Most product teams don’t fail because they build poorly — they fail because they build without knowing what will actually sell.

In this episode, Pete Polyakov breaks down the hidden cost of building blind — where manufacturers spend tens or hundreds of thousands per product without real demand signals. The result isn’t just wasted capital — it’s a system where failure is baked into the business model.

Pete Polyakov, founder of Mods Nation, didn’t set out to transform automotive manufacturing — he was trying to solve his own expensive mistake.

After wasting significant money on aftermarket parts that didn’t fit or look right, Pete built a 3D modeling solution to preview modifications before buying. What started as a personal fix quickly revealed a deeper problem: manufacturers themselves were building products with no reliable way to predict demand.

At SEMA, that realization turned into a business. Pete discovered his tool wasn’t just useful for consumers — it was a demand signal platform for manufacturers, allowing them to test products before investing in production.

This episode is a look at how one founder reframed a personal frustration into a system-level insight — and what it means for CEOs making product bets under uncertainty.

Key Takeaways (Prioritized)

1. Building without demand signals creates systemic waste Most manufacturers accept failure as part of the model — but that assumption itself is the problem.
2. Demand validation should happen before production, not after Testing product-market fit early shifts risk from capital-intensive to data-driven decisions.
3. Strong founders know when to pull back — not just push forward Recognizing when something “doesn’t work fundamentally” is a critical leadership skill.
4. Breakthrough products often start as personal frustration The most valuable insights come from problems experienced firsthand — not abstract market analysis.
5. Speed matters — but only when paired with adaptability Acting quickly is essential, but so is the ability to change direction without attachment.

Chapter Markers

00:00 Introduction & Pete's Background

01:34 Mods Nation & the Accidental Car Company

01:57 How SEMA Sparked Everything

03:43 Building a Car from Scratch

06:16 The Origin of Mods Nation: Wife vs. Body Kit

13:20 First SEMA Booth & Manufacturer Breakthrough

17:35 Consumers & Manufacturers Both Buying Blind

20:08 Scaling to 300,000 Parts on the Platform

28:45 Mods TV, Film Festival & Going Physical

33:14 When the Tool Became a Community

40:02 The Wild Road Trip to SEMA

47:01 Pete's Advice & Outro

Guest Information

Pete Polyakov

Founder, Mods Nation

https://www.linkedin.com/in/petepolyakov/

Nine out of ten parts they produce fail.

2

They spend between $20,000 to $4 million per part to produce it.

3

If something doesn't work fundamentally, we just pull back, regroup and do something else.

4

Welcome back everybody to the Breakout CEO podcast.

5

I'm your host Jeff Holman and I'm so glad to have you here with us today again to hear

about these awesome stories from cool startup founders and CEOs who are they're going down

6

the same path that all of you guys are going down.

7

They might be a little bit further ahead or maybe they're behind but they've had a few

experiences that are that are in front of you on your path.

8

So it's great to great to hear these stories and learn from them and how we can apply them

in our lives.

9

Today we get to learn from Pete Polyakov and hear his story.

10

Pete, welcome to the show.

11

Thank you for having me today.

12

Yeah, very, very glad to have you.

13

And as we were doing some questions before the show, I was like, I was trying to figure

out what your background is.

14

I love the background there.

15

It's very cool.

16

Thank you so much.

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ah Well, ah you know, I was born in USSR.

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ah And, know, one thing, USA was bad, because of many things.

19

But one thing what they kind of did good, they gave education free to every single person

who wants to study.

20

So I got little experience in architecture, film, and philosophy.

21

And, you know, then applied

22

this knowledge through my life.

23

I love it.

24

probably played into your, into your business today.

25

You're running at least one business, maybe two, right?

26

You're running Mods Nation uh and you're running uh Arvion.

27

Yes, you're right.

28

Second one is an accidental one, but it just happens.

29

Accident is well tell us what each are and then explain to us what you mean by accidental

30

Well, ah you know, a few years ago, I went to SEMA to just understand what is going on in

the professional industry.

31

And later on, I realized the one thing you should do when you go into such places, you

need to have a car at the booth.

32

So people would walk by, look at the car and say, oh, my goodness, such an amazing car.

33

And that's a great moment to start the conversation about.

34

Because SEMA is the car show, right?

35

that's where, for those who haven't been, I have not been, but I've heard of it.

36

And you know, you're going to a car show, you're seeing everything, everything about cars,

right?

37

Absolutely.

38

And every man a little bit a kid.

39

So, you know, everyone goes to look for the cars and when I realized that, I said, well,

we definitely need some car at the booth.

40

And so because my background in architecture, I said, well, I definitely can design a car

because usually architects, they design buildings and they make a lot of money or they

41

design super yachts and they make no less amount of money.

