Hi. We'll get started here. Hi. Thanks, everybody. Okay, really, excited to have, Ernie Garcia, CEO of Carvana, joining us today. Ernie, thanks-
He says that about all the companies.
Well, no.
You do. I've been to several-
I am-
You do say that.
particularly excited about this, not just because you are pulling off the no sock thing better than I ever could. That's-
I don't have socks.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
I have socks under here.
That is one reason why. But also, I mean, we, I always say this, that when you're here in Laguna, the first time you were here before you were public, I was so excited about this new model. This is like I had car dealers. Some that might remember my Uncle Chuck. I used to write this, like, monthly report, Uncle Chuck, maybe, I'm getting too old. Even Uncle Chuck said: "Wow, this Carvana stuff is it's gonna change the industry. Watch. I would watch this company very carefully." We had you here, and there was nobody in the room, literally no people.
Yeah, invited us out. We were so excited, first conference. Sat here. You scurried and got, like, three analysts. Then I had to awkwardly present to people I knew didn't care.
Well, I think I took the mic off, and we ended up just like, I don't know, we should've cracked a beer. But, a lot's happened since then. I don't know how you continue to look this young and whatever. You kinda seem like you're healthy and, you know, enjoying life.
I get that, not that-
Yeah. Okay, well, okay, I know you're a workaholic, and you're all in on this stuff, and your resilience seems to have been paying off. Been through pretty tough last couple of years, but you know, just some messages from the top that you wanna kinda convey to the audience of kinda where you are in the journey right now, and then we'll go into it.
Yeah, sure. So I don't know how much attention... I see different faces out there that maybe a lot of people have been paying attention, maybe there's some new faces, but the last year and a half has been a crazy time for Carvana. I think, you know, we basically went from, I think, you know, darling to whatever is the exact opposite of that, pretty quickly. And then, I think the last, you know, six months or so, I think investors have been able to start to see the real progress we've been making. I think our goal through all this, and I think we're on the path to do it, is that when this is all said and done, I think the pressure that we face in 2022 will end up being a really positive part of our story.
I think undoubtedly, that kind of pressure is not something that's fun, that anyone wants to face. You know, it's a real bummer when you're in the media every day, you know, being told how stupid you are. But it also definitely makes you better. I think, you know, we are a group of people that I think has always worked really hard, but I think sometimes it takes a ton of pressure to make you also make tough decisions you didn't wanna make. And I think we were forced to make a lot of those decisions, and I think we're a better company for it. So I think what we've got to do now is just stay on the same path that we're on, keep executing. I think, that's what actually matters over the medium term.
I do think that the long-term path is the same as it always was and probably better, for a number of reasons, but I do think it's, if anything, probably better. And then from an investor perspective, I think investors have been through such a whirlwind in the last 18 months, that I think there's been investor turnover, and I think there's maybe kind of like the frameworks that were used before to understand the business and understand what mattered and to predict what was gonna happen. I just think people are kinda throwing their hands up and don't exactly know how it works anymore, and so I think we've got to do a good job kind of providing those frameworks again. I think we've been trying to do that, most importantly, through our results.
I think we made a ton of progress in GPU. We've provided some detail in GPU. I think in unit economics, we've still got some work to do to provide a deeper understanding in SG&A, but I think the performance that we've posted and that we expect to continue to post, I think is starting to get people a lot more comfortable there. I think people have no idea what to think about growth. Our views on growth are unchanged from what they were prior to all this. I think we've been through a crazy period over the last year and a half that has forced a lot of different behavior than we probably would have otherwise expected, both on the part of consumers and on the part of Carvana.
So I think it's been harder to see, but we think that's, you know, all that growth is still out there, the opportunity is the exact same, and I think our job is just to keep executing and kind of tell that story and get people back to a place of comfort where they feel like they know what's gonna happen ahead of time, which I think is not where most people are today.
