How Venture First Partnered
Digital Transformation
Venture First facilitated the majority buy-out of Dealer Trade Network (“DTN”) to supercharge the next phase of growth by organizing, implementing, and executing a digital transformation strategy by leveraging its tech and data venture portfolio. DTN is a business services company that allows auto dealerships to effectively optimize inventory floorplans by facilitating trades between dealerships for aging inventory.
Rapid Acceleration
Prior to Venture First’s majority buyout of DTN, the sales team’s approach to customer acquisition was antiquated. The sales team worked with existing established relationships, such as GM, and fostered new client growth through direct cold-call outreach. With fresh capital from Venture First and access to its digital transformation playbook, DTN was able to build a technology team that leveraged proprietary first-party data and third-party data to identify inventory imbalances between dealerships proactively and generate targeted outreach. The qualified leads resulted in increased efficiency contributing to an impressive 95% revenue growth and 300% EBITDA growth in the 18 months following the transaction.
CFO Services & Recap
DTN’s accelerated growth resulted in a need to ramp up the finance and accounting function, leading to an engagement with Venture First’s CFO Services group shortly after closing the transaction. VF assisted with accounting, cash planning, financial modeling, budgeting, and strategic banking relationships.
Operating Partner Network
After the initial transaction closed, VF brought in a long-time operating partner, Steve Huey, to help guide the digital transformation and improve operations. Venture First’s operating partner network continues to play a key role in this portfolio company and others as it leverages strong talent from its network to help drive improvement in its portfolio.
