A chat with…Marco Marlia, CEO of MotorK

Welcome back to Endeavor talks with…! This time we had a chat with Marco Marlia, co-founder & CEO of MotorK.

We discussed how his company revolutionized sales and marketing technologies in the automotive industry, as well as his journey from bootstrapping the company to overcoming the challenges of going public with an IPO.

Happy reading!

Tell us about yourself. Where are you from, and what is your background?

As easy and straightforward as it may sound, ‘where are you from?’ is actually a tricky question for me to answer. I was born in Salerno, Italy, but raised as a ‘citizen of the world’ as my family moved quite a lot because of my father’s job until I was about 14 years old. I’ve lived for some time in the UK, but I’ve also had the chance to experience the lifestyle of smaller towns around Italy. At the time, I admit I suffered for these continuous relocations but in retrospect, it has influenced me in a good way.

In this story, at a certain point, martial arts also come into play, right?

Yes, during my university years, I practised martial arts, MMA to be precise, and I trained with Fabio Gurgone, who then became one of MotorK founders. He was already developing software and together we started building websites and providing consultancy to businesses approaching the digital world for the first time. Fabio handled the tech side while I took care of sales. Even before MotorK, I had a few projects in my curriculum, but, of course, I wanted to go bigger.

If you wanted a car, you had to physically go to a dealership, and there weren’t many digital tools out there for car dealers to use. We decided to start working on an online car configurator, which later became DriveK.

And how did the idea that eventually became MotorK come about? How did you know that this was the idea to pursue?

Fabio and I began analysing the industries that would mostly benefit from a digital transformation — and where competition was still limited, of course. Marco de Michele, who was Fabio’s former boss, joined us early on, and we were excited to get started and become ‘startuppers’.

We decided to focus on one of Fabio’s biggest passions: cars. Fabio is THE ultimate car geek. In 2010, automotive distribution was still very much an old-school, brick-and-mortar business. If you wanted a car, you had to physically go to a dealership, and there weren’t many digital tools out there for car dealers to use. Quite by chance, we met a guy who was an expert of automotive databases and we decided to start working on an online car configurator, which later became DriveK. Initially, we were in the B2C space, generating leads with our software and connecting potential buyers to local car dealers, who’d pay us commissions for those leads.

And when did your big break come?

During the infamous Icelandic volcano eruption that grounded flights across Europe. We were invited to TechCrunch’s 2010 ‘GeeknRolla’ event, but since flights were cancelled, we drove all the way from Italy to London! We pitched ourselves as the ‘Kayak for cars,’ and after that, VCs approached us with interest in our project. That’s when we knew we were onto something big.

While we were considering these investment proposals, we received our biggest order ever (so far): 250K, which allowed us to avoid diluting our company by bringing in outside investors and put us strongly on the bootstrapping path.

MotorK started by bootstrapping. What was that experience like?

While we were considering these investment proposals, we received our biggest order ever (so far): 250K, which allowed us to avoid diluting our company by bringing in outside investors and put us strongly on the bootstrapping path. We still had a more or less steady income from our agency projects and our families were also extremely supportive (we always say that our wives were our very first investors). As things scaled up, we soon realised that if we wanted to take our business to the next level we needed to evolve.

By this time, we had already shifted gears from DriveK to what MotorK is today — a SaaS provider for automotive distribution. In 2013, we launched our first B2B solution, WebSparK, and by 2016 we had a small product suite, including a stock management tool and a CRM (brought by Tommaso Parisi that became the fourth founder).

From 2021, MotorK is a publicly traded company. What was the IPO process like?

The idea came from the MotorK chairman, Amir Rosentuler. After the pandemic, we had to shift from survival mode back into a growth mindset, and an IPO was the perfect way to get the resources to push us forward. The entire process took about six months.

Honestly until the last minute, given the market turmoil, we were still not sure it was going to happen. But we pulled it off. One thing I’ve learned through this whole journey is that ‘you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable’.

Our merit was proving that the automotive industry was ripe for a digital disruption: we had targeted the right market at the right time and with the right technology solutions.

How did you convince the first investors?

We onboarded our first investors, 83North and Zobito, in 2016. At the time, only a few Italian companies had made it from the startup stage to expanding internationally.

So, we intentionally looked for a VC that could fill those gaps and we managed to close a $10M Series A round to be able to further develop our technology and address the European market with it. Our merit was proving that the automotive industry was ripe for a digital disruption: we had targeted the right market at the right time and with the right technology solutions. We were also capable of learning from our mistakes and moving fast, evolving our company to keep up with the evolving needs of our industry.

While we could not foresee everything that happened to us, in hindsight I wish I had a community of entrepreneurs, as it is Endeavor today, to rely on for mutual support.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey that you learned along the way?

We made lots of mistakes along the way, especially in the scaleup phase .

But our story is actually made of a series of pivotal moments. First, we had to recognise that our initial B2C project had to evolve into a B2B business. It became evident to me when I attended a US event in 2012 with other Italian dealers. Back in Italy, we realised that our future was being a SaaS provider for automotive retail.

The second big learning came from making mistakes in our international expansion: we tried to do it by replicating the same business model we had developed in Italy but we ended up burning cash and not growing fast enough.

Fast forward to 2020, Covid caused a dramatic turn down in our industry. Car dealerships had to close: our cashflow was already at a minimum and we had to put people in furlough. Not my happiest time, I must admit. But the pandemic also forced the industry to embrace digitalisation and we were there to make it happen. When Covid restrictions were finally lifted, ur business literally started to soar.

While we could not foresee everything that happened to us, in hindsight I wish I had a community of entrepreneurs, as it is Endeavor today, to rely on for mutual support.

How has your experience with Endeavor been so far?

Joining the Endeavor network in 2022 was a game-changer for me. I knew it would be an amazing chance to connect and share ideas with some of the most innovative entrepreneurs from around the world. I’m a firm believer in the power of networking, and I wish I’d had something like Endeavor during the early stages of my own entrepreneurial journey. This is also why I like the idea of giving back and supporting those that are still at the beginning of their growth journey.