Yeah. We're gonna talk about all those things. We're gonna get into growth, too, but I just wanna start out with progress and sustainability and unit economics both on the fixed side and the variable side here-
Yeah
of the business right now.
So, I mean, we have made... The like concrete things that I feel like we can share right now, I think, you know, probably the best we were from a variable expense perspective was 2021. We're back now to those kind of levels today. From an actual efficiency perspective, with efficiency being defined as kind of the inputs to cost, things like labor hours and miles driven per sale, we're at a better place than we've ever been today, and I think in both those metrics, we're trending positively. And I think if you view the automotive retail business as sort of a cost-plus business, I think the thing that actually matters is efficiency, because I think everyone in the automotive retail businesses has input costs that have gone up.
So I think, you know, by that measure, we're at an all-time best. Fixed costs were certainly higher than we've been in a really long time. Outside of the very beginning, in the last 12 months, we're as high as we've ever been and by meaningful amounts, which I think is good when it's time to turn to growth, but today is certainly weighing on our financial performance.
Mm-hmm.
I think that's, that's all still pretty hard for investors to see, so we do plan to give more visibility into that, in the near term. Probably with our Q3 earnings, we'll provide a little more visibility into fixed, variable breakouts, so people can start to get a better understanding of that.
Oh.
But I think that's all trending really, really well. So I think we're excited about the progress we're making there.
Yeah, I mean, it's just been an interesting journey because you kinda demonstrated, I guess, at the same thing, high customer acquisition costs when you were, you know, during 2021 into 2022, were negative operating leverage, however you want to look at it. And so you were kind of losing more money per unit, the bigger you got. There may have been some exceptions to that, but I'm just kind of painting broad brush. And then when you realized: All right, we need to move growth off the agenda here and kind of shrink before we grow and get better and be smaller, which you're still in the phases of, although we'll see where we are in that kind of journey, how much longer that lasts.
You were, wow, you were losing a lot less money and even made money per unit, the smaller you got. So obviously, that will, that will have to change at some point. Where are we on that? How much more shrinkage do we need to have while you, you know, reinforce that? It feels like we're close, but I didn't know if, if you had-
Yeah
- any color around that, considering the market environment, too.
Sure. So I think we've tried to kinda break the plan down into three steps, and step one was all the things we had to do to get back to EBITDA positive. I think that included getting more efficient across the entire business. It included cutting out sales that weren't profitable-
Right
- especially in a more difficult environment. It included a lot of just right-sizing of the business overall. We're now in, you know, what we're calling phase two. You know, we crossed over positive EBITDA and materially so last quarter, and expect to again this quarter. Phase two is just about taking all those same line items that we're working on. You know, we've got a new kind of operations cadence, where we're, you know, every different team across the business has a bunch of different goals, and they're targeting those and reporting back on them every week. So we're running the exact same playbook we ran for the last 12 months while holding sales approximately flat to get to a spot where unit economics are really good.
You know, last quarter, we were at $1,100 of EBITDA per unit, after adjusting for one-time items. We were higher than that prior, but when you adjust for one-time items, about $1,100. You know, we plan to continue to make significant progress and move beyond that, in the not-too-distant future.
Mm-hmm.
Then I think we'll move to phase three, which is growth. I think a question that is definitely out there today is... You know, a year ago, the story was, okay, Carvana's been this growth machine for so long, they're not gonna be able to get better unit economics without growing because they need growth to lever. And I think more recently, as people have seen kind of the results where we've gotten better as we shrank, the story's kind of turned to: Oh, okay, all that kind of money consumption must have been a function of growth, and when they go back to growth, you know, they're gonna consume a lot of money again. I think that that's. Our view is definitely that's not the case.
I think, you know, during that period of growth, we were investing in, you know, variable expenses. We were also building our fixed kind of apparatus at the exact same time.
Mm-hmm.
