Bonus Episode - Vehlo CEO Reveals What's Actually Changing the Automotive Industry in 2026

0:02Hey folks, David here, and I'd like to thank you for joining us for the Changing the Industry podcast. Lucas and I started this podcast with the goal of capturing the frank and open conversations you typically have at industry events. Those conversations cover the challenges we face in our business and lives, as well as difficult repairs, new products and services, and everything in between.

0:26We hoped that these recordings would spur our listeners to enact the change they'd like to see in their own lives and businesses. That's also why we've partnered with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. My first management class was with Cecil Bullard, and his genuine passion for helping others in an honest and ethical manner permeates his entire organization. And if you need some of the Institute's help, they have a special offer for our listeners.

1:00Click the link in the show notes and get signed up for a free business analysis. They'll go over your current situation and give you advice on your next steps. And they have everything from free resources and online classes to peer groups, one-on-one coaching, and specific help for MSOs. So don't miss out on this great offer. Click the link in the show notes.

1:26And now on to the podcast. Get that thing out of the way. Oh, is it in the way? Okay, here, let me fix that for you. Oh my God, these chairs are so tall. So what's happening now? I know I was coming over to meet and say hello and now we're— I told you. We got cameras. That's it, we got cameras. I told you, this is how they work.

1:48This is just how it works, right? No good. So, uh, hey, I've been following you on LinkedIn and you seem like a really legit human being. You seem like you're like super genuine, and in your space and in your role, that's really rare today. Tell me a little bit about yourself. All right, man, you better introduce yourself. Yeah, where do I start with that?

2:08How much time do we have? Yeah, uh, so my name is Josh Weiss, CEO of Velo. Where am I looking, by the way? Yeah, you can look anywhere you want. All right, you're on camera no matter which way. All right, so, uh, yeah, live in Tampa, Florida area, uh, grew playing sports, so believe in the team aspect of winning, love winning. So there's a lot of theme of competitiveness and team winning.

2:28And, uh, I do believe that humility is a really good quality and servant leadership is the best way to go. So I try to— we have 700 people at Velo that I think are amazingly talented, so my job is to kind of unleash their capability, let, let that exponential impact of 700 people drive things and have impact. And so my role is more to serve the team and help them do what they do best.

2:54I, I, if you had been on this show a year and a half ago, I wouldn't have believed you, okay? But we went to your customer experience event, okay? And that culture which is exhibited there is like nothing I've ever seen before, right? I made a post about it because I was like, and you can ask David, I came back and I was like, They're like, this doesn't make sense.

3:18How is this even possible? How can this work? Because all of these corporations that we've talked to, all of these people, they say, I believe in team and I believe in giving them the autonomy to do what they want to do, but it doesn't really work that way. And you talk to the team and there is no culture. There's no such thing as culture in that environment.

3:36But you go to your event and know like they are bought into this. They believe in this. I know Mo really well. She believes in what you're doing. Yeah. How did— because like I didn't— I was to the point in my life where I didn't think it was possible to take a team that size and do that. Yeah. How did you do it?

3:52It's a lot of communication around, hey, this is what winning looks like. This is how we need to help each other. We have fun with it. So we talk about hashtag winning. We talk about silos aren't cool. So collaborate, reach across the aisle. We celebrate those things. So we make it a point when we see it, we're like, let's talk about it and brag about it and high-five about it.

4:14We have a saying of high performance, low ego. So we want to be high performance. We want to win, but leave your egos at the door. Like, that's just not how we operate. And it takes everyone buying into that. But, you know, a lot of my job is let me keep helping define what winning looks like. And if you have A players on your team, they're going to lean into that.

4:35Winning begets winning. I grew up in a strong sports culture where we kept winning because the previous teams won before us. And so those that aren't A players kind of self-select out and realize they're not a part of that culture. And it becomes almost like this self-operating machine where, again, those people will leave on their own and the good people will stay and lean in more.

4:59And I think that's Everyone's doing their part to make sure that happens, and then it becomes a real thing. So like the flywheel example in Good to Great, right? Every day, just being persistent on pushing that flywheel in the right way. And culture is really the key. And people talk about culture in a, I think, a too broad a sense without any real meaning behind it.