42

I was never built anything like except the shed in the backyard.

43

so, you know, nobody invited me to do super here.

44

So I said, you know, I can make a car.

45

That's for sure.

46

I did that.

47

And just to support mods.

48

And what happened at the booth, people start to come in and they start to ask me questions

who manufactured that.

49

And that's kind of different question from who designed that who is behind that build.

50

Yeah, actually, they fought its manufactured car.

51

And what when I started

52

You designed and built the car.

53

Like, I got a friend who said, hey, yeah, I got a car in my basement right now.

54

Like, what are you talking about?

55

He's like, I bought this kit and it's wintertime here in Utah, so there's snow.

56

So I put it in my basement and I'm going to build it in pieces and take it out.

57

So you built a kit car.

58

What do you mean that you made a car?

59

So I started from a piece of paper.

60

I said, well, any proper design and what philosophy and architecture a little bit teach

you, and it's a little bit easier to understand when you in such areas, architect does not

61

design a wall or a door handle without the design and buildings.

62

So you need to zoom out a little bit.

63

And when it comes to design as a discipline,

64

you always zoom out a little bit and look the entire composition, not just a piece.

65

And unfortunately what is happening at SEMA, you see a lot of cool separate parts put

together and it creates something, not all the time as a single expression, but more like

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just kind of salad in a way.

67

I didn't want to that.

68

exactly.

69

And I didn't want to do that because I said, well, I definitely need to design something

that will attract people to stop by.

70

And I competed with the amazing custom shop.

71

you know, and I said, I need to do that something fundamental, which I did.

72

I designed it on a piece of paper.

73

I learned how to build cars.

74

I learned how to weld and many other things.

75

So I sculpted the car first, like literally from clay.

76

I sculpted from scratch, then created the body parts, then put it together and my team was

helping me along the way.

77

we learned a lot about that, but it was just a fun project.

78

It never was like custom shop situation.

79

This was not just a model that you would bring in and set there or was this an actual

functioning car?

80

Absolutely fully functional car.

81

Yes, it was based on Porsche 911.

82

It was based on Porsche 911, but the entirely different design.

83

Wow, that's quite the undertaking.

84

So you're at the booth.

85

What was the company there that you were representing at the booth?

86

And you said, got to have a car, not just any car.

87

I'm going make my own car, bring it in.

88

We were running with Mods Nation.

89

That's the company that helps people to look at modifications in 3D before you actually

spend money.

90

And the concept of that car is coming out of my own frustration.

91

I'm on the driveway.

92

I saved some money few years ago and I'm trying to fit the body kit on my old BMW.

93

And it did not fit.

94

And it didn't look anything like on the pictures I bought it from.

95

And I think my wife walked outside, she looked at that and she said, well,

congratulations, family money spent well.

96

Oh, and I think it kind of hurt.

97

And at that night, I kind of like walk back and, you know, look at all of that.

98

And I said, well, what if I will next body kit I will buy, what if I'll model it in 3D?

99

And we look at from all the sides, right?

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And it worked.

101

Then a few friends asked me to help them with their projects and it worked for them as

well.

102

And long behold, we actually ended up with the factory.

103

So producing these car parts and cars nonstop.

104

So you're a car guy, you're out there, you're kit parts or modification parts for your own

vehicles and you're putting them together and it didn't work out.

105

Your wife gave you maybe a sarcastic comment about the success of that or the value of

that for the family.

106

so wait, so you're saying that when you, after that happened, the next time you decided to

buy a modification part from a you know, a third party manufacturer, whoever makes these

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parts.

108

You said before I buy it and install it, I want to just mock it up in 3D.

109

So, so you just, do you just ask the parts manufacturer and say, Hey, can I get your files

and, do you build it yourself?

110

What does that mean to mock it up in 3D?

111

I looked at the pictures and because I have extensive experience in 3D uh in the early

112

By the pictures I modeled, ah so I had the car as a foundation and I modeled those body

parts based on their pictures and applied it on the car because all these pictures they

113

photoshopped and the angle they choose, you know...

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usually the best possible angle for the picture to be taken.

115

Sometimes we see fashion models and doesn't really matter what angle you take a picture

from, they're always going to look great.

116

You put them in the garbage bag and they're still going to look great.

117

And that's why the models are.

118

And the same thing with the good car body parts.

119

If they design really well, absolutely doesn't matter from what angle you look at them,

they're still going to look great.

120

Unfortunately, it doesn't happen all the time.

121

I see.

122

So somebody might be making parts that look good from one perspective, but from a

different perspective, your wife's going to walk outside and say, well, I can see it from

123

this perspective, but when I look over here, I don't like it as much.

