A large, antiquated market with desperate customers
It may be surprising to learn that there are over 250,000 auto repair shops in the US alone. Most shops run at tight margins and are laser focused on 1) getting repaired cars out the door as quickly as possible and 2) prioritizing profitable jobs. Revv is a suite of software products purpose-built to solve these problems.
- Parts procurement - a $90B market
Most repairs require parts that aren’t kept on-site and need to be identified and procured as quickly as possible. While this may sound simple, it’s complicated by the dynamics of the market: there are millions of SKUs whose prices fluctuate daily, and whose prices can vary dramatically by supplier. Revv has built a marketplace connecting suppliers and auto shops, bringing price transparency to an otherwise opaque market. They’ve also built tooling for auto shops that substantially reduces the time spent procuring parts, saving these shops precious time (hours per day) and money (hundreds of dollars per part).
- Sensor calibration - a problem affecting 60 million vehicles in the US
By spending time with their customers, Revv discovered another screaming market need. Most modern vehicles are equipped with sensors which need to be recalibrated when repaired. Sensor calibration can be lucrative, but most body shops lack the know-how to estimate the profitability of such jobs and the procedures to be done, which involves combing through hundreds of pages of vehicle-specific documentation.
In response, Revv has brought a product to market that turns this research that previously took many hours (or was never done) into seconds, allowing shops to profitably undertake jobs they previously overlooked. In essence, Revv is surfacing completely new revenue streams for shops and as a result, has seen explosive uptake.
Exceptional founders who can ship
At 1984 Ventures, we believe that exceptional founders are those who can identify a screaming market need and turn customer feedback into product. This often requires the combination of technical skills, customer centricity and business acumen - a rare triumvirate to find in a single team, and a big reason why we were so excited to lead Revv’s seed round.
We believe that in order to start an exceptional company it’s important to have previously worked at an exceptional company and seen what “great” looks like.
The CEO, Adi Bathla, was previously a top performing PM at Misfits Market (a $2B venture-backed groceries startup) and the CTO, Rashmi Sinha, has engineering experience at companies like Pinterest and Microsoft.
Our reference calls on the founders came back glowingly, with former managers highlighting their resourcefulness, problem-solving skills and technical chops.
We first met Adi and Rashmi four months after they started working on Revv. In that time period, they had uncovered key customer pain points, come up with the idea of Revv, built a functioning product and sold it to over 30 auto shops — all without raising a dime. This speed of iteration is rare to come across - and more importantly, is a key variable in getting to product-market fit. We couldn’t be more excited to have partnered with Adi and Rashmi on this journey.