Entrepreneur of the Year: Zig when others are zagging — and don’t be afraid of the word ‘no’

Bold strategies helped lead BacklotCars to one of Kansas City’s biggest-ever startup exits, said Justin Davis, and ultimately brought the lauded founder to the stage Wednesday to accept one of UMKC’s Entrepreneur of the Year honors. “Taking ‘no’ for an answer wasn’t an option,” the co-founder and CEO of BacklotCars, a web-based, dealer-to-dealer automotive platform, told…

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Want the next $425M exit? Be ‘ruthless’ with your time (and cap table), BacklotCars co-founder says

In the years leading up to BacklotCars’ historic exit, Justin Davis steered clear of the startup social scene — detouring instead into deep collaboration with capital and automotive industry partners, he said. “As a startup, getting connected is great, but you have to be ruthless in your execution,” the BacklotCars co-founder told ACG Kansas City’s…

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BacklotCars completes historic $425M exit, joining ‘power and fierce entrepreneurial spirit’ of KAR Global

The $425 million acquisition of Kansas City-based BacklotCars is complete, nearly two months to the day it was announced.  “There is so much energy and excitement around this combination with our employees and with our customers,” Justin Davis, president and co-founder of BacklotCars, said in a release announcing the milestone acquisition’s completion Thursday by KAR…

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