124

Just a quick note about our guests.

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I host the Breakout CEO podcast to share behind the scenes insights from scaling

businesses.

126

As an attorney, I see the real challenges leaders face long before success becomes public.

127

But

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Client stories have to stay confidential.

129

So we invite guest CEOs to share their own moments of struggle and success.

130

I'm so grateful to our guests and my team at Intellectual Strategies for making this show

possible.

131

Now, let's get back to the show.

132

You know, it was even worse.

133

uh She walked to my backyard and I think it was filled.

134

It was dozens of thousands of dollars laying in the backyard, body parts, bumpers,

something that I took in, it didn't like and unfortunately, there was absolutely no point

135

to sell it because you would lose about 70 % of the price.

136

so she just looked at that pile and she said, Oh, this thing going

137

Or I'm going.

138

And I'm like, well, the problem is a little bit bigger than me.

139

You know, so I said, what's the real problem there?

140

And when I look at that, said, well, I cannot make a right decision based off these

pictures.

141

And then I realized nobody can make a right decision based off just some pictures.

142

Like, we probably had this experience and beyond car parts, right?

143

ah And then I said, well, can 3D help?

144

And that's what I did.

145

And it really worked in my case and in case of my friends.

146

And then later just built in a way bigger thing than I expected.

147

What were you doing up to this point before you had this idea to start either as a hobby

or even as a business?

148

Because I think a lot of people would see that and they'd like, they'd see the frustration

and they'd say, well, that didn't work, but I'm just going to buy another part.

149

I'll fix the part.

150

And they want to get the car done, not necessarily turn the problem into a business.

151

Do you know I mean?

152

Yeah, well, when people constantly stutter to bombard me with these questions, you know, I

realized there's something beyond that.

153

I didn't really look at that as a business business yet.

154

But I look at these body parts of my backyard.

155

And I said, well, I always said, a lot of money, like a lot of money there and just laying

there.

156

And it's not helping anyone.

157

And

158

when I figure out what 3D really helps me to determine if it's good or not, then it kind

of started to work, but I didn't look at that as a business yet.

159

But when I went to SEMA, it was kind of a weird story.

160

A few years ago, I went to SEMA just to look at the cars, as you said.

161

But then I said, you know what, let me go to SEMA and get a booth.

162

My idea was like, if I will ask some questions, maybe I will have some useful

conversations and that will help me a little bit to understand if actually whatever I

163

figure out will help to professional industry at all.

164

And I got, it was pretty much one booth left and I was sitting between truck driver hats

on one side and another side was, I think it was gift cars for gas stations.

165

Something like that.

166

Nobody would go there ever.

167

And what happened uh is just, I couldn't imagine there was an insane crowd surrounding my

little tiny table.

168

First of all, people were trying some parts in the configurator and they're like, I would

buy it.

169

that's kind of cool.

170

And then what really turned it into business when...

171

I start to see manufacturers walking by and see this behavior, what they see on this

little tiny screen.

172

Manufacturers, it's usually family business, the entire thing.

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uh Factory owner, it's an uncle.

174

Distributors, it's some son or logistics nephew.

175

So it's a family class.

176

their usual challenge is uh

177

Nine out of 10 parts they produce fail.

178

So they pour that failure into one successful product.

179

But we're talking about they spend between $20,000 to quarter million dollars per part to

produce it and actually start to try and see if it sells.

180

And if they can predict uh their

181

series of products how they will perform on a singular level, it's totally, it's sorcery,

it's voodoo, it's just, you know, magic.

182

So was this your first year with a booth in at SEMA?

183

Did you have your car there this year or was that a later?

184

Okay, so you show up and you're between trucker hats and gift cards for gas stations and

you're drawing a crowd that otherwise wouldn't be in that section of the show.

185

100%.

186

Yeah.

187

And he just was empty.

188

And these manufacturers, so these are like aftermarket parts manufacturers are walking by

saying, so you're telling me that the business to this point is people are just saying,

189

hey, this type of sports car or this type of off-road vehicle, like let's come up with a

part, let's make it and let's see if people buy it.

190

But they've dumped maybe a quarter of a million dollars into the design and production for

that part.

191

G-Sticks.

192

Yes.

193

Just to see if it's good, just to test selling it.

194

Has there not been a better way for them to test the market in more of like a uh lean

manufacturing, lean startup type of approach, or it's just always been this way that we're

195

there?

196

Hey, we make products and as long as one or two out of 10 work, then we're okay.

197

Well, this industry were outdated.

198

It's almost like, you know, I think this industry lives almost in 90s.

199

And ah that's, it was more or less the same approach.

200

In some areas, they were trying to put some pictures on Instagrams and so on, but there

was never really a signal per item where you can say, well, this thing definitely going to

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work.

