A 26-year-old Montreal entrepreneur who is a graduate of the Georgian College Automotive Business School and worked at a dealership for several years has started a service to give dealers high-quality leads from customers looking to buy used cars.
Guy-Oliver Potvin launched his company, Creddie, last week, after working on it for two years and obtaining funding. He said Creddie is a play on the word credit and everything that comes with affordability.
He said he plans to target the United States first because it has a wider market scope, perfect it there and then come back to Canada. He said the company is working on a deal with a major credit union to establish consumer credit reports.
To use Creddie, consumers access the company site https://beta.creddie.co and fill out information and a $500 refundable fee is charged. Once the consumer identifies a car, a test drive can be scheduled at the dealership which has it. If the customer buys the car, Creddie keeps the $500 fee and the consumer is given a $500 credit by the dealership. There is no cost to the dealership, but Potvin said the plan is to eventually charge a subscription fee.
“What we’ve entered into the market is a very basic lead-generation platform, so that consumers can come and reserve a vehicle,” said Potvin. “What I like to say is that we’re that “skip intro” button from Netflix at the dealership, placing an emphasis on high quality. We’re not just sending a dealership a name, phone number and email and then saying, ‘we’ll take your (finder’s fee).’ There’s (a reason) why our leads are higher quality, more intent, with obviously the pre-deposit placed as well.
“It’s really a pay-to-play service. We’re starting with people’s credit, showing them only vehicles they can afford today.”
He said he has spent time talking to dealerships in Canada and the U.S. and attended some conferences to make sure the company had a “profound offering.” Capital funding came from government grants, subsidies, loans and money from friends and family. Potvin has injected $100,000 of his own money.
“Being a start-up, it comes with quite a few challenges, funding being one of those,” said Potvin. “There is no playbook out there. It’s a question of long-term optimism with short-term pessimism. You really have to be clear and pragmatic about things. It’s spending time with other people who have done this, surrounding myself with advisors and a future board of directors. I’m really making sure I’m thinking clearly at all times.”
Taylor Waldbauer, a service advisor at Lacombe Ford in Montreal, is also a co-founder. There are also two co-developers.
Potvin graduated from Georgian College in 2020 and spent the next two years in programs that teach and coach entrepreneurs. He worked at Groupe Park Avenue in Montreal, starting out as a lot boy and working his way up to sales, financing, marketing and project management.
He said he had job opportunities but decided to “take a leap of faith” and begin his entrepreneurial journey.
