Mechanically Inclined

Drew Ermenc

November 10, 2008

W hen searching for a product to purchase online - whether it's a TV from Best Buy or a coffee maker from Target - there's value in reading customer reviews to find out the real dirt on what consumers think. This referral process also applies across the service industry board - from babysitters to accountants - and when you've found "your guy," it's a connection you want to share with others (babysitter excluded).

When local entrepreneur Mathew Sweezey struggled to find a good and trustworthy local mechanic, he recognized the need for an all-in-one resource for consumers. As a result, he launched  Mechanixloop.com last week, a comprehensive Website he hopes will be a solution to mechanic-less customers in need of car repair. Still in beta and currently only focusing on Atlanta, his site has compiled reviews of mechanics from other various sites across the Web, including Kudzu.com and CarTalk.com, and helps consumers by rating the best in local wrench spinners.

He also believes he's found a way to monetize - and possibly revolutionize - this referral process. He's created a revenue model that generates commissions based on a pay-per-lead basis. Mechanics want to work on cars, he says, not generate sales, and his Website will help do the same.

Drew Ermenc interviewed Sweezey before the site's launch to discuss his business model, acquisition goals and where he sees the future of marketing and sales.

Drew: Tell me about Mechanixloop.com.
Mathew Sweezey: Mechanixloop is a Website that helps consumers find the highest-rated local automotive repair center and provides automotive repair businesses with an online reputation management solution, as well as a pay-per-lead funding solution.

What's the background behind that? This sounds like an ambitious project.
Yes. I started Mechanixloop.com mainly just trying to focus on the consumer because I, myself, as a car owner, had a hard time finding a local automotive repair center, and did not really trust any of the places I went or saw.  The current options that were out there really just didn't solve the need that I had.  So I figured that would be a better way to do it.

So I started researching and actually found out that other consumers had the same problem as well, as there are problems that the business owners had that we could solve at the same time. They knew there were consumer reviews out there about their businesses; however, they couldn't track those reviews - nor did they have the means to manage them in one central place.

At the same time, we found they had a very large up front expense for current advertising options and very little to track the return on investment of those marketing dollars. And just a process of trying to move forward, we just kept coming up with different things and better solutions for them, and I finally came up with what we're releasing now.

You say 'we.' How many employees do you have right now?
Well, there are two. There is myself and there is Josh Sweeney, who is currently acting as the CTO.

Where is the business model? How are you going to generate revenue with Mechanixloop?
That's a great question. The way we generate revenue is this: First, we provide a solution for our consumers, and that solution is Mechanixloop.com, which is a Web portal. From that portal, we then can drive those leads to the repair businesses. So we provide two products to the automotive repair businesses where we actually make our money.

The first [product] is the online reputation management tool that allows us to find all these reviews that are for these businesses, and then give them a central place and a platform to manage those reviews. We charge for that service as well as our pay-per-lead marketing solution. This allows us to give business owners an online advertising option with no up front cost. With the pay-per-lead system, they only pay for leads that they receive.  And with our telephone system, they know instantly when they pick up the telephone that it's a lead from us and then instantly how much they are paying for that lead. It's an instant return on investment. So those are two ways that we are monetizing the system.

What is your background?
My background is a predominantly sales and marketing background. I worked for Canon Copiers as a salesman for a while and then actually worked for a large real estate firm in town with the high-end condo market.

What knowledge did you have of: one, extensive databases, and two, mechanics?
Really, I knew that there had to be a better way, and so I just set out to try to find a better way to do it and just started networking. I actually don't do any of the technical side. I'm more of the business management side and work with other people like Josh who actually can handle the technical abilities.

As essentially a two-person shop, what are some of the challenges you're facing?
(Laughing) Getting everything done.

Not enough hours in the day?
Yes. You wear a lot of hats; you wear a marketing hat, you wear the CEO hat, the management hat and then just trying to make sure that everybody can get everything done. Then [you have to] prioritize what is mission critical and what you have to get done now and what can you get done later and still get things done in an effective manner.

What's your next step? Are you hiring?
We're going to be looking for investment money coming up soon.  And once we do that, we'll be looking to hire on a full-time developer. That will be our first position to hire.  And then after that, we'd probably look into a marketing position for somebody.

You have an instant lead generation revenue stream. Do you feel that is the wave of the future for future advertising and marketing?
Yes. When we are talking with these business owners, you've got to remember, our target market is the auto repair centers. These guys love to work on cars. You're very rarely going to find Harvard MBA marketing guys in the automotive repair center.  They just love to work on cars and nobody really wants to focus on the marketing side. So they want something quick and easy and also, they like to spend money on advertising because they understand advertising; they have to advertise.

However, they don't want to pay for eyeballs. They like to pay for leads if there's an easy, clear way so they can get more business, i.e. leads. They like to buy those and pay for those. Whereas, the old system was pay for marketing and then pray for results in the end, which they weren't too happy with - a lot of uncertainty.

Is this the kind of model that you could see replicated?
Yes, it can be replicated.  I think depending on what marketing and how it would be replicated, we've decided to take a very niche focus and a niche approach into one market just because we feel that the whole reason it started was because I had a problem and I wanted it solved, and I figured this would be the best way to solve it. Then noticing that other people had problems associated with it that we could solve those as well, and that's how we developed the business out of it.

How are you marketing to consumers, and how are you marketing to these mechanics?
Well, for the consumers, we are doing a lot of search engine optimization for the marketing, just getting the word out there.  All of our customers are online, so all of our marketing is focused online in different avenues — blog posts; we're using Twitter a lot; and a lot of search engine optimization just to hone in on our keywords that we use for our business.

As many a business owner can explain, you begin with the end in mind. So what is your end?
The end right now is we'd like to create a profitable business. In the end, either find more services and solutions that we can provide to our current customers. Or one of the other large directories that is a large conglomerate might find us approachable and a nice addition to their current line-up.

The acquisition target?
Yes.

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