By posting lots of deals that aren’t honored, but seem really good, they generate a lot of traffic for dealers, who presumably are paying them per lead. More leads = more money.
It doesn’t help them in the long term, but it certainly may in the short term.
Lol,“leads” seriously?
You’re right. Rodo works for free and doesn’t get any money from the dealerships that they’re working with. Everything is out of the goodness of their hearts.
We’ll ignore the reports from multiple dealers that they literally use it as a lead generator.
Yeah, they’re operating on leads, thought you were smarter than that! Sheesh!
You act like Rodo is your child
So we agree then that the real product that Rodo is selling is connecting buyers with dealers and that lying about numbers generates more connection, hence it being possibly in their interest (albeit not long term) to lie?
Just love the concept. Hate dealing with the dealers( I would rather have a root canal).
Yes I understand. Your question about how lying benefits them seems naive.
Concept is fine, execution is terrible. If you know something that we don’t - please do share instead of arguing obvious.
I 100% agree.
As soon as Rodo actually delivers on the concept, we’ll all be happy
Sandbagged for last 2 deals on Rodo for an atlas sel. Actually got emails saying deal went through and only thing left was to provide insurance binder… got a call later that day from rodo saying the dealer wouldn’t honor that price and it was going to be $30 more a month. No thanks. Other deal rodo said the car was sold already. I think it was just another dealer not honoring that price .
It just doesn’t make sense. There current system seems like a scam more than anything else, just a way to bring in a few million bucks as quick as possible. They get a bunch of referral checks, burn all their bridges and close up shop.
The problem is they raised 26 million in a 2018 in series A funding less than two years ago. Running some scam website seems like a pretty inefficient way to defraud your investors. Makes me think the exec team is just in way over their head and can’t get their head around how the dealers constantly put up deals they have no intent to honor just to get people in the showroom.
I doubt they have anything left from Honcker’s original funding, hence new business name Rodo. They just use their software and dealer contacts, nothing else. Investors got paid for Honcker’s assets by Rodo owners, I guess.
I think its a business with real investors, dealers and customers. It does need straightening out but definitely not a scam. The idea behind it seems solid, now the key is to get dealers to do what they say they’re going to do. Problem with that is dealers have been operating a certain way for decades, so it won’t happen overnight.
You are probably right. The fact they haven’t moved on to a series B financing is probably telling. Even in this climate where VCs are throwing money around this company is viewed unworthy of further funding since their idea doesn’t work.
I think you are right that they are legitimately trying. I disagree that it’s just a matter of getting dealers to do what they say they will. As I said above, I don’t believe dealers would be able to stay in business if the online Rodo price becomes the ceiling on price. They need the people who we discuss in the worst lease deals thread in order to survive. If Rodo becomes a big success then no one will ever pay 300 a month and 9k down for a 2018 Accord Hybrid. But time will tell.
Or they might not need further funding…
rodos owners are the same as honckers owners
Rodo was founded in 2016 as Honcker by current CEO Nathan Hecht, along with co-founders Amir Lahav and Zorah Anapolsky.
Certainly possible but they are a tech firm and the vast majority of successful tech firms that have started in the last ten+ years have gone through their alphabet funding rounds and gone public/for an IPO. Assuming they are doing ok cash flow wise, maybe they are content with slow and steady growth. But that certainly hasn’t been the model most tech firms have followed in past ten years. With founders preferring a big pay day without having to grow a company for 20 years.
Doesn’t change what I said much, really. Does it?
Well they delivered me 2 cars already!