Ever since he was little, Redwood alumnus David Shapiro has loved cars. When he was a student, he walked through the school’s halls and daydreamed about them. His passion would soon drive him to start a company which would change the car-buying industry forever.
Shapiro graduated in 1994 and later founded his company, Cartelligent, in 2000. Since then he has expanded his company to three locations around the Bay Area, and one location down in Irvine.
Shapiro accredited much of his success to the highly competitive environment that Redwood fostered when he was a student.
“The overall environment of a lot of students who wanted to do well in school and who wanted to go to college was motivating,” Shapiro said. “Being around a competitive group of people pushed me to be better.”
Beyond the classroom, Shapiro’s love for cars blossomed at a young age. He described how he was drawn to the sense of freedom that they provided. Shapiro saw cars as more than just machines. To him, they were the key to giving people the ability to travel wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted.
After high school, Shapiro attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where he worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car the summer after his freshman year. He then worked at a car dealership the summer after his sophomore year.
Shapiro felt that although those experiences gave him helpful insight into the car industry, it was ultimately his desire to work with all kinds of cars which led him to found Cartelligent.
“I wanted to work in the car business and to be able to work with every car, and Cartelligent allows that. When you work at a dealership, you’re only able to sell one brand of car to the people that come to that dealership. It gave me a bigger opportunity to do what I love,” Shapiro said.
Cartelligent’s approach to buying cars contrasts starkly with the traditional car dealership; the company’s goal is to make the process as simple as possible for the customer. They do all the leg work, adapting to their goals to find a car that fulfills their needs.
“Cartelligent is designed to solve any and all of people’s car buying needs and make the experience easy and enjoyable. The way we do that is we start with a conversation, to get to know the new client and understand where they are in the car buying process then meet them there,” Shapiro said.
Cartelligent customer and Redwood parent Sasha Morozoff echoed this sentiment when describing his experience using Cartelligent.
“The worker was super knowledgeable. He walked us through everything step by step. So from the purchasing process to the picking up process, everything was super smooth,” Morozoff said.
Morozoff noted that in his past experiences with regular car dealerships, he was pressured to buy cars he didn’t particularly want. However, when he used Cartelligent, he felt they adapted to his needs.
“They made the process so simple and stress-free. It felt like they were working with me to find exactly what I needed. I didn’t feel pressured at all,” Morozoff said.
Shapiro’s journey did not come without challenges. Economic downturns in 2008 and 2009 as well as a decrease in car buyers during COVID brought on difficult times for Cartelligent. However, Shapiro felt that these challenging moments only strengthened Cartelligent.
“I learned more from the mistakes and the challenges than I learned from the things that went well,” Shapiro said. “Those times were hard, but getting through them made us stronger and better on the other side.”
Looking ahead, Shapiro sees a future of car buying modeled off of Cartelligent, where customers prefer a simpler and easier way to buy cars.
“The future of car buying is one where people will prefer ways that are easier and more straightforward,” Shapiro said.
For current students interested in pursuing entrepreneurship, Shapiro emphasizes the importance of gaining work experience before starting your own business.
“There’s no substitute for experience and if you can be patient and get work experience from good companies and even maybe not the best companies you can learn more,” Shapiro said. “Then when you go to start your company you’ll be able to start with more experience and level up quicker.”
