Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1488298
8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | DECEMBER 19, 2022 Startups, Technology & Innovation PartsTech co-founders Greg Kirber (left) and Erik St. Pierre at the e-commerce company's West Hartford office. PHOTO | ROBERT STORACE UConn grads' e-commerce business aims to become Expedia of auto-parts purchasing By Robert Storace rstorace@hartfordbusiness.com A n e-commerce tech company formed by two former UConn grads and with a major presence in West Hartford is trying to upend, and make easier, the way repair shops and car dealerships buy and find auto parts. Simply put, PartsTech — led by co-founders Greg Kirber and Erik St. Pierre — is trying to become the Kayak.com and Expedia of auto-parts purchasing. The company, founded about a decade ago, has developed an e-commerce platform that allows commercial customers to buy millions of different auto parts from a network of about 30,000 local and national suppliers. (The company does not offer services to individual retail consumers.) Its first big client — landed in 2013 — was AutoZone. It now has 7,000 repair shops that use its cloud-based service, which allows customers to search for specific brake pads, alter- nators, batteries, and numerous other parts simply by entering a vehicle's identification and vin number. "It's a total procurement plat- form," said Kirber, the company's 36-year-old CEO. "We bring together a network of various sellers ranging from national distributors like Napa Auto Parts or AutoZone down to a single-location parts store, whether a large parts store or a mom and pop." PartsTech has grown significantly over the years. It now has 90 full- and part-time employees and contractors, including 11 based in a West Hart- ford office in Blue Back Square. St. Pierre — 38, and the chief operating officer — is based in West Hart- ford, along with other support and account executives. Kirber is based in the company's Cambridge, Massachusetts office. Both are bullish about their future growth opportunities and said the company could reach profitability within a year. Startup information website Crunchbase reported the company has raised $16.5 million since its inception. It earns revenue by taking a cut of each parts sale from the distributor. The company declined to disclose its annual revenues. Repetitive process Kirber said he saw a need for PartsTech when he worked at a Mercedes Benz dealership during high school and college. He said he witnessed the nonsensical way auto repair shops and car dealerships ordered, purchased and received car parts. "Every day was hours on the telephone getting prices for parts," Kirber recalled. "There were multiple calls a day and it was a very repeti- tive process. The wrong parts were showing up and there were many mistakes being made. The industry, as a whole, was looking at $3 billion in losses due to product returns. There had to be a better way." Kirber and St. Pierre met at UConn, where they both earned an MBA and law degree. They developed a friendship and eventually came up with the concept to launch PartsTech, pitching the idea a little more than 10 years ago to Richard Dino, then an entrepreneurship professor at UConn's School of Business. "What they proposed intrigued me," Dino said in a recent interview. "What they wanted to do and were proposing was not just innovative, it would change the way the industry operates. Their database today pretty much encompasses every part that's ever been made for any car." Kirber and St. Pierre have received outside capital from business plan competitions and the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. PartsTech also has seven investors, including "a major investor who came on board in August 2014" that allowed the company to get off AT A GLANCE Company: PartsTech Industry: E-commerce Top Executives: Greg Kirber, Co-Founder & CEO; Erik St. Pierre, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer CT HQ: West Hartford Website: www.partstech.com Contact: 866-308-5193