BacklotCars co-founder set to be honored as UMKC’s regional Entrepreneur of the Year
September 22, 2022 | Startland News Staff
A founder who helped drive one of the metro’s biggest startup exits is expected to be heralded in October as UMKC’s Kansas City Entrepreneur of the Year.
Justin Davis, co-founder and CEO of BacklotCars, will take the stage Oct. 12 alongside five other honorees — business leaders who have shaped entrepreneurship, according to officials at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
In fall 2020, BacklotCars posted a then-record $425 million exit, selling the Kansas City-headquartered auto platform to KAR Global.
“What we’ve shown in Kansas City is that we can build something really, really great,” said Davis in December 2020, reflecting on the sale’s close and its projected ripple effect. “It’s our duty now as the professionals, as the corporates, as the venture capitalists in the community to help make these companies great, because it creates a lot of wealth and gives this region experience.”
BacklotCars co-founders: Josh Parsons, Fabricio Solanes, Justin Davis, and Ryan Davis
Davis and co-founders Josh Parsons, Fabricio Solanes, and Ryan Davis had by late 2020 grown the BacklotCars team to more than 150 — many of whom had equity in the company — since its founding in 2014.
“Now they can take that capital and invest back into our region,” Davis said of BacklotCars’ employees who earned a payout with the massive deal.
Click here to read about how Anders Ericson, former vice president of sales at BacklotCars, recently launched the digital auto retailer startup Whipz.
“I would challenge people to get off the sidelines and get in the game. Help one another,” Davis said. “There’s not this secretive nature to why Silicon Valley works well: people buy in and are supportive. I think there’s a massive opportunity here. We were just one part of the story, and this region has a tremendous potential and groundwork to do something very amazing.”
BacklotCars’ historic exit was only surpassed this week, when Rx Savings Solutions — led by founder Michael Rea, UMKC’s 2019 Kansas City Entrepreneur of the Year — announced the expected acquisition of his startup for $875 million by The McKesson Corporation.
Click here to see more past winners.
The full list of 2022 Entrepreneur of the Year honorees includes:
- David Steward, founder and chairman of World Wide Technology (Henry W. Bloch International Entrepreneur of the Year)
- Justin Davis, co-founder and CEO of BacklotCars (Kansas City Entrepreneur of the Year)
- Jay Coen Gilbert, Andrew Kassoy, and Bart Houlahan, fo-founders of B Lab Global (Marion and John Kreamer Award for Social Entrepreneurship)
- Student Entrepreneur of the Year — Not yet announced
The Entrepreneur of the Year awards program is set for 7 p.m. Oct. 12 at Plexpod Westport Commons.
Click here to register for the event.
Featured Business
2022 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Not just for students: MCPL expands digital tool set for entrepreneurs
Editor’s note: The following content is sponsored by Mid-Continent Public Library but independently produced by Startland News. Dusty books. Tedious silence. Cranky shushers. Many stereotypes come to mind when one thinks of a library. But for those who haven’t recently visited these sanctums of knowledge, you might be surprised to see their transformations from canvas…
Children’s book turns KC’s Mayor Sly into time-traveling history buff
Kansas City’s colorful mayor was made for the pages of a children’s book, Audrey Masoner said. He gets his hand-drawn debut in “Mayor Sly and the Magic Bow Tie,” a project co-authored by Masoner and Mayor Sly James’ daughter, Aja James. The book is featured in Startland News’ 2017 Made in Kansas City Gift Guide.…
Storyteller sketches path from former Soviet Union to KC-based Sibukop
The teeth marks on Jasur Rakhimov’s Apple Pencil aren’t his own. They belong to his young daughter, Jasmira, who — despite a new protective pencil box — still loves to chew on the tools of his trade, he said. “Everybody and everything has its own story,” reflected Rakhimov, running his fingers across the indentions from…
MTC renews 2018 support for LaunchKC grant contest
Despite the government program’s uncertain financial future, the Missouri Technology Corporation will inject $250,000 into the popular grants contest LaunchKC for 2018. After having its budget slashed from nearly $23 million in 2017 to $3.4 million in 2018, the MTC announced Friday that it will once again support the Kansas City-based grant contest, which has…