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
Techstars firms to spread local roots via Brad Feld’s Kansas City home
More graduates of the Techstars-led Sprint Mobile Accelerator may be calling Kansas City home thanks to venture capitalist Brad Feld. Feld, co-founder of the international accelerator program Techstars, is making his Kansas City, Kan. home available to graduates of the local Techstars program rent free. “I’m very happy with how things have gone to date,”…
Subjective language is making your elevator pitch completely forgettable
Your elevator pitch is the single most important communication of you or your business and why you are relevant. Last month I wrote about how you can use your elevator pitch — or 20-second summary of your business — as a litmus test to determine if you are creating your own market or if you…
Kansas City dishes on diversity in the entrepreneurial community
It’s often said that two heads are better than one. But what if those two “heads” have the same socioeconomic, gender and racial compositions? What if their life experiences mirror one another so closely that they arrive at the same conclusions or generate the same general ideas? It’s no secret that diversity can foster the…
Funding roundtable (part II): Entrepreneurs compare KC investment scene to other cities
Welcome back to part two of our roundtable discussion on the early-stage investment sector in Kansas City. For a more formal introduction on this series and its five participants, please refer to part one on Kansas City’s investment culture and evolving economy. Check out the third and final installment of the series with the entrepreneurs’ advice for…