We were... You know, we started the company in Phoenix that didn't have, you know, crazy funding early on, and so we didn't, like, build our full, kind of fixed operations early on. We were building that over the last several years as we were growing. And then we also were investing a lot in kind of the capital infrastructure necessary to be able to scale to a much larger size. Today, we have the infrastructure to scale to, you know, significant multiples of our current scale. So I think when it's time to turn to growth, you know, there, there's gonna be significant fixed cost leverage.
Turning to contribution margin then, where can this go?
Yeah. So I think-
Yeah
... That's our internal focus right now, is making sure that we get that to a sizable number. I think, you know, any investor trying to build a model, it's, you know, what's going to matter is what are unit economics and what is your volume? And then it's just a question of when and, you know, whatever valuation, you know, metrics you want to apply to that. But I think we just wanna make sure that we get our unit economics to a place where they're very, very meaningfully positive.
Mm-hmm
... for all the units that we add. And then it's easier to grow because I think a relatively straightforward way to think about the difficulty of growth is, I think it's largely proportionate to your variable costs. I think, like, whatever your variable costs are, that's effectively the thing that you have to scale to grow. And as we keep pushing that down, I think we put ourselves in a better spot to where our unit economics are better, so growth is more valuable and growth is easier. And so that's kind of what phase two is all about-
Mm-hmm
is just kind of continuing to power through that.
Anything you wanna highlight on the progress of the third quarter at all? We don't need to go there if you don't want to, but anecdotally, just versus your outlook at the time.
Yeah. I think nothing super concrete. Mark was recently at a conference and, you know, updated the view to over $75 million of EBITDA. You know, that's exciting. That's a meaningful number.
Mm-hmm.
You know, versus units at least last quarter, which we guided this quarter to similar units.
Mm-hmm.
That would've been about $1,000 again. So I think, you know, we're on a very good path-
Mm-hmm
I think we've just gotta keep the pedal down.
So, maybe going back in time, 6 to 9 months, I think it was. Yeah, it was around the time of the midcap bank kinda wobble, and, yeah, First Republic. I'll tell my team, and we had a lot of people doing some work. We were trying to put out primers on Carvana, and I told the team in an all hands, Daniela was there. I said, "Look," I said, "I think the things we need to see, there's 2 things we need to see for Carvana to work. Number 1, I wanna see the company shrink, like actually improve EBITDA with revenues being smaller." Because if that started at a small level, then I think you could keep doing that for a while, which could kinda slow the bleeding. The second thing is, we need to get bankruptcy off the table.
We can't have a company where it's just like, could be bankrupt on paper kind of thing, right? We need to get that, like, out of the lexicography. And you've done that. You've done those two things, and then you had the extra, you know, very, yeah, pretty impressive moves on pushing out the maturities and negotiating with your big bondholders on that, which at a time when it was looking pretty damn acrimonious. So I don't know if you wanna tell us through that journey here, of like, anything we need to know that's relevant now as to kinda how important that was to give you that breathing room? And then, 'cause it, it's now kicking off, you do have investor turnover, I think.
I'd love to hear a bit more about what do people, the new class of investors, like about the story and what are they still on the fence for? 'Cause I'm frankly on the fence here.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
I think the last 18 months was not expected by anyone, ourselves included. I think that, you know, we had grown at triple-digit rates forever. We came, you know, out of 2021, guns blazing, and it felt like we were just gonna continue that. I do think I at least can't think of a time in automotive retail, certainly, but probably in the entire automotive kind of vertical, where there's been more distortions in the market than you know, sort of like mid-2020 to now. And I think that led to many of the decisions that, you know, hopefully were reasonable that we made at the time, ending up just very wrong. And then you pair that with capital market, you know, transition that was-
Right
... fairly severe, that just forced a lot of change for us, and I think for a lot of investors, that was, that was hard. I think it was hard financially, I think it was hard to keep track of even what was going on. You know, I think the simplest argument that I could make, which investors have to decide what they believe, is that, you know, I think you have to kind of decide what is truth. Is truth the period from 2013 to, you know, pre-COVID, where, you know, there was, you know, meaningful customer adoption, and there was constant leverage every year, there was improvement of every single line item?
