

Truecar.com is going public - binarytrees
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327318/000104746914003390/a2219317zs-1.htm

======
patrickxb
TrueCar sounds like a great idea (the dealership system is horrible).

But we just used TrueCar when shopping for a new car and instantly got spammy,
sleazy emails and phone calls from dealers before even completing the process
(which we never did).

It wasn't fun. I really wish we didn't give them any information. So I don't
have high hopes for this business succeeding.

What really needs to happen is that people need to be able to just buy a car
like they buy everything else without salespeople in the middle. Why can't I
buy a new car from the manufacturer straight from their website? Seeing all
the trouble Tesla is having fighting the dealership model is
discouraging...hopefully it will improve, I'm just not sure TrueCar is the
answer.

~~~
Phlarp
>when shopping for a new car and instantly got spammy, sleazy emails and phone
calls from dealers

As a dev who works for company in the same vertical, this is the modus
operandi of every dealership in the country. Their online strategy is "Get
email addresses from boomers, then spam their inboxes into submission!" As if
boilerplate ridden automated emails and $5 off your next dealership tune-up
could influence buyers on a once-in-a-decade purchase.

[1][http://www.arcleu.com/how_not_to_advertise_your_websites_liv...](http://www.arcleu.com/how_not_to_advertise_your_websites_live_chat.gif)

------
aclements18
This is a solid venture backed company that has been generating quite a bit of
revenue for some time now. This exit will provide its investors with a solid
return. Odd how little attention a company like this gets from the tech
community.

Bernie Brenner, the guy who heads up their business development, wrote The
Sumo Advantage which one of the best books I've read on BD. He very clearly
identifies the role of BD and how it is distinctly different than sales. I'd
recommend it for any startup looking to partner with large established
businesses to spur growth.

~~~
ganeumann
It's a good company with a good service (I used them last year when I was
buying a car--walked in with their piece of paper and said 'if you give me
this price I will buy this car now, in cash.' That was the end of the
negotiation. Drove out of the dealer a couple of hours later (yes, it still
took a couple of hours to get the transaction complete.)

But I don't think the tech community should be all excited about this company.
It's not a 'tech' startup per se, it's just a normal marketing (lead-gen,
specifically) company that happens to use the Internet--and using the Internet
to do business has not been something to get excited about for at least ten
years now. It's not like Oculus or WhatsApp or Airbnb or even Uber. There's no
technical innovation at play here, there's no business model innovation at
play here, there's no new market segment being addressed, it's not disruptive
or even radical innovation. It's not innovation driven, it's just a good
company delivering a good product. It's not a 'startup' the way we use startup
in the tech community, it's just a plain old business.

------
Jarred
When I was a freshman in high school, every other Tuesday I went to TrueCar's
SFRuby meetup. Everyone I met there was super nice, and it helped me stay sane
while I was in high school. Thanks for that. Glad to hear they're doing well!

------
binarytrees
[http://www.truecar.com/S1/](http://www.truecar.com/S1/)

------
simonebrunozzi
Truecar.com used to charge dealers between 400$ and 500$ for every deal that
would close (sale). Since then, I believe that they changed it into a monthly
subscription, or a combination of the two. The problem is that Truecar is yet
another middleman, and yes, it's much better to sign up with a new email
address because you will get all the spam in the world.

It is much better to get "certificates" on Truecar with a fake name/email,
then go to the dealer and say: give me this car for 500$ less, or I'll walk
away.

I didn't buy a car yet, but I got two real offers from dealers just like that.

Truecar is a middleman... Middlemen tend to go away. I am not optimistic about
their future.

------
sixQuarks
Scott Painter is an underrated guy. TrueCar almost went out of business due to
dealer backlash, and now just a couple of years later, they're going public.
Kudos.

------
casca
There was some discussion around Truecar and how they pivoted in this Planet
Money podcast -
[http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/03/14/290241292/episode-...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/03/14/290241292/episode-435-why-
buying-a-car-is-so-awful)

------
cheriot
If anyone is curious about what price they actually go for or how their
financials turn out next year, you can get sec filing alerts from a website I
made:
[http://www.wellreadinvestor.com/companies/35427](http://www.wellreadinvestor.com/companies/35427)

------
taude
hmm, I used it, and didn't have the problem. I was only contacted by the
dealers I requested, and one I told them I was interested in a different car,
they left me alone.

also, when selecting your dealers it was pretty obvious that they were going
to be contacting you, no?

------
kirpekar
2013: $134M revenues and $25M loss.

~~~
aclements18
Amazon 2012: $61B revenues and $39M loss.

To say, net income may not be the best indicator of success for high growth
tech companies. They reinvest every dollar to continue to spur growth.

~~~
Guvante
19% vs 0.6% makes the two not really comparable.

Not to say you don't have a point (net profit isn't the only factor), just
that your example is weak.

------
xster
TrueCar.com for dummies: use spamdecoy.net for email and Burner for phone
number

------
rebelidealist
What valuation are they shooting for?

------
pearjuice
Are you ready for another pump and dump?

 _starts beating chest and humming_

~~~
dang
This is not a good Hacker News comment. It's glib when it should be
substantive, and tries to drum up indignation when it should be reflective.

One of the best things PG ever said about HN is that comments "should be
written in the spirit of colleagues cooperating in good faith to figure out
the truth about something". I intend to add that to the site guidelines.

Please re-read what you post and, if doesn't have this quality, edit it until
it does. If, after editing, there is nothing left, you should have no trouble
deleting it (or just not posting). In my experience, this approach works—when
one remembers to take it.

~~~
daeken
One thing that I'd love to see is a system for adaptive edit/delete windows.
Right now it seems to be a fixed length of time (I want to say an hour?), but
I think it'd be conducive to better conversation to have flexible windows,
where -- and maybe this isn't the right approach -- the window is extended by
X minutes for every reply, or something along those lines.

It'd certainly flatten threads a bit, especially in the case of someone
posting a factually incorrect comment and correcting it after the fact.

~~~
thix0tr0pic
In which case the original comment should stay as on so anyone can see what
happened, but use strike-through formatting

