Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenny Smith.
Hi Kenny, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have been in the car business for 20 years, and AutoUnite came from something I kept seeing from both sides of the desk.
The internet changed car shopping, but it did not necessarily make it simpler. Shoppers can now see more vehicles than ever before. They can compare prices, watch videos, read reviews, look at photos, check payments, and browse inventory from dealer to dealer. But with all of that information, many people are still left asking the same basic questions: What is the right vehicle for me? Which trim actually makes sense? Is this price fair? What will this really cost me? What should I do next?
That is where the frustration started for me.
Most lead providers and listing marketplaces are built around showing inventory and collecting contact information. They can help a customer find a vehicle, but they do not always help the customer understand the decision. The lead form often becomes the starting point, when in my opinion, it should be closer to the finish line. A shopper should not feel pushed to give out their name, phone number, and email just to get clarity.
Dealers feel that same friction from the other side. Many leads come in with very little context. The customer may still be early, unsure, comparing several vehicles, or just trying to get answers. That creates a difficult experience for everyone. The consumer feels rushed. The dealer is trying to help someone who may not be fully informed yet. Both sides want the process to be better, but the tools have not evolved enough to support that.
After two decades in automotive retail, I believe the car buying process needs to be revamped and revitalized. So much of the industry has changed, but the online research-to-lead process still feels outdated. It is still too often built around capturing the customer before helping the customer.
That is why I created AutoUnite.
AutoUnite is being built as a research-first car decision platform that helps shoppers compare vehicles, understand trims, review pricing context, estimate payments, explore local options, and decide with confidence before contacting a dealer. The goal is not just to create another place to browse cars. The goal is to provide real answers to the questions people are already asking before they are ready to submit a lead.
The name AutoUnite is intentional. The mission is to better unite the consumer and the dealer around a clearer, easier, and more transparent process. Shoppers deserve better information before they make contact. Dealers deserve higher-intent, better-informed customers who are further along in the decision process. When both sides have more context, the experience becomes better for everyone.
AutoUnite is currently in development and being prepared for beta launch. We are focused on building the core experience the right way: better research, better comparisons, better local context, and a cleaner handoff between shoppers and dealerships.
For me, this is not just a technology project. It comes from 20 years of watching where the process works, where it breaks down, and where people on both sides get frustrated. I wanted to build something that makes car shopping faster, easier, more transparent, and more useful.
AutoUnite was created from a simple belief: car shoppers should be able to decide before they submit.
Decide first. Submit later.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road, but I do not think anything truly new is supposed to be.
One of the biggest challenges with AutoUnite is that we are not just building another car shopping website. We are trying to create a research-first Vehicle Decision Operating System from scratch. That means there are not many clean reference points to follow. We are not copying the traditional listing marketplace model, and we are not trying to build another lead form with a different design. We are trying to rethink what should happen before a shopper ever contacts a dealer.
That has made the process both exciting and difficult. Every detail has to be questioned. Every screen has to earn its place. Every feature has to connect back to the real problem: helping shoppers get better answers before they submit their information, and helping dealers receive better-informed, higher-intent customers.
The challenge is not just asking, “What should the product do?” It is asking, “What should the customer understand at this exact moment? What confusion are we removing? What decision are we helping them make? What does the dealer need to know when that shopper is finally ready?” Those questions shape everything.
For months, the process has been constant refinement. Idea after idea. Improvement after improvement. We have gone back and forth on the product flow, the wording, the research experience, the comparison tools, the local inventory context, the dealer handoff, and the overall platform structure. Sometimes a small detail can change the way the whole experience feels. That is the hard part of building something new. You are not just filling in blanks. You are creating the blanks, then deciding what belongs there.
I have been in the car business for 20 years, and that gives me a clear view of what is broken. But turning that experience into a product is a different challenge. I know what shoppers struggle with. I know what dealers struggle with. The work is taking that real-world knowledge and building it into something simple, fast, transparent, and useful.
There are also technical and operational challenges: organizing vehicle data, designing the user experience, planning comparison flows, thinking through pricing context, preparing lead routing, and making sure the product can earn trust before beta launch. In automotive, trust matters. If the information is confusing, incomplete, or unreliable, the product does not solve the problem.
AutoUnite is still in development and being prepared for beta launch, so we are being intentional about the foundation. The goal is not to rush something into the market just to say it launched. The goal is to build something that can become a living, learning platform over time, shaped by real shopper behavior, dealer feedback, and the problems the industry has ignored for too long.
The obstacle has been the same thing that makes the opportunity so powerful: we are building something different. That requires patience, discipline, and a willingness to rethink every part of the process.