202

Because what they looked at that screen,

203

I had a little tiny TV.

204

It was some insane amount of money for rentals at SEMA.

205

And I said, well, I'm not going to spend it.

206

I just came here just to talk.

207

Well, let me get like little tiny TV.

208

And what they seen at that screen, it was the answer to their problem because they would,

uh you know, how much design of salary cost, right?

209

Maybe product manager.

210

And they can put these products online and see how they perform.

211

And if they see the collecting a lot, it's like Kickstarter, singular, I kickstart on pair

every single product, right?

212

And if they see it performs well, they produce it.

213

And if it's not, they just move on.

214

then, you know, so they don't produce things with not going to sell.

215

And by the way, that's kind of weird thing.

216

ah loyalty to the brand, race, because they don't produce bad things.

217

You know, it's kind of like weird thing.

218

Well, you've mentioned in some of our back and forth when we were scheduling this episode,

you'd mentioned that one of the issues is people, the consumers buy blind, right?

219

Just like you did with a part that you're like, I saw one picture of it, I bought it, and

then when I got it and installed it, I'm like, that's not right.

220

It doesn't look what I, it's not what I wanted.

221

But what I'm hearing is that not only were the consumers buying blind, but the

manufacturers themselves were.

222

were building blind.

223

didn't quite know what people wanted.

224

And that's that's a huge waste of money, uh or a lot of effort to get to a part that would

work.

225

okay, so you're this you're at SEMA, you're showing this off.

226

What came of that experience that show?

227

My product was not just entertainment for kids like me, but actually it was a demand meter

where people can predict their sales before they do any moves.

228

That was the first realization.

229

I had a little experience back then, it was coming from like 25 years ago with the t-shirt

business, kind of similarization, but never at that scale.

230

And then I realized I can solve...

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the entire problem for manufacturers and for distributors.

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ah Just give them the tool what they needed without breaking the chain because it's a

family client business.

233

You know, and that was the biggest realization what I can where nobody could but I can.

234

Yeah.

235

Had you gone, was your intention when you went to that show to sell consumers on using

your tool for their own parts?

236

Or did you go there with the intention of saying, maybe manufacturers will want to use

this?

237

Or was that a discovery that you made at the show?

238

I just went there just to ask questions.

239

I had no idea.

240

I had no idea how that will land because what I seen how manufacturers start to push each

other with elbows to give me their business cards.

241

It was kind of like ridiculous picture in a way.

242

But ah when I went there, went completely, no expectations, completely blank.

243

uh just thought like, is there any use for that?

244

I had some idea, but it just never was at that scale.

245

I I could never imagine.

246

How long ago was that when you did your first SEMA show and had that great response?

247

That was about four years ago.

248

Okay, okay.

249

And so since then, what's been the trajectory of the business?

250

Well, first thing I realized, there were like previous attempts to make something like

this online and all of them copped by like a few hundred parts and they pretty much failed

251

because the effort we need to put into the business is just so ridiculously enormous.

252

it just doesn't work.

253

What is the market like?

254

how many manufacturers or how many different parts are there for different cars?

255

Because I could imagine there are thousands of parts for different cars and thousands of

different cars and different markets that you're in.

256

millions.

257

Yeah, millions.

258

uh I kind of chose the angle of aftermarket tuning parts.

259

And the reason why I did it because this was narrow enough.

260

Because if I would try to spill into car parts, generally, I would be drowned there.

261

It's absolutely.

262

But even there, you know, when I chose very narrow angle, I had to solve a problem of uh

manual

263

3D models production.

264

And unfortunately, as you know, today, producing uh images, generated images or produce 3D

models out of image, all that approximation.

265

And because it's approximation, it does not really work because it's exactly the same

situation as with those pictures I was buying it from.

266

So it didn't work there and it cannot really work with AI.

267

But

268

But 20 years ago, I was solving problems with online video games.

269

How can I have 20,000 users on my server playing in exactly the same time?

270

And that was the era when we just came out of floppy disks.

271

And it was kind of different constraint, what you had to deal with.

272

And I had to kind of solve

273

conceptual problems on a different level at that time.

274

And 20 years later, I'm dealing with this stuff.

275

And suddenly, uh all that experience with the head 20 years ago helped me to solve the

problem today where I can almost automatically produce parts on my platform and they will

276

be absolutely accurate size wise.

277

Yes, we had to scan over 600 cars manually.

278

This was a lot of work.

279

But uh the rest, it was more or less automatic.

280

And now I think we're hitting 300,000 parts right now on the platform because of that.

281

Over a quarter million parts on the platform.

282

So, want to understand this because what I'm understanding is that uh you've got to be

really precise in what you're doing.