And I think there was a view that, you know, we couldn't be stopped, or is this period of distortion where car prices went up, you know, payments went up by 50% and, you know, production went down, and all of a sudden, the dynamics between franchise dealers and independent dealers changed dramatically. Is that the moment that's truth, and capital markets changed? Is that the moment of truth? And I think that, you know, what we've got to do is just get people back to a spot where I hope that what we can do is we can just kind of keep delivering.
I think if we deliver a little bit, and I think, you know, as long as the world around us, meaning the economy and kind of the industry, as long as they even kind of stabilize, I don't know that we need things to get a ton better, but just kind of stabilize and hang out for a second.
Stable is good.
Yeah. I think, I think people can start to say... They can start to get more comfortable with the previous world was truth, right? And then I think if they get comfortable with that, they can say, "And the company's clearly in a better unit economic spot than it's ever been.
Mm-hmm.
It's been slapped around, which is a bummer, but is good for you in the grand scheme of things.
Mm-hmm.
And I think we're a better company for it. And so I, I think that we've, we've had many investors, you know, that, that, I feel terrible and grateful to, that have stuck around the entire time. And so I think we, we owe them, and we hope that we get them back to, to where, you know, all their dreams were about where this could be before. And then I think we have some investors that left that are probably, you know, open-minded to coming back once they, you know, give us their faith back.
I think we have a lot of new investors that are trying to figure out, "Okay, how do I, how do I separate out the last 18 months from the, you know, 9 years that came before it?" I think most importantly is our results will do that, and, and I think hopefully, just clarity and, and disclosure will also help.
Ernie, when can the business start to grow again?
I think it could start to grow... I, I think that is largely a choice. I think the-
Yes.
What I would say is I think, if for those that have done work, if we polled people and said, "You know, what do you think the, the kind of realistic long-term Carvana unit economics are?" I think the reasonable guess is high to low would be, you know, 2x, like, would be kind of like the variation that would exist there. I think, "What do you think units can be?" I think the, the variation would be 10x. And so I think in everyone's model, it, it's gonna be all about growth pretty soon, as long as we do what we're supposed to do and deliver on unit economics. And I think that that's gonna create... That's just gonna make that the focal point.
I also think that there's no question that the last 18 months, where we, you know, moved away from growth, we cut out unprofitable sales, and we just focused on turn the wheel, get tighter, get better everywhere.
Mm-hmm.
Every operator was able to, you know, shut off the part of their brain that was focused on, "You know, we've got to hire, we've got to train, we've got to ramp this up, we've got to figure out a way to buy more cars, we've got to get more cars to the reconditioning centers." And they get focused instead on just being more efficient everywhere in sustainable ways. We've seen tremendous gains, and I think that in a model and in kind of certainly my mind before all this, I would've believed that you could do it all at once. But I think the reality is, it's... You know, you can do everything at once, but when you try to do everything at once, I think just efficiency goes down, and there's more mistakes and there's more kind of like, you know, exhaust.
When you really focus on fewer things, you make way more progress in aggregate and way, you know, doubly more progress in the places that you're focusing. And so I think we are gonna hang out in phase two for a little bit longer because we have so much momentum, and we have so many different line items getting better by so much. And when we do that, when it's time to turn to growth, we're gonna be able to grow more efficiently. And what matters is that equation in five years from now, not that equation today. So I think, you know, we took this painful pivot to move away from the only thing that defined us for ten or eight years, which was growth, toward let's just get way more efficient.
Once you've pivoted everyone's mindset and you've pivoted, you know, your operating cadence and the way that you run the business, I think that is a cost that we have incurred, and now we want to get paid for that cost that we incurred.
