, that's a lot of maths. I'm like, "Okay." Business statistics is gonna be an absolute breeze.
But that learning curve from going to the precise, you know, like if you're not precise in a, in a chemistry lab, you're gonna blow up the lab. So you, and you really don't wanna do that. And so really just narrowing down all of that and that learning curve of, hey, that the risk can be taken without all of the precautions, um, in a sense.
And so I think, I think that's been a- Yeah. And I
Doug Batie: think your point of, like, when you articulated to me of like, "Man, I've learned more" Yeah. In the...
Tristan Batie: Definitely learned more in the last six months than I have the four years at, at school. Oh, yeah. As a whole. I mean, I, I was sitting here
Steve Graves: thinking about that very thing.
No question. Oh, yeah. You know, you, you... I mean, there's a real, there's a real tension in today's world- Mm-hmm ... in current modern world of learning and [01:06:00] education between, you know, formal education- Right ... and informal education that has formal pieces around it. It's not like you're not learning. Mm-hmm. You're still learning like crazy, but like- Exactly
to, to think that you can't hit Claude or ChatGPT - For sure ... and learn a whole bunch quickly. Exactly. Now, that doesn't mean some people don't need to sit in a class- Agreed ... for the rhythm and the discipline of it. That's point one. Point two is, you know, I'm always reminded, um, how many times I've heard and/or experienced, um, you know, idea one is the business idea that you co- that you stand up and go to market with.
But then somewhere along the way, the market changes your idea one to 1A or 1B or even two, and, and it's not like you don't, it's not like you get out of the auto business, but what you started with might not be what you have two years from now. Sure. And the market could very well say, "Hey, here's-" Here's a [01:07:00] better idea that's way more profitable and way more hot.
Tristan Batie: For sure. Yeah.
Steve Graves: But y- but you won't do that in a classroom. My point is that's not gonna happen, you know, in a business theory. Sure. It's, it's gonna happen when you're taking risk, trying to move through s- launch to s- prove to scale. Yeah. You know, that's... So you, you guys have a wonderful two-year proof stage.
For sure. For sure. Wonderful. Yeah, it'll be
Doug Batie: fun.
Kile Graves: Well, thanks for doing this. Y'all's story is kind of the, the vision for this, uh, little miniseries of conversations is basically for y'all's story to be told, where there's more dads that see, like, "Hey, I'm gonna go work with my son, and this is a chance to amplify our legacy, work together, let him see-" For sure.
me in a professional setting, pour into him, disciple him in the workplace-" Yes. "... not just outside in life." Yeah. And for more sons to see, "Hey, I'm gonna work with my dad, and this is an honor, not a handout-" For sure. "... that I'm getting." Um, so y'all's story kind of brings that to life. Yeah. And, uh, I'm glad we got to, to hear it and share it.
Yeah. So, um- Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Yeah, of course. This is probably gonna be released around the launch time. Where can people find Carve?
Tristan Batie: Yeah, so, [01:08:00] uh, Carvauto Lab, hopefully in the, in the next two weeks or so, um, be on Instagram, TikTok at, @carvautolab. Um, and then website as well, carvautolab.com.
Um, and you can sign up for the email through the website or through social media as well. Um, yeah, give us a follow. Just follow along. It'll be fun. It'll be a lot of
fun.