Serial 4X founder and CEO Scott Wingo reconnected with the GetLatka team to update his progress with GetSpiffy.com: an on-demand car care company with an interesting SaaS plus marketplace angle. Wingo’s last company, ChannelAdvisor, is now a public SaaS company with over $150m in ARR. In his previous visit, Latka recalled that Wingo described the company as an interesting, blended model of fintech, marketplace, and SaaS. CEO Wingo shared how the eCommerce experience helped him recognize the Spiffy opportunity, the enormous current size of his TAM, and the cannabis industry became an unlikely boon for business.
- Team of 60 at HQ with 500 field technicians in 280 vans
- $50m ARR
- 85% B2B, 15% consumer model
- 410 fleet customers
- 3 dimensions driving growth
3 obvious levers for Spiffy growth
CEO Wingo shared that his first AHA moment came in 2013 when he had his first Uber experience. He began to consider applying eCommerce SaaS to car care, recognizing that many customers would prefer that a service comes to them. With Spiffy, Wingo describes a “land and expand” strategy where he sees 3 levers for growth:
- Different geographies
- Different services
- Different customers
The founder shared with Latka his excitement that by turning any or all of those three dials, Spiffy could grow quickly. According to Wingo, “When you get to be a large SaaS, you only have one lever: QBSRs (quota-bearing sales representatives) and marketing spend.”
85% B2B Fleet SaaS business
Currently, the largest portion of Wingo’s B2B business is fleet. Yet, he believes Spiffy has only scratched the surface of the opportunity, even in the vertical he dominates. The CEO explained that the fleet business is comprised of three primary buckets:
- Rental cars, where Spiffy dominates with all major players, including Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, Budget, and Sixt, but could still 10X the business geographically
- Vehicle 2.0 car-sharing networks, including EVs and autonomous vehicles
- Amazon DSP logistics, where last-mile vehicles are a $200m opportunity alone
Wingo indicated that they’ve identified 4 other buckets, including corporate fleets where the company already serves Auto Zone, Verizon, and Wegmans in specific geographic markets.
3 primary services of “FMaaS”
According to Wingo, Spiffy is a SaaS company that he dubs an FMaaS (Fleet Management as a Service). He explained to Latka that there is a predictable amount of recurring revenue in the fleet business, as vehicles tend to need service at a certain measurable pace. The CEO shared that they typically upsell fleet management bundles to customers after addressing an immediate need. “A customer starts with an acute need like an oil change. We take care of that but then expand their services to offer a bundle that includes washes, tires, windshields, and preventative maintenance,” Wingo explained. He added, “eventually, they also want in-fleeting and removing vehicles, as well.” All told, Wingo estimates that the fleet business service is split evenly between:
- Oil changes
- Wash
- Other, including tires, brakes, light repair, and odor elimination
Cannabis boosts business
Wingo noted that in the “other” category, their odor elimination business is booming. The CEO proclaimed, “Shout out to the cannabis industry. It’s hugely benefitting us. As people smoke cannabis in cars, it creates a lot of odors, which is good for me.”
Oil changes range from $40 to $100
Latka asked Wingo to describe oil change pricing. The CEO shared that the average consumer oil change is $100, while the larger fleet companies pay $40-50, depending on committed volume. To get that price, B2B customers commit volume in the 1000s.
500 W2 technicians to control the CX
“What I learned in 20 years of eCommerce,” espoused Wingo, “was that those who control the whole customer experience control do best, like Tesla.” The CEO sees Spiffy as a premium offering, so they only employ W2 technicians with their own equipment to serve customers. Wingo clarified that they lease their vans for financial reasons.
15% consumer revenue plays critical role in optimization
One key to Wingo’s business is maintaining a mix of customers within a market. Although consumer sales represent only 15% of its total revenue and aren’t recurring like B2B, those customers pay a higher price per service and help with daily vehicle optimization metrics.
