What If a Garage Worked Like the Cloud?

The Gap

In 2013, I noticed something about the auto repair industry: capacity was locked up. If you wanted access to a professional repair bay (with lifts, specialty tools, waste handling, and proper workspace) you had two options. Sign a long-term commercial lease and invest six figures in equipment, or don't.

That model left a massive amount of demand unserved. Independent mechanics who couldn't justify the overhead. Companies that needed repair capacity but didn't want to build their own facilities. Regular people who had the skills but not the space.

The existing "self-service garage" concept wasn't new. But every version I'd seen was built the same way: an owner who wanted their own shop and let other people use it to subsidize costs. That's not a platform. That's a hobby with tenants.

The Insight: Capacity on Demand

I asked a different question: what if repair shop capacity worked like cloud computing?

In cloud infrastructure, you don't buy servers. You consume compute, storage, and networking on demand. The provider abstracts away the complexity (power, cooling, networking, physical security) and you just use what you need, when you need it.

I applied the same logic to auto repair. We abstracted away the entire infrastructure stack that a repair operation requires: bay space, vehicle lifts, hand and power tools, specialty diagnostic equipment, parts storage, waste oil removal, hazardous waste containment, scrap metal recycling, utilities, and parking. All of it packaged, maintained, and available immediately.

A customer could walk in and be fully operational within minutes. No construction. No equipment procurement. No permits. No "spin up" time. The opportunity cost savings were massive.

The Platform Model

What made this a true platform, not just a rental facility, was the range of service tiers we offered. Different customers had fundamentally different needs, and we designed the model to serve all of them from the same infrastructure.

On-Demand (Multi-Tenant)

Our most common customers were regular people who needed a bay for a few hours. They shared the resource pool, booking time as needed. This was our shared hosting tier: affordable, flexible, and accessible to anyone.

Serverless (Zero Idle Cost)

Independent mechanics used our platform to run their businesses with zero overhead when they had no customers. When they had work, they rented capacity. When they didn't, they owed nothing. Many used us as a launchpad, building their client base on our platform until they were busy enough to justify their own location.

Dedicated (Single-Tenant)

Rivian started as an on-demand user. As their needs grew, they moved to a dedicated arrangement: exclusive use of all 17 bays across both of our locations. Their staff, our infrastructure. This was the equivalent of moving from shared hosting to dedicated servers. The capacity was fully allocated to a single customer, with no remaining availability for on-demand users.

Fully Managed

For Uber, we provided a complete end-to-end inspection facility. We supplied everything: the space, the equipment, and the technicians. Uber's drivers arrived at our facility for onboarding inspections, and we handled the rest. This was our managed service tier: the customer defines the outcome, and the platform delivers it.

Private Cloud

Google needed a confidential, secure industrial workspace for projects they couldn't do in their own facilities. We provided a turn-key private environment with scheduled dedicated access. No shared resources, no visibility to other customers.

Burst Capacity

Global vehicle manufacturers and dealership networks used us for on-demand overflow. When their own facilities hit capacity, they sent work to us. This was auto-scaling: elastic capacity that expanded and contracted with their demand.

The Infrastructure Stack

The core of the platform was the abstraction layer. Every customer, regardless of tier, consumed from the same underlying infrastructure:

• Bay space with professional-grade vehicle lifts
• Tools and equipment: hand tools, power tools, specialty diagnostic equipment
• Storage for parts and vehicles
• Waste management: oil removal, hazardous waste containment, scrap recycling
• Workspace: office space, parking, utilities
• Compliance: all environmental and safety requirements handled

Like a managed cloud service that bundles compute, storage, networking, and security into a single consumable product, we bundled everything a repair operation needs into a single facility you could use on demand.

What Made It Work

Customer Experience as a Competitive Advantage

We achieved a 94 NPS score in an industry where 40 is considered good. That wasn't accidental. It was the result of treating every interaction as a service delivery moment. Clean facilities, clear communication, professional staff, and a platform designed around the customer's workflow, not ours.

The Operational Playbook

I documented every operation in the business, a comprehensive playbook that covered every process, role, and scenario. This did three things: it made onboarding fast, it made quality consistent regardless of who was working, and ultimately, it made the business transferable.

Systems Over Heroics

Early on, I learned that founder effort doesn't scale. I invested in operational automation, process design, and systematic approaches to everything from scheduling to financial analysis to hiring. The business ran on systems, not on me.

The Growth

We started with a single location in Kirkland in 2014 and expanded to two locations in 2021. Revenue scaled to over $2M annually. Enterprise partnerships with companies like Uber, Rivian, and Google provided stable, predictable revenue alongside our on-demand customer base.

The Exit

In 2024, I sold the business. Going into starting the business back in 2014 I always had an exit in mind. I'm a firm believer that you need to understand an exit strategy before getting started with a business, and everything is for sale even if it's bolted down. After 10 years I had an excellent chance to exit, and I was looking forward to new challenges.

What This Demonstrates

1. Platform thinking applies everywhere. Cloud computing didn't invent on-demand resource consumption; it just proved the model at scale. The same principles work in industries no one thinks of as "tech."

2. Old industries reward new frameworks. The auto repair industry hadn't changed in decades. Applying a modern service delivery model to a traditional industry created differentiation that attracted enterprise clients.

3. Systems make businesses sellable. A business that depends on its founder isn't a business. It's a job.

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