Okay. The message I'm hearing from you, Ernie, is there's still more work to do, and that it's... If you throw growth on too early, it a lot of things get screwed up. So I didn't know if... So amongst that to-do list of before we can grow, as it's a choice, it could be next year, it could be this, five years, whatever. Whenever that is, before you dial it up, we need to have these two or three things nailed and proven, which are easier to do as a smaller company or a not quickly growing company. What would those items still be on that to-do list?
I think the most important one is just gonna be that we've made significant additional gains in unit economics, and then, that we believe the remaining gains, you know, are still achievable at growth, but they're not so big and so easily achievable that we'd be, you know, dumb to turn away from them and just grab them. Because I think-
Okay
... our view is right now, there's still very significant gains to be had in the near term if we just stay focused.
Okay.
And that's what phase two is about.
Ernie, you said you felt that the long-term growth opportunity was, maybe I think I'm quoting you, "Exactly the same as it was before COVID," kind of thing. But surely the way you get there, the opportunity might be there, but the execution, it can't be identical. Like, something changed. So how... So when you do turn it on, how do you grow?
Yeah.
What's different?
So I mean, what I would start with is just I do think the thing that's great about the automotive industry is it's a big, mature industry that's pretty predictable. You kind of know what used sales are gonna be every year-
Mm-hmm
... and yeah, they're gonna fluctuate by 10 or 15%. You know what new sales are gonna be. You know what the economics are... so to me, like, that's where I say the opportunity is the exact same. I just, I don't think that there has been change in consumer behavior, consumer desires, consumer preferences. I don't think there's been a change in the competitive landscape. If there has been change, I think it's been more in the direction of financing, something like what we've built would be harder, not easier.
Mm-hmm.
So I think the opportunity is the exact same. I think what is easier for us from here is we now have the capital investments to be a much, much larger company that are already made. They're not gonna be a requirement that's being simultaneously built out as we build. You know, the inspection centers that we've already built have over 1 million units of capacity, which would allow us to be, you know, over three times as big as we are today by just staffing the physical buildings that are already built.
Mm-hmm.
In addition, we have ADESA, you know, with 56 other locations, that has another 2 million units of capacity, you know, when it's time to go unlock that. So... And then we've got real estate all over the country for last mile delivery-
Mm.
that in our previous phase, we were building out as we went. So I think that we will be a more efficient company that spends less on variable costs and already has an infrastructure to plug into.
Mm-hmm.
I think it'll be a lot different when it's time to grow again. I really do-
A lot of learning along the way.
And I-
And a lot of things-
For sure. You do learn a lot going through a period like we went through. I think it's important that you don't overlearn that lesson and become overly shy, but I think it's important that you learn the lesson, and I think we have.
Single biggest lesson learned... If you interviewed me three years ago, Adam, and then put me next to Ernie today, I really wish I could go back in time and tell the Ernie then, "Dude, please, you gotta learn this.
I think, I think we were really wrong about where things were headed in 2022. And I think the lesson you should take from that is, you know, just, just to have a—I, I think that that was. In fairness to us, this has been a wild circumstance, but we were really wrong, and I think just having wider kind of uncertainty is, is useful, in planning. And then what I would say, I, I think is by far and away the most important lesson is I, I just think, you know, there, there's—I'm sure there's many investors here have seen many different types of management teams. I think a management team that is a founding management team, one thing that probably will define that team is that they will hustle.
Like, it requires hustle to start from zero and to go fast, and I don't think there was ever a moment, 2021 included, where people inside Carvana were not hustling. We were hustling fast.
Mm.
But pressure was removed relative to what it was in 2013-2019 because all of a sudden, we were blessed, right? We lived the first six or seven years of our life where, you know, people questioned whether we could make it. They questioned the business model. They didn't really believe what we could do. We were, you know-
Underdog
... built in the wrong city.
Yeah.