283

Otherwise, you suffer the same problem as everything else.

284

The phrase that I took away from something you had said earlier is close enough isn't good

enough for what you need, right?

285

You need precision.

286

help me understand better though.

287

Maybe I...

288

I might have zoned out just a little bit when you said floppy disk.

289

I'm like, that's a blast from the past.

290

Been a long time.

291

But what is it from the, from your video game design 20 years ago that, that you were able

to draw out of that experience and help you solve this problem today?

292

What I really learned back then, what there is absolutely no problem exists what cannot be

solved.

293

it become my skill because along the entire my life, I was solving problems where people

say it's impossible.

294

When I hear impossible,

295

I'm like, okay, perfect.

296

Let me work on that.

297

So it wasn't a programming technique that you used in video gaming?

298

This is the mindset that you achieved?

299

Okay.

300

oh

301

That makes sense.

302

that ended up in the technology.

303

I knew what needs to be done technologically because you as an engineer and myself calling

myself as the engineer as well, you know, I don't have a proper education for that, but

304

you know, it's always an ability to zoom out.

305

And sometimes ask yourself, you really, is the problem what you see in front of you, is it

the problem that you need to solve actually?

306

And most of the time it is not.

307

And I think all of us as an entrepreneur we're constantly to zoom out and look at the

problem a little bit, you know, with the bigger picture.

308

Yeah, do you think that do you think the engineers because there are a lot of engineers

who become entrepreneurs and and it seems a little bit.

309

What's that?

310

and musicians for some

311

And musicians, yeah, you're right.

312

uh That seems a little counterintuitive sometimes.

313

It's like, know, entrepreneurs or engineers, musicians, what is it about what they're

doing?

314

And maybe this is the key, right?

315

The ability to look at the system as a whole back out of maybe some of the details and see

the larger picture.

316

Is that something that you feel like you've got and you've seen in other people who are

also building companies?

317

Successful, think so.

318

sometimes you're a little bit too much into leads and you're too much inside of that

problem.

319

philosophy kind of asks questions, why all is this for?

320

You need to kind of a little bit be at the distance of the problem in order to observe it.

321

And I think architecture kind of does the same thing.

322

And I think in engineers like yourself,

323

You it's kind of you look at the entire system and saying, where's the actual problem?

324

And sometimes it's not in that exactly moment or not in that place.

325

But, you know, when you look at that, you say, maybe it's not even a question I need to

solve.

326

Yeah, right now.

327

So, yeah.

328

Do you feel like, like, what's the trick for entrepreneurs who maybe don't have that, that

skill set already to, to balance between the detailed work or the, you know, what maybe we

329

might call the passion work.

330

They, they jump into a new product and they're like, we're doing it no matter what versus

the, we'll just say the engineer who, who wants to step back and see the whole picture.

331

Like how does, how does a good entrepreneur balance those two modes?

332

Does it really require two separate people to do it?

333

Or is it, is it just being able to recognize when you're in one mode versus another?

334

What's been your experience with that?

335

Well, I think it's kind of like, I hear a lot when people talk about manager time and

maker time.

336

And I think if you're kind of like, if you're creating yourself that space to be a maker,

when you work on strategy, I think you can balance this too.

337

Sometimes people, you know, bring, you know, maybe manager, you know, I heard a lot, I

don't know if it's true.

338

But I heard a lot when people say, if you will hire CEO for yourself, your business is

going to be in a way better place because you do too many things at the same time.

339

what I found, if you create certain spaces in your schedule just to be a maker, not a

manager, then you kind of can balance these two.

340

And obviously you should because when it comes to startups,

341

You know, it's always fire.

342

It's always crisis.

343

you know, it's a lot of until you in the clouds, there's a lot of manual handling.

344

Otherwise, you know, it just can go sideways in a way that nobody will care about your

business.

345

Like you said yourself.

346

For sure, for sure.

347

Well, so with 300,000 parts designed, ah what does that do for your business?

348

How is your business doing today?

349

What's the size of it?

350

What stage would you say you're at and what are your next milestones coming up?

351

We're kind of spilling more into physical world when it comes to the platform itself.

352

We recently launched, for example, Mods TV.

353

uh It's a pretty much Netflix for cars.

354

We just launched a uh car film festival as well.

355

we're actually, we're coming out of the entirely digital into more real world.

356

uh And I think because what we do is actually, it's about

357

culture generally.

358

It's not just about parts.

359

So there we do a lot of physical work right now.

360

Plus, most of us coming from the film industry.

361

So ah it's kind of natural.

362

ah And I think it creates deeper roots with the community.

363

Because one of the...

364

I cannot say the brand, you're my guess, ah but I met one of the executives on the...