5:19But I define culture as how your team feels on Sunday night. Amen. About Monday. That's awesome. We have a lot of great team members that love the industry, that love serving customers and partners well, and I think that's just feeding on itself. Well, you know, uh, there was a video I watched— David hates it when I talk about it because I talk about it all the time— but one of the things he says in that video, um, it was by a man named Tim Kite.

5:43He was big into the sports world, right? He developed Ohio State's football culture, right? And it's a really cool video. I'll send it to you at some point. But he talks about the fact that getting it off of the wall because like culture and core beliefs as we know it today is very much poster values, not like core values. And the challenge was getting it off the wall into the hearts of the people.

6:05Well, like you can see that in Mo, you can see that in the people that work with the organization. How did you get it into their hearts? Because like it's one thing to talk, it's another thing to do it. I'm going to actually jump in for that. So what he's leaving out is the communication at Velo is beyond what I've seen before.

6:23So not only are we communicating to our bosses, but then they're funneling it up to him, and then he's communicating back down to us. So every Friday, he actually records and posts a video about highlights of what's happening, both good, bad, and different. But that's important for you to feel like you're valued and you belong at a company, and you're not just hearing it from your direct boss, but you often will hear your good work funneled down from the different levels.

6:53And so you know internally that if you do a bad job, they're hearing about it. So you would prefer them to hear that you're doing a great job. So that way, as he mentioned, I serve the folks at the company and he in turn serves the folks at the company. So everyone's kind of serving one another versus trying to compete. Right? Yes, we're winning at the end of the day, but we're winning together.

7:19And that's what's important. That, that's really powerful because Justin Allen, he was over here speaking at the ADOS booth a minute ago. Justin is a really close friend of mine, and some of the things he's talked about to me was that the most important thing for him was feedback. Right? And he was really struggling with feedback for a while because he didn't feel like he— it wasn't that he was getting bad feedback or good feedback.

7:40He was getting no feedback. And he couldn't find himself. He felt like he was kind of lost. And all it took was a change in position to where somebody else was giving him that feedback. And he said, all of a sudden, I feel like I'm accomplishing something. I feel like I'm going somewhere. So without that feedback, man, you can, you can end up lost so quickly.

7:59And it doesn't always have to be you're, you're doing the best. It's just the feedback, whether good or bad, you need to know What am I doing? How do you feel about the work that I'm putting in? And you hear it from all different angles within the company, not just your direct boss. Well, and I offered ride-alongs. I call them ride-alongs. I'm like, hey, if anyone wants, reach out to me.

8:21I just want to see what you do every day. I want to see how you're either building our products or engaging with our customers or the tickets you're answering. I go, just walk me through what your normal day is. But then that and other meetings, I generally ask at the end, like, well, okay, well, how can I help? Yeah. And you get so much out of that answer.

8:39It's a lot of like, hey, if we actually just did this, I think we can have more impact, or I think we can serve the customer better with this feature. And so just asking, how can I help? Super open-ended, sit back and just listen. Listen. I've gotten so many nuggets out of that. And to give credit where credit's due, Velo's always been a good culture before I got there.

8:59Of course, my, my job and my hope is We only make it better day by day. But we have these things called success factors and we celebrate those in town halls. Like, so when someone's entrepreneurial, that's one of our success factors. Or acquisitive, where we're trying to make sure we've done some acquisitions and we want everyone to feel welcome. We want our products to be obviously integrated better.

9:19We want a better together story when we do those and everyone plays a part in that. So just celebrating those things a lot. Overcommunicating is a big part of it and You know, I don't think you never do enough of that. Well, so that was one of the things that I noticed when Shopware got bought by Velo, right? Like there was that communication and in some ways it was communication that was not there before, right?

9:42Like in some areas, yes. In some areas, no. Yep, that's right. Like it felt like Shopware finally had the potential. I'm not saying it didn't have potential before, but it had momentum, right? Yeah. If anything, more support, right? More support than before. Absolutely. It made a difference in the company. So like, I've got to ask, you know, we've interviewed a lot of CEOs and you're the least uptight of any of them and you're the most real life of any of them.

