A group of young Maritime entrepreneurs are looking to change the way people shop for used cars.
ClutchCanada is part of a growing number of start-up companies looking to change the way we do business in the Maritimes, specifically by setting out to disrupt the used car business.
They are a fully licensed dealer, but ClutchCanada is not your average used car shopping experience. There’s no car lot, no showroom and no pushy salesmen. Instead, an employee referred to as a ‘car enthusiast’ comes to your door to show you the vehicles blemishes before you take a test drive.
“We order a lot of other products on-line, kind of an easy shopping experience, trustworthy, low-pressure shopping experience, yet for one of the largest purchases somebody makes in their life, it’s still a huge inconvenience, high-pressure situation,” explains co-founder Stephen Seibel.
The showroom is an online, virtual experience, which makes photography an important piece of the business.
“You’re able to scroll through all of our photos, we’re going to highlight what’s wrong with the car, so there’s absolutely no surprises,” says co-founder Andrew Dolinski.
The founders are from all over the country, but say they chose to set up in Metro Halifax because the area is friendly for startups.
In the beginning, ClutchCanada got a lot of help from Volta Labs, a Halifax hub for tech startups, that encourages collaboration and partnership between their clients.
“Law partners will come in and give them some legal advice, we also have some accounting advice, and bring in consultants for brand strategy and leadership strategy as well,” says Krista White of Volta Labs.
Volta Labs also provide subsidized office space, which helped give ClutchCanada the space if needed to get underway. They now have fifteen employees and are looking to hire more, to help drive a new way of doing business.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ron Shaw.