280 vans measured by ADRT
Latke quickly recognized the challenge of asset optimization and queried Wingo about resource allocation. Wingo responded that they developed their own metric, Average Daily Revenue per Truck, or ADRT, to measure and optimize their opportunities. He likened each van to a Tetris gameboard, where you try to optimize each van and tech each day. Wingo cited two examples of how a typical day might look, revealing the importance of consumer services:
- A tech in Austin works in the morning at a fleet customer, then picks up 2-3 consumer services nearby. The revenue from the consumer mix boosts the total.
- Another tech goes to Auto Zone to service a vehicle, then goes to a rental car company, then to a car sharing service.
Wingo noted that the more customers they have in a geographic area, the more opportunities they have to optimize.
Perfect ADRT optimization at $2,000 per day
Founder Wingo calculated his ideal optimized ADRT at $2,000 per day per vehicle on a 24-hour shift. He indicated proudly that about 5 vehicles hit optimization each day, but across the network, the average is $800. Latka’s quick calculations estimated their daily revenue at $230,000, which Wingo confirmed.
3rd party marketplace network completes the services
Spiffy CEO Wingo recognized that his fleet customers ideally want a single source for fleet management. So he’s added a 3rd party marketplace for services outside their scope, like bodywork and heavy repairs. Wingo explained, “We are the coordinator of all services.”
4 M&A opportunities closed to date
When Latka queried Wingo about M&A, the founder noted that they’d made some geographic and vertical expansions. They acquired Pit Crew to enter the Tennessee market and added three other vertical expansions to Spiffy.
$30m total raised in Series B
CEO Wingo clarified to Lakta, who thought they were on a Series C round, that the company split their Series B into two parts: $20m last year and then $10m earlier this year. Wingo added that their investor is primed for more but is not quite ready, and he hopes they will lead the next round when the time is right. The 4X founder added that he’s not considering secondary funding.
Lean team of 60 at HQ, 500 field technicians
While employing a team of 500 W2 hourly field technicians “may seem scary,” according to Wingo, he shared that ChannelAdvisor got to 1,000 people as a $100m SaaS. The CEO said the companies operate similarly in that you build system processes for how to recruit, retain, and make more effective with the software.
Company crosses $50m ARR with 410 fleet customers
“As a founder, 4166 just sticks in your head,” exclaimed Wingo as Latka congratulated him on crossing the $50m ARR threshold. To hit that $4.166 MRR, Spiffy now sees roughly $120,000 ARR from each of their 410 fleet customers.
Land and Expand strategy
When asked how much of the US market they’ve penetrated, Wingo intimated that they’ve only scratched the surface. “The TAM is so honking big, it’s overwhelming to think about,” exclaimed the CEO. He added they could still 10X just the rental car bucket through geographic expansion, as well as by adding services. He cautioned that he believes they must also diversify as he looks to Amazon DSP and corporate fleets for growth.
Diversified revenue as the Shopify for Service Businesses
Wingo sees a massive opportunity for the company to license its software stack to other service businesses, describing the licensing play as a “Shopify for service businesses.” He added that Spiffy is a software company that looks like a service business. He added that they hardly do any marketing, instead spending time matching capabilities to capacity. Wingo also noted, “the convenience-oriented customer and B2B customers are so in demand for what we are doing.”
$400-600m valuation at 60% of SaaS valuations?
While the CEO wouldn’t specifically discuss the company’s current valuation, Latka estimated their worth at $400-600m. Wingo shared that “while we are SaaS-like, we aren’t earning SaaS multiples.” He added that he’s seeing about 60% of the SaaS multiples, adding, “I’m OK with that.”
Famous 5
Before discussing his Famous 5, Latka asked Scott Wingo, the Spiffy founder and CEO, about his Star Wars collection that appeared behind his desk. Scott shared that he collects Star Wars memorabilia along with original comic book art. His favorite artist is Todd McFarlane, so he’s collected several pieces of his original art from Spiderman and Spawn. “I am a super geek,” proclaimed Scott.
Scott’s favorite recent book is The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. His CEO to watch is Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and author of The Network State. Notion is Scott’s favorite new tool, which he calls next-generation. Scott sleeps 6 hours per night. He is 53, married with 3 kids. When asked what he wished he knew at 20, he simply stated, “Buy Bitcoin.”