10:09Good. How are you so chill, right? Like, because there's so many folks in your position, ton of pressure, ton of stress. What led you to Velo, how did you get there? Tell me a little bit about your story. Oh man, that is a very loaded question. I'll do my best to give you a brief answer. So I've always had, I think, very good fortune working with great people.

10:34I worked, the people behind Velo today, I worked with before at a different software company, had a lot of fun, had a lot of respect for them. I was the CEO of a previous company before this in a good spot. They reached out and told me about Velo, and I actually told them no at first. I was like, I'm not looking, I'm in a good spot.

10:55Yeah, appreciate you guys, respect you all, but I think I'm in a good spot, so thanks but no thanks. I appreciate the consideration. They said, no, really, we have a great thing going here, just please fly up and spend a day with us. And out of respect for them, I was like, okay, we'll do. And, um, they started telling me about the company.

11:13They weren't overselling it. I got to ask all the questions that I, I was curious about— culture and how how decisions are made, how we basically work together. And everything sounded great. And they made me a fair offer where I was like, you know what? I talked with my wife. A big part of that answer, frankly, is, you know, my personal faith where I don't worry about those things.

11:36We pray and talk about those things as a family and felt like it was a great opportunity and a blessing. So, It all worked out. And what I tell people now is I've been there now a year and a half. Everything from the people, the culture, the support, it's actually all been better than I thought. Kind of to your comment where you've never seen anything like it.

12:02My goal is to just help multiply the good things that we're already doing and make sure we're not doing any of the silly things that aren't helping the business, helping the customer. And man, it's just worked out so well. I couldn't be happier. You know, like I said, we're 700 VEEPs now. We call them VEEPs at Velo Deep. And I think everyone's having a lot of fun.

12:21We like leading a market. We feel like we're a strong market leader. And that comes with a lot of responsibility to keep doing good work. And I like that thing. So if you think of StrengthsFinders that people have, one of mine is significance. I like being a part of big things and big change. And winning and being competitive is actually my number one strength.

12:42So I couldn't be happier here. I get to hang out with people like Mo and team and go to events like this. So great company, great culture, having a lot of fun and trying to lead the market really along the way. What do you see as challenges in front of us, right? The industry as a whole, right? The automotive industry has some challenges coming.

13:03What do you see as the big challenges that we need to be watching for down the road? I mean, I think it's just constant innovation, right? The speed of change is never probably gonna be slower than it is today, which means it's only gonna accelerate day by day. Being in front of that to make sure you all win, right? I mean, our job, we're successful when our shop owners are winning and we're removing headaches, we're creating efficiencies, we're helping them be more profitable and be more successful.

13:27And that's obviously a big responsibility. So however we can continue to innovate, That requires a lot of investment. You got to pick the right strategies with all those investments. So we get a lot of input from our customers, from our team to do that well. But the speed of change as you think of AI and how that's going to obviously come into play.

13:48And again, ultimately we have to make your business more profitable, make your life easier, remove headache. And the more we can do that, I think the more successful we'll be. But it It's a daily, if not hourly focus, frankly, because the speed of change is so frequent. It is. It is accelerating at a rate that we've never seen before. And it's only going to get crazier.

14:09And, you know, I can't— I want to say maybe it was Mary Barra who said that we've seen in the past 10 years more innovation in the automobile than we had seen the 100 years before. In the next year, we'll see more than we've seen in the last 10. Yeah, right. In one year. And so we're seeing this development at such a rate, it's almost impossible to keep up with.

14:28And that's one of the things that we see with some of these shops is that a lot of them are kind of lagging behind and they're not staying up. So it's important to have partners like Shopware, right? Because if we have that partner that's doing it for us and creating this awesome experience for our client, like that's what it's all about. And so it's not we have to reimagine the customer service experience, right?

14:49I've told her over and over again, her and Carolyn are the reason that I stayed with Shopware when I did. Yeah, but they sat me down and said, hey, listen, you're trying to run this SMS. In your shop like you ran your shop. You have to change this, you have to shift this, you have to run it like it's designed to run.

15:04And so they showed me, and Mo set me down multiple times and said, no, no, no, you're not doing this the easiest way, do this. Yeah. And so Shopware became a partner for our business that made our business what it is today. And it really kind of refined what we believed in when it came to serving the client because it created our customer experience.