365

very interesting sport car brand.

366

You know, everyone knows about that one.

367

And he told me, you know what, what you're doing right now, you kind of flip in the entire

market.

368

And I'm like, why is that?

369

And he told me, he said, you know what, when we sell these extremely expensive sport cars,

our business is not about selling cars, it's about actually community.

370

Yeah, because that's a literally our business, we create in the community, cars just, you

know,

371

the outcome of that.

372

And for the manufacturers, we're just creating the tools uh to ease their pain, not just

as a demand, but create the entire system without breaking the chains, because that's

373

really important.

374

That's one thing that I learned immediately when you asked me about what I learned from

SEMA, I think that's really important to say.

375

All the manufacturers, not necessarily.

376

Automative or not, most of them are family businesses and you need to understand that when

you do your product, you know, so if you're trying to break that chain, you actually are

377

shooting in your own leg.

378

So when I realized that I said, well, I need to make sure I support that chain, not

disrupt it.

379

Right.

380

So, uh, on the factory side, we just creating more and more opportunities for them to get

the right data.

381

Uh, and also a kind of like side effect because for me, um, it's never was about money.

382

And I said, you know, can I help every single person who wants to do something in the car

business, start their own business tomorrow with no money.

383

And I think that's also our platform can do because today if you have just a little bit

skills, you can put some idea online and, uh, you know, see how it performs.

384

And if it performs really well, you can come to our platform to the manufacturer and say,

well, I have this beautiful part I designed and it performs really well.

385

How about we will manufacture that.

386

license it out or have you have you seen people doing that if within your community where

387

Yes.

388

really?

389

Yes.

390

I'm doing it myself.

391

Yeah.

392

I did myself with our design house, you know, because we produce custom Porsches, but not

just that, but also some car parts for Porsche 911 and some, you know, classical muscle

393

cars.

394

And sometimes I test them out at the, you know, at the platform and see how it performs.

395

If it performs well, time to manufacture.

396

Time to make that.

397

that sounds like it.

398

So you've got a lot going on because you've created the platform, the tool to do this.

399

You've created a library of all the parts.

400

You're now creating some of your own parts.

401

And you've got, you said, Mods TV and a, what is it, a sports car film festival, you said.

402

So when did you realize that community really is the product or one of the products that

you're selling?

403

Because it's not just the platform anymore.

404

Now it's...

405

You're really talking at a community level.

406

I think when there was a moment when I just create, what I created was just a tool.

407

It was just a tool uh just to avoid any silly mistakes and waste a lot of money.

408

And so your wife didn't come out and make any comments about the car and the driveway

anymore.

409

Not just that, she almost left me, you know, this pile of parts.

410

She said, what I'm leaving at the garbage, at the junkyard, what's going on here?

411

Right.

412

um And, you know, I realized what people want to share with each other, their own

experience, and they want a lot of validation from the community.

413

And they want to make right decisions.

414

uh When they making something and they putting something together.

415

You know, they kind of like, they want a lot of validation from the community or whatever

they do in the car.

416

when I realized that, said, well, I need to give the community the ability to do so.

417

And that's, you know, why that's built into that.

418

You'll create the digital build and publish it and see how it works.

419

It's kind of like demand means for the community.

420

Everyone says, well, this great build.

421

I like it.

422

So you're like,

423

Let me spend money because everyone will like what I just designed here, right?

424

You didn't design the 3D model, but you just put it together in a way what everyone

appreciates that, you know, it's kind of almost like, you know, everyone wants to be part

425

of the family.

426

Then another thing where they realized eh most kind of doing that.

427

uh When you buy a car and some of us go to some forums or Facebook groups and they say,

Hey,

428

I just bought the car.

429

Everyone welcome and so on.

430

You drove it a couple of years, you changed your mind and you bought another brand and

what you do, you do it again.

431

You're like, hey, I'm here with a new car.

432

Then I said, it's our audience, why it should be like that?

433

Because at the end of the day, the only difference in our community, did you do something

to your car?

434

Maybe you just put a little tiny sticker.

435

on your car, it's already modification, right?

436

So you don't need to change the high school, you know, in the middle of the year and just

meet the strangers.

437

There are no strangers.

438

There's people you can be along the way the entire your life if you want to.

439

So that started to put the roots, you know, where the community that's the only thing and

I think kind of in a way I was building all my life because

440

video games uh at the scale of millions of users, it is actually communities.

441

from my experience, think six people got married on some video game I built in real life.

442

And you know what I realized at that moment?

443

I grew up in a big family and it has positive and negative effects at the same time.

444

The positive effect, you don't need friends because you have so many siblings.

445

You will never ever have so many friends as you your siblings.

