From Humble Beginnings

My name is Ian Smith and I’m the founder & CEO of LotBlok. I wanted to take a moment to shed some light on my life and what lead me to build LotBlok into what it is today.

My father purchased his first car dealership when I was 5, quickly molding my childhood to that of a lotboy. I spent most of my afternoons washing, vacuuming and taking care of all the small things that kept my father’s dealership in pristine condition.

One of my earliest memories was on my dad’s dealership. I can vividly remember washing cars and my excitement every time he’d bring a new vehicle to the lot.

Fast forward to high school graduation and it was my turn to begin learning the ropes. My dad taught me everything there was to know about auctions and the used vehicle industry.

As the youngest individual at most auctions, I quickly recognized that the auction houses had all the power. It was their way or the highway (literally) and smaller dealers often had little to no say over the decisions that would make or break their bottom line. For small dealers such as my father, it was impossible to compete with large dealer groups. I wanted to figure out a way to empower small businesses and get them the prices they rightfully deserved. It was this line of thinking that was a driving factor behind the creation of LotBlok.

Stepping Up to the Plate

As I began thinking of different ways to leverage my specific knowledge while avoiding direct competition with my father, a niche market came to mind. At the age of 21 years old, I started my own dealership specializing in exotic cars. Coincidentally, this was right when a small company called eBay first came to the scene. I quickly recognized that e-commerce was much easier than the physical auction process. For the first time in history, dealers could buy cars online. After seeing how powerful online based sales could be, I took full advantage by locating new inventory opportunities that others were failing to capitalize on.

I would fly to New Jersey in the winter and buy a few Porsche’s when there was three feet of snow on the ground and bring it back to California to sell during the summer.

I was able to build a strong network in California by working very closely with Ferrari of San Francisco and well-known car buyers such as HighBid Trading. As condition reports and buying online became more standardized, I recognized it was time to innovate again. After working with high-end individuals and recognizing their taste, I decided to go abroad to tackle luxury goods.

From Cars to Watches to Hardware

While my passion for cars has always stemmed from a strong relationship with my dad, watches were more of a personal interest. I always have had a sentimental attachment to watches after receiving a Swiss Army Knife watch for Christmas when I was very young. It just so happened that when it came to luxury watches, Japan was the place to be.

In Japan, people don’t buy cars, they buy accessories.

To this end, the market for luxury watches was much more competitive than that of the United States. I recognized a massive opportunity to try my hand at wholesale while juggling my car dealership. I was able to target the same audience to purchase pristine yet affordable watches. This new segment taught me how a business can thrive off small margins and how to truly recognize supply and demand. It was this experience that forged the one of the core tenants behind LotBlok’s business model today.

At the age of 30, I was introduced to Chris George of DDR Drive, an SSD hard drive company. Growing up not far from Silicon Valley, it only seemed logical that I take advantage of the massive demand for computing storage that was sweeping around the world. I became immersed with my job at DDR Drive. It was a brand new world for me, learning each day how to build a technology company.

After Leaving DDR Drive, I felt I finally had the tools and knowledge necessary to improve the outdated automotive industry.

Enter LotBlok

You may be wondering, what do watches & hard drives have to do with used vehicles?

In short, my experience with cars, the wholesale industry and helping build the foundation of a tech company, are the driving factors of what makes me poised to lead LotBlok to the next stage.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with LotBlok, please take a second to read about the problems we’re solving here or check out our site at www.lotblok.com.

After becoming enamored with streamlining the wholesale liquidation process, a colleague from Roadster referred me to LotBlok’s current CTO, Chad Sexton. Chad had helped build a lot of Manheim’s (the largest auction house in the world) digital auctions system and was extremely well versed in project management for these systems. Combined with expert operational insight from Charlie Mock — a mentor from PayPal that worked full-time for the first 2 years — LotBlok quickly grew into a technology focused automotive business.

Learning How to Pivot

When LotBlok was first created three and a half years ago, we focused on B2B while helping dealers streamline their vehicle liquidations. However, we quickly realized, like the majority of our competitors, our business model was neglecting liquidations from the most important market in the automotive business — the everyday driver.

It is important to note our current business is now entirely focused on providing C2B upstream inventory. LotBlok today is most streamlined version of the business to date. We help everyday people get paid on the spot from the comfort of their home. In exchange LotBlok takes a small processing fee and leaves the lion’s share of the final price to the seller.

The Future Automotive Industry

In 5 years, I believe existing physical auction house as we know them today won’t be a reality. Our entire world is going digital and LotBlok is here to lead the automotive industry in that direction.

It took nearly 10 years for dealers to become comfortable with BUYING vehicles online. SELLING your car without ever seeing the buyer still lacks a sense of trust. LotBlok hopes to instill confidence that selling your car to someone before you meet them is both acceptable and beneficial.

As the company continues to evolve, we aim to have as little of a fingerprint on the process as possible. While we’re currently focused on education, our larger vision is to help establish trust. Whether it’s through the integration of blockchain technology and immutable ledgers (more on this later) or the fact that you can ALWAYS get a hold of a customer service representative, LotBlok is here to help get the best value for your vehicle with as little stress as possible.

By the end of 2019, LotBlok aims to be processing 200 cars a day across every major market on the west coast including but not limited to California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Nevada.

Conclusion

I sincerely feel I’ve learned more in the last three and a half years than I have in the prior 20. It’s amazing how much you learn when you jump in the deep end and are forced to swim.

Where we are today isn’t where we imagined when we started. Our journey has allowed us to build what we believe to be BEST solution to the problem that our platform solves. We’ve trimmed the fat, & it’s extremely gratifying to offer a service which eases friction in peoples lives.

If you believe you can add value to our mission, or have any questions, please feel free to reach me directly at ian@lotblok.com

For more information on LotBlok, stay up to date with us on our socials.

Medium Twitter Telegram Reddit Facebook Linkedin Youtube

LotBlok — Bringing the auction to your driveway