15:24And that was at the point that I realized my software stack can be my customer experience, right? And that's something I think so many people miss and they're like, I'm going to go get this software, I'm going to go get this software, I'm going to go get this software. You bring up a good point. So yes, you're giving a great customer experience, but to be fair, they all look like they're the same on the outside.

15:42But Shopware uniquely designed it the way that we present to your customer to be a unique experience. So they may look the same, which is why people are choosing this or that. But they're not, they're not the same. For sure. I've got competitors in my market that use other products and my customers have been to multiple different shops and they're like, this is the most intuitive process that I've ever experienced.

16:07And so I think that it's very important you build partnerships with your software companies and you know what you're working with and then you have to use it the way it was designed to be used. Or you'd miss out on that customer experience, right? For sure. For sure. And like, I don't know if you know this, but like, she is Shopware. I agree.

16:25Doesn't surprise me to hear that. She's the one who makes it happen. I'm just telling you. So I'm literally not— I pay him. I know. She's one of the rare people that I know where every single person who knows her and interacts with her brags about her, loves her, speaks so highly about her. So yeah, I get it. Makes sense. Absolutely. You do a really good job though.

16:48I mean, like, the amount of support that we've gotten from her over the years is the reason that— I mean, how many episodes have we said that they better never let go of Mo because we're out of here? Let me tell you though, you've not heard this story, but one time I— and he tells it all the time, so I'm going to— I went to his shop, I drove by his shop, stopped at his shop to go deliver him goodies, and he did not show up on purpose because he didn't want to hang out.

17:16He, he totally avoided me. I'm like, hey, I'm here at your shop, man. Yeah, rude, huh? Right? But we're still friends. I don't hold it against him. You probably should. He avoids me. And the only reason I'm telling you now is because how many times have you told about this story on the podcast? Probably like 22. At least. Oh, I don't know, every other episode.

17:39We're what, 250 episodes at this point? Do you remember the time I avoided her when she came to the show? I don't want to admit to avoiding people. I just, I was busy. You're lost, man. You're lost. It's okay. She left the shirt behind. He's still got it. I know my wife wears it. Yeah? Yeah. And it would— well, I don't know, you're pretty muscular now, but you lost a bunch of weight.

18:07Your complaint before was you were not gonna fit in it. We should create a wall sometime of you with all your just selfies and your smiles. I mean, we would have a whole wall of just Mo selfies. We absolutely would like Photoshop. One of the girls at the work said, do you— do your cheeks ever hurt from smiling that much? I'm all I mean, it takes more to frown than it does to smile, right?

18:31Well, so like, let's see, we met for the first time at ASTE. That was when I was first starting working on like improving my business. I didn't know anything about business and I didn't go with Shopware for what, another year? Probably. I think you finally signed with us at VISION. Yeah, I think it was like a whole year after. And so like my story was I went to my wife.

18:55I'd had a particularly hard day and I went to my wife and I said, I'm done. I'm out. She's like, what are you talking about? I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. Like I could go get a job working for somebody and I could earn this much money working for somebody else. I'm doing $14,000 a month. This does not work. Yeah.

19:10And I'm done. She said, well, what are you going to do? I said, I'm going to go train to be the best technician I can be. And so I said, okay, well, this came in the mail today and she handed me an ASTE postcard. And so I signed up and I went and I thought I was super cool because like I walked through the door and the executive director said hello and he's like, you're Lucas Underwood.

19:27And I'm like, oh yeah, I didn't have my uniform on or anything. Turns out there are only 16 people at the event, right? He knew the other 15. So you're the one he didn't know. Right? Yeah. And so we go in and he said, hey, would you humor me? I see that, you know, you're a shop owner. Why are you not going to shop owner classes?

19:47And I said, I'm done with this. I'm out. Checking out and he said, will you humor me and go to some technical or some management classes? And I said, yeah, sure. So I went to some management classes and said, oh crap, I don't know how to run a business, right? Like I know how to do what the business does, but I don't know how to run the business.