446

How many siblings did you have by the way?

447

More than 10.

448

okay.

449

I come from seven siblings and I thought that was big, but you got me beat.

450

Well, we're on the same page.

451

uh And then the downside, as you and me know, everyone grows up and they're getting their

own families and their own kids.

452

And you kind of, not like alone, but you're of like, you you're not surrounded by that

noise.

453

And you know what I realized?

454

Subconsciously, I was trying to recreate

455

that family doesn't matter.

456

This is probably I built like employee owned companies all my life.

457

And this is why I look at the communities.

458

To be honest with you, video games 20 years ago, we were making enormous amount of money.

459

We had enormous amount of users.

460

But if you ask me today, what do I remember from that time?

461

The only thing I really remember with these six people got married with each other in real

life.

462

whatever I did back then,

463

change the life of those six people, hopefully for good.

464

Yeah, so and I think here's kind of again, when, you know, for me, it's almost like a

family in a way I'm trying to rebuild family.

465

I just thought about that.

466

I thought about our, uh you know, uh podcast today.

467

And when I thought about I came to that conclusion with what exactly I'm doing, I

literally rebuilt in my family, again and again, it doesn't work.

468

But

469

I love this.

470

It's a different layer to the conversation that I didn't realize we were going to be

talking about today.

471

uh You had mentioned community, but I guess I didn't understand the impact of it.

472

Do you think this is what draws you to the aftermarket car modification to that community?

473

it's kind of a, I won't say that I'm a part of it because I have never done many

modifications to any of my vehicles.

474

although I do like vehicles, especially fast ones.

475

do you, like the car community, I watch friends and they go to car shows and they're like

drive their cars, you know, a hundred miles down the freeway just to be in you know, in a,

476

well, I don't even know what you would call it, to go out on a Saturday drive together and

to be a part of the community or.

477

Like, and when you start to think, and I've dealt with innovators and creative people, my

entire professional career, helping inventors patent stuff specifically a lot.

478

And I think, well, you've got this, like this community that loves cars, their lives kind

of are centralized around the freedom that the cars give them.

479

But then the added aspect is they're creators too, right?

480

They're not just buying and driving, they're buying and

481

creating the vehicle or the environment or the, you know, maybe the trophy that they want

to show their friends.

482

Like they're creators in addition to enthusiasts.

483

And that adds, I think, whole added level to the aspect of community.

484

You're right.

485

It's a self expression in a way.

486

Yeah.

487

So think about that.

488

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

489

Well, I want to bring this back because I don't know if we, want to hear what happened

because we started off talking about how you, the second or third year, whenever it was

490

that you went to SEMA or you you actually made a car and took it to SEMA with you.

491

One that you didn't have the first time you showed up, but still had a lot of success.

492

How was that different the year that you took your vehicle and people are saying, who's

the manufacturer?

493

First we almost killed ourselves on the way from Florida to Vegas many, many times because

we never drove any trailers or anything.

494

We met deers and different animals.

495

It was kind of terrifying experience.

496

the car that you built.

497

no, we, you know, I bought that time I bought a vehicle to pull and the trailer, we load

it all fast went together.

498

I think my wife was, you know, we were trying to finish it right before Sima.

499

And, you know, it's never it's never enough time to do things.

500

And I think I didn't sleep like five days before Sima like literally didn't sleep.

501

And then I sat down and that giant truck

502

and I'm driving, think my wife, some of my friends already dead laying oh on the bench.

503

And I think I dropped 30 meters and I said, you know, wife, if I'll drive any further,

think I will fall asleep, of us will die.

504

And she's like, let me take their wheel.

505

She's a very tiny person, but you know, she just jumped in.

506

And I think I woke up somewhere in Texas, you know, and it was like,

507

12 hours she drove non-stop.

508

And I think when I woke up, I woke up, what I see, it's absolutely night.

509

I didn't know where I am.

510

Our gas almost zero.

511

And I think we have a deer in front of us.

512

And the truck, giant truck on the left.

513

And I think we're like flying to the right side.

514

She's flying to the right side.

515

The truck, the giant truck, you know, like, luckily didn't kick us otherwise we would die.

516

A giant jumps to the left.

517

I the giant truck, I don't know how did he stop.

518

And we cannot even stop because if we will stop, someone will hit us behind us.

519

So we, I think we stopped half mile away and then we had to walk back just to make sure

the guy who was driving the truck was alive and totally fine.

520

luckily Deere survived.

521

The truck driver also was alright.

522

Even his car didn't get hurt.

523

But yeah, it was quite the experience.

524

But when we went there, I just didn't expect that much attention.

525

I felt like, OK, well, everyone going to take a picture.

526

And this was the expectation.