It just, you know, nothing worked about it. And then all of a sudden, we were blessed for a period. And I think when you're blessed, I think it's easy-
Of course
... to avoid hard choices, right? I think it's easier to take things that aren't working as well as you'd like and keep pouring resources into them. It's easy to add another thing to your list because you think that everything you touch turns to gold. It's easy to not address other issues that emerge inside the company. And so to me, I think the discipline to make hard choices, I think was like a very valuable thing. And then I think the operating discipline. You know, it's a different thing to build a business and to build a customer-facing product than it is to have an operating discipline, where you make sure you're always tightening down all the time.
And I think learning how to do that, I think we would've thought a year and a half ago, I would've thought we were better at that. And we weren't bad at it, honestly. Like, if you look at our numbers going all the way back, I really do think they were pretty good all the way through, but we weren't anywhere near as good at that as I thought we were.
Mm.
So I think pressure is good, is another big lesson.
That humility, that self-awareness, I mean, maybe it's the industry I look at, I don't usually see that. Maybe, folks, you listen to this, and this is kind of unusual, unusual self-recognition. Folks, any questions from the audience for Ernie? For Ernie here. We have a microphone, and I can be patient. Just kidding, I can't be impatient, but...
All the eyes go down.
It's okay.
It's my favorite part of any -
I make eye contact.
... questions?
I can cold call. Okay, no. No. I'll let you think about it a little bit. How's the used car market?
Interesting. There's a lot happening there.
Mm.
I think so, you know, I guess, like, my very potentially wrong, like, macro model of pricing, which I think is probably the most important variable in the used car market, is that, you know, looking at payments relative to other goods is a reasonable way to predict where car prices are ultimately likely to go. And today, car prices are still, you know. Or sorry, car payments are still kind of 40% or so higher relative to other goods than they were before all this. So I think some combination of rates and car prices, like, have to continue to go down. We saw some unexpected appreciation early in the year. We saw some, you know, pretty rapid depreciation, even faster-
Mm
... than 2022. 2022 was the fastest depreciation period, over a sustained period, that, that I at least can remember. So we saw very fast depreciation, you know, kind of in the, the middle of this year. I think it's kind of jumping around right now. I think the UAW uncertainty is, is showing up, you know, there a little bit. We'll see kind of where that goes between-
You might benefit a bit from that, not that you're rooting for that or, or is it overhyped, and you'd rather just?
I think first order, it's probably not like a ma- I think what we care about the most is we would love for car prices to come down over time. I think that's-
Yeah
... better for,
The model set up.
I think it's better for our customers. I think it's... Yeah, we're set up better for that.
Mm.
I think it's better for franchise versus independent dynamics. So I think we would like car prices to come down. I think a big strike probably does the opposite. I don't know that it's a huge impact, but I think it probably slows things down.
Okay. Okay, I'm gonna throw just a couple, like, terms or topics your way. I just want your--see where your head is in this. ABS market?
... Actually, pretty solid right now.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, that we've had some great wins there. I think, you know, one of the tough parts of going through a period like the last 18 months is, you know, our capital markets brand got beat up pretty good. And so our, you know, cost of capital in the ABS market was significantly worsened, and that showed up in-- as another thing that was hurting GPU. You know, luckily, that's pretty mechanical, and I think as things have gotten better, you know, we've kind of deal over deal over the last 6 months or so, we've been tightening that down. And so relative to, other issuers that issue similar, securities to us, I, I think that we're, we're in a very good spot.
We just priced a deal, I believe, yesterday, where we kind of ratcheted down relative to competitors again. So I think the ABS market is solid today.
gain on sale?
So when you say gain on sale, I presume you mean... What that effectively means, when paired with the previous question, is selling the residual.
Right.
So that kind of the entire receivable that we originated from a customer is sold, and therefore-
Yeah, mainly the other GPU.
Yeah. All the profit kind of-
Yeah. Thank you.
... flows through, yeah, at that time. I think the residual market is, you know, it's definitely the thinnest part of kind of ABS capital markets. But generally, it's been pretty supportive of us, and I think, yeah, I don't think our plans there are materially different. I think over time, you know, that that's something we'll definitely pay attention to because those residuals do have pretty high yields.