20:02And that's where I met Mo. And so I left there and I joined this group called ASOG on Facebook. I asked questions, I got torched. This dude messages me, the least friendly person I know. Sorry. I'm just being truthful. I'm seeing a theme here. Yeah, I mean, it must have worked out because look. Messages me like, hey, don't listen to those guys.

20:24I'll help you the best I can. So he started giving me advice and the business started getting better. And then I reached out to Mo again. I'm like, hey, this All Data Managed thing's not working out. They lost our whole data file multiple times in online. And so like we lost all of our customer data many times. It was like, man, this is really frustrating.

20:41And so that's when we switched to Shopware. In that same, the very first training, Malan Newton, who's not with us anymore, God rest his soul, we had, I had gone into one of his trainings and he was talking about this Disney experience he had and he was talking about customer service and he said, customer service, we somehow in automotive get in our head, customer service is about how we feel about the guest, not how the guest feels about us.

21:05And so it was that that triggered me to start looking at Shopware. Saying, I want to create a different experience. This is not about a shop management software for me. This is about creating an experience, right? And so then David says to me, he said, I'm looking at all these different softwares. And he said, look, I'm going to tell you one thing that I've learned from being in management in the parts stores for years is always go to the thing that you could train your people on the easiest.

21:31And he said, there is no easier software to train than Shopware on the planet. Right here it is. This is it. And so I called Mo and I was like, hey, I'm thinking about this. And she said, we're going to put you in the sandbox. And so like little step by step, now here we are. So it's been like a wild ride.

21:47Yeah. How long ago was that? Gosh, 2016? No, it was like '18. Was it? Yeah, it was 2018. That's when I joined, 2018. Yeah. And so that, that like, that was the, course-changing in my business. And, and, you know, since then I've done a lot of research in like unreasonable hospitality. And I say, okay, how can I take the product that we have, be it Shopware, whatever we use, and create unreasonable hospitality with that?

22:17And that's our focus. You ever heard the name Horst Schulze? Oh yes, I love Horst Schulze. Absolutely. So I'll have to find a talk that I think is one of the best I've ever heard, and I'll see if I can find and send it to It's so neat. Chatoola Resorts right down the road from my shop, one of his protégés is now managing that hotel.

22:36And so that man, like, ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen, right? And it was a whole different concept. And I think that's something that we're lacking in the automotive space. It's so funny because we were just sitting at lunch talking about this. The last two interviews that we did We had the first person said, "Hey, I believe happiness is fleeting and I'm not sure that it exists in this world."

23:00Right? And then the second one comes in and says, "I find happiness in properly repairing automobiles and knowing that my guest appreciates that." Right? We don't see them as guests in automotive. We see them as a car. We see them as this thing we have to accomplish, this thing we have to do. But we should be treating them as guests. And I think we're missing that.

23:22Aloha, Laura Schultz. Servant leadership. Yeah, you're serving that customer. Yeah, that's the life-changing stuff right there. When you get to the point that you're doing that and then they serve the guest because that's what they do. Yeah. And obviously I get less opportunities to do that, so I get to serve them as best I can. I know it cascades all the way out to the customer and business isn't a zero-sum game, right?

23:45A lot of people think someone wins, so someone loses. I think we can find the win-win-win. So, love it. Yeah. Well, you know, that's what Cecil from the Institute says, is everybody has to win. That's the one rule is like everybody has to win. So anything you want to tell our guests or any Shopware users? Well, one, can't say thank you enough for using the product.

24:08We welcome all the feedback to make it better. We always want to make it better. You know, the idea is just getting better every single day. I was a finance major, so the compound effect of us getting better every single day is going to make sure we have the best product. One of the best ways to do that is to hear the feedback and have conversations with folks like you to make sure we do.

24:27And, you know, at the end of the day, we all win. So our goal is to, to be the best software provider for shops in the country. And no easy task. And excited to make progress every day and hear the feedback. But we got great people along the way. And yeah, just, I mean, can't say thank you enough. I really think gratitude's important.

24:48But at the same time, we got a big responsibility to keep building the best product. Sir, well, I think you're doing a really good job right now. And thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thank you. Yes, sir. Appreciate it. Of course. Thank you for listening to the Changing the Industry podcast. If you enjoy the show, do us a favor and leave us a review on your favorite podcast player.

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