AutoUnite exists because the current car buying journey creates too much confusion for shoppers and too little context for dealers. Building a better way takes time, but if we get it right, it can help make the experience faster, easier, more transparent, and better for everyone involved.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have spent 20 years in the car business, and today I serve as the General Manager of Safford CDJR Sterling, a Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram dealership in Northern Virginia.
Right now, my focus is split between leading the dealership at a high level every day and building AutoUnite, a platform designed to improve the way consumers and dealers connect before the lead form.
Being a General Manager is hard to explain to people outside the business because it is not one job. It is every job. On any given day, I may be looking at inventory, pricing, lead handling, customer experience, sales performance, service and parts numbers, manufacturer programs, employee development, accounting issues, or a customer problem that needs to be fixed quickly. The car business moves fast, and if you are not close to the details, things can get away from you.
That is probably what I am known for most: I stay close to the details. I am very hands-on. I want to know what is actually happening, not just what a report says happened. If a lead was missed, I want to know why. If a customer had a bad experience, I want to understand where the process broke down. If inventory is aging, pricing is off, phones are not being handled correctly, or the team is not executing, I do not believe in ignoring it or hoping it fixes itself. I believe in getting to the root of it and taking action.
I also believe in being transparent in everything I do. Whether I am working with a customer, leading a team, managing a store, or building AutoUnite, I believe people deserve clarity. I would rather have the honest conversation, fix the real problem, and build trust the right way than hide behind confusion or vague answers. Transparency is a big part of how I lead, and it is also a big part of why AutoUnite exists.
The car business has taught me how to make decisions under pressure. Every day has moving pieces: customers trying to make major financial decisions, employees trying to perform, managers trying to lead, inventory changing, interest rates moving, factory programs shifting, and competition everywhere. You have to be able to think fast, stay calm, hold people accountable, and still keep the customer experience at the center.
What I am most proud of is that I have built my career from inside the business. I did not learn automotive retail from the outside looking in. I learned it by living it every day for 20 years. I understand the showroom, the sales desk, the CRM, the phones, the pressure on the team, the pressure on the customer, and the pressure on the store to perform. I have seen the good parts of the business, and I have also seen the parts that need to change.
That experience is what led me to create AutoUnite.
After years of watching customers shop online, submit leads, ask the same questions, and still feel unsure, I became frustrated with how the current process works. Most lead providers and listing marketplaces show inventory, but they do not always give shoppers the real answers they are looking for before they contact a dealer. At the same time, dealers receive leads with very little context and have to figure out where the customer really is in the buying process.
AutoUnite is my attempt to solve that from both sides.
I am building AutoUnite from real dealership experience, not theory. The goal is to help shoppers compare vehicles, understand trims, review pricing context, estimate payments, explore local options, and decide with confidence before contacting a dealer. For dealers, the goal is to create higher-intent, better-informed opportunities from customers who are further along in the decision process.
What sets me apart is that I care about the real process, not just the idea. I know what happens when a customer is confused. I know what happens when a lead has no context. I know what happens when a store does not execute. I know how small details can change the outcome for a customer, an employee, and the business.
My professional life has been built around solving problems in real time and being transparent enough to face those problems directly. AutoUnite is an extension of that same mindset: take 20 years of automotive retail experience and use it to help create a faster, easier, more transparent car buying experience for both consumers and dealers.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
For me, success is clarity, trust, freedom, and impact. It is not just having a title, making money, or reaching one goal. It is building something meaningful, doing it with transparency, and being able to look back knowing I did things the right way.
In the car business, success has taught me that numbers matter, but people matter just as much. A dealership has to perform, but it also has to earn trust. Customers need transparency. Employees need leadership. The business needs discipline. I define success by whether I can help all of those pieces move in the right direction while staying honest, accountable, and focused on the real problem in front of me.
As a General Manager, success means leading a team that performs, solving problems quickly, creating a better customer experience, and building a store culture where people know what is expected and have the chance to grow. It also means being willing to have the hard conversations, fix what is broken, and keep improving instead of accepting “that’s just how it has always been.”
With AutoUnite, success means creating something that actually makes the car buying process better. If we can help shoppers get clearer answers before they contact a dealer, and help dealers connect with better-informed, higher-intent customers, that would be a real win. To me, that is the kind of success that matters because it solves a real problem for both sides.
On a personal level, success is also about freedom and impact. I want to build a life where my work creates value, where I can take care of the people who matter to me, and where I can be proud of what my name is attached to. I want my kids to see that success is not luck. It is discipline, work ethic, faith in the vision, and the willingness to keep going when things are not easy.
So when I think about success, I think about progress with purpose. I think about building something useful, leading with transparency, treating people right, and creating a better path than the one that existed before.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.autounite.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autouniteofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/autounite/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/auto-unite/
- Twitter: https://x.com/autounite
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AutoUniteOfficial
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@autouniteofficial