Mm-hmm.
I think as we find ourselves in a better capital position, it's, that's not a crazy place to potentially use some of our capital.
EVs.
Interesting. I think, you know, we're in new, you know, EVs make up 7% of sales. It was probably three or four years ago that they were 1% or 2% of sales. In used across the market, they're about 1% of sales. We're just shy of double that, so we have kind of a disproportionate share there.
Kind of skews towards the kind of customer that-
Exactly. It aligns with our customers.
Mm-hmm.
I think, I think the transition is interesting. I don't think there's big operational impacts to us. There are some operational impacts, the most important of which is probably just making sure that we have sufficient power coming into all our, of our facilities to handle all the charging, but, but otherwise, like, relatively nominal, changes. I think it's exciting. There's just so much-- I think the automotive world in general, there's more potential for significant change across the entire world of automotive than I feel like I've ever seen.
Mm-hmm
... which I think is interesting and exciting, and I think we like the position we're in.
Labor tightness.
As we've been more in phase two, I think our exposure to trying to rapidly hire is less. So I'm not sure that we're-
The right
... Yeah, as good of a mouthpiece to kind of provide an answer there. But nothing that I would say has been crazy notable from my perspective, at least.
Hertz.
Man, you're-
I just love making you smile.
Yeah, you're doing a great job.
You do it more often.
Keep going. I think Hertz is going great. They've been a great partner for us. You know, that was... We had a broader product, you know, which we call Dealer Marketplace, which is the ability to take someone else's unit, and you know, sell it for them effectively. And I think there are a lot of efficiency gains to the system, depending on who that partner is and how they run their business, that are possible through that. That was a whole kind of product line that we were launching. Given our focus over the last 18 months, we chose to basically shut down our other kind of opportunities there and focus just on Hertz. I think that's treated us well. I think that partnership's gone extremely well. We've grown it.
We've learned a lot about that product. I think we'll be well-positioned when it's time to turn that product back on, as a result of all that. But I think that's gone great, and they've been a great partner.
Ernie, I was talking with the CEO of a very large OEM, and we were talking about the importance for car companies if they, as cars become connected, for them to have downstream infrastructure to kind of help service, particularly fleet clients. But then, you know, like, if you, if you're going to have a car that is a, a marketplace for other services, and instead of just using a one-time episodic, you know, someone buys a car, and then you never see them again, but really, like, the full life cycle-
Mm-hmm
... there may be some assets that they need to have exposure to or relationship with, if not own, downstream. And they brought up, Daniela, I think you were in the room, right? They brought up, wow, they used the words, "There is a certain, you know, tech-forward, used car retailer that has some really interesting assets out there that could be helpful." And it was very obviously they were talking about you. I've been kind of fooled. I've been premature on this idea of you being able to help on the new side even or new car, companies, whether it's startups or, who knows, it may be the Chinese come here one day, or the...
They won't have those resources, and maybe want to have a different physical network other than the franchise dealer model, that you could be helpful with as a fulfillment partner, fulfillment partner. Is that a dream? Is that something that. Again, you have other shit on your plate right now, and I respect that. But if I'm thinking longer term, is that, how you might grow differently, where would that kind of fit into your thinking without getting too-
Yeah
... 2021 on us? I mean, I'm saying, I'm saying that for my own benefit.
Yeah, yeah. What I would say is I think we're supposed to be focused, right? I think focus has served us very well. I think it is also in my, you know, very not objective opinion, undeniably true, that we have a unique set of assets that are desirable in this world, and it's a world that's changing fast. And I think that that, it makes it hard to bet on what the outcomes will be, but I think it, it, it's a good place to be on the board.
It's a good place to end. I promise not to throw any more your way.
Cool.
Okay?
Appreciate it, yeah.
Good? How'd we do?
Like, awesome.
All right. Thank you.
Right on time.
We're done. Thanks so much, all right? Cheers. Appreciate it.