072: The Lyft of Car Cleaning – Getting Spiffy with Scot Wingo

Background on Scot Wingo of Spiffy:

Scot Wingo is the CEO of Spiffy and the Executive Chairman of ChannelAdvisor. Spiffy is an on-demand car wash and detailing business currently in Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Dallas. ChannelAdvisor is a leading software/service business for Fortune 2k selling on eBay as a new channel.

Prior to Spiffy and ChannelAdvisor, Scot occupied the roles of general manager of GoTo Auctions, CEO and co-founder of AuctionRover.com (acquired by GoTo.com) and CEO and co-founder of Stingray Software (acquired by RogueWave).

Scot received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Computer Engineering degree from North Carolina State University. Scot has received numerous awards including Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Triangle Business Journal’s Top 40 under 40.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[0:42] Scot Wingo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Spiffy and this is his fourth business.
[1:45] Spiffy is an on demand car wash and detail company. You visit their website or access the app and you can easily schedule a carwash.
[3:35] Scot joined a startup company and he realized that he liked the setup and lifestyle of the startups.
[4:00] Scot and his two friends founded a company called Stingray Software, which made good revenue, but they eventually sold it.
[6:31] Selling the company, Stingray Software, made Scot a millionaire, but it was anti-climactic according to him.
[11:13] His first advice for entrepreneurs is to just go ahead and do what needs to be done because starting a business doesn’t always mean having a detailed business plan.
[16:55] Scot considers it very important in eCommerce to be a thought leader.
[17:45] His mentor suggested to hire a COO, which helped him tremendously.
[20:25] Laying off people was no fun for Scot. He felt miserable and he sees it as a failure.
[22:28] Scot was still running ChannelAdviser while his partner was handling most of the work in Spiffy.
[25:00] Scot figured out a way to do their car wash in office parking lots without leaving too much water and chemical spills.
[32:29] He emphasizes on learning to step out of your comfort zone by going out there and talking to customers.
[34:41] Currently, he is trying to expand the market for Spiffy and adding new services.
[35:27] He gives more importance to the value of customer feedback.
[37:10] He spends most of his time in Spiffy and strategizing on what their next move is.

Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖📚 Favorite Book(s)? Lean Startups by Eric Ries
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Echo Show
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Google Analytics
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Meeting customer expectations while growing > 150% y/y.