527

Everyone going to take a picture.

528

just fit in everybody else has cars.

529

It'll just.

530

Everyone takes pictures, maybe we'll end it up.

531

My top goal was like, if it ended up on some podcast, there some car enthusiasts, that

would be super cool.

532

But it was kind of like, not for business purposes, just for fun purposes.

533

And just when we went there, when people start to ask who manufactured that, we kind of

got confused on what to do.

534

Then we got that not because they see what goes like three, four days.

535

We got back to the hotel that night and I got sad guys, we need to create a brand right

now, not tomorrow, right now.

536

And until we're done, we should not even get up.

537

So we sat on our computers and we had such a terrible hotel, but that hotel had a printer.

538

So we figured out the name within probably one hour.

539

We figured out the name, then we made the website and by the, I think it was five o'clock

in the morning.

540

We're like, all right, we have a name, we have a website landing page, we have some

pictures there.

541

Let's print out, because we didn't have any logotype.

542

So we went to the lobby, we printed out logotype and literally used the scissors to cut

out that little logotype and stick it in the car in the morning.

543

And next morning, we just had people coming in asking who manufactured that, what's the

company making these cars?

544

And we just start to...

545

You know, get pre-orders.

546

And that's how it happened.

547

Kind of crazy, but...

548

Pre- Yeah.

549

for your...

550

So you built this as like a display car and took it there and now people want to order it.

551

So did you actually sell cars?

552

Did you actually end up making?

553

my gosh.

554

So much in this story,

555

I never expected that.

556

It never was the plan.

557

It just was very strange asset.

558

you know, looking back, as I mentioned before, it's a little bit easier to understand for

the architect.

559

You don't design the wall, you design the entire composition.

560

I applied the same rules to the cars.

561

And that's the major

562

problem that the custom shops and people who come to SEMA, they create amazing part, like

amazing bumper, amazing spoiler, whatever.

563

And then they put it together and it's sometimes looks beautiful, but it looks random.

564

Nothing random was about this car.

565

uh And I think people, they might not be able to express it, but they feel it.

566

And I think that was the...

567

you know, the difference.

568

And yeah, it's kind of surprise, but you know, I like cars, so it was good anyways.

569

That's fantastic.

570

man, so many questions are flooding through my mind, but they might be my questions, not

necessarily questions the audience wants to hear.

571

man, this has been fascinating, Pete.

572

I really appreciate you sharing all this.

573

And I can see that there's so much more that we haven't talked about, but maybe need to

reconnect for another episode in the future as you continue to grow.

574

uh people who are on a journey like yours.

575

They've got the sleepless nights.

576

They've got the last minute logo design or website design.

577

They've got, you know, these, uh background that's unique, an architectural background,

and they're bringing it into a different industry like cars.

578

Like, like for people who are, who feel, you know, some relationship to your story and

they say, I feel like I'm, I feel like I'm a little bit like Pete.

579

Like what would be.

580

a lesson that you've learned along the way that you would hope to share with them and save

them maybe some of the strain about learning that lesson on their own.

581

Whatever you want to do, do today.

582

That's for sure.

583

Because there's a, you know, maybe it's a little bit generic, but that's absolutely true.

584

You're never going to be prepared.

585

You learn along the way.

586

So there's nothing wrong to train now.

587

ah Then don't stock because sometimes you make decisions and you know, sometimes they can

be wrong.

588

And that's okay.

589

And then you just look at them.

590

Just be light on that.

591

That's totally fine.

592

Because at the end, at the core, it's not a company.

593

Company is just a, it's literally letters printed out on the paper.

594

There is nothing else.

595

It's just people around in yourself.

596

So in the core of your company, you.

597

And because of that, you can retract at any time, whatever you do.

598

And it's totally normal.

599

And because in all my experience of building all the startups, I had to change something.

600

Sometimes entirely.

601

So I think that's really important to be able to just retract and do something else.

602

I think also be open for an opportunity because sometimes just things happen and you need

to act quickly.

603

Like we've the printer printing a little tiny piece of paper on the car.

604

We never expected that.

605

And when we seen the opportunity, we're like, why would we waste it?

606

Yeah.

607

And we acted quickly and it worked out.

608

It could maybe not work out, but it did.

609

So I would say, act today.

610

That's probably the most important.

611

I love that.

612

I love that act today.

613

Very timely advice for everybody who's building a business.

614

Pete, this has been fantastic.

615

It really has.

616

I've really enjoyed it.

617

And again, I've got so many intriguing questions that maybe I'll have to ask you offline

at some point.

618

But for coming on the show, I just want to say thank you very much.

619

This has been a fascinating conversation, but also I think a really helpful one for our

listeners to hear.

