Carvana CEO & Co-Founder, Ernest Garcia: Building a $50B Company, Losing 99% and Coming Back

Ernest Garcia is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Carvana. Under Ernie’s leadership, Carvana went from a back-of-the-napkin idea to a $50+ billion public company, became the fastest-growing online used car retailer in U.S. history, and landed on the Fortune 500 in under 10 years. However, it was not all up and to the right, in 2022, the stock plummeted 99% to a market cap of just $400M. Today they are back with a market cap of $35BN, that is a 100x in the public markets and selling 400,000 cars sold annually, with a logistics network that rivals Amazon. ---------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 00:46 Are all great founders just “stubborn egomaniacs”? 03:37 How Carvana Almost Died on Several Occasions 05:49 Is Carvana’s Inability to get VC Funding a Sign the VC Model is Broken? 11:51 Operators vs. Strategists: What Hires Can Make or Break a Company? 23:32 Billionaire’s Biggest Lessons on Parenting 28:21 Is Life About Happiness or Achieving 36:22 The Reality of Being a Public Company CEO 42:48 Why Companies Should Go Public 48:32 Why You Should Price Your IPO to Perfection with No Pop 55:54 “What I Wish I Had Known About Debt in Building Carvana” 58:04 Quick-Fire Round: Favourite CEO, Marriage Advice, Carvana in 10 Years ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on X: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Carvana on X: https://twitter.com/Carvana Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #ernestgarcia #carvana #ceo #founder #ipo #lessons #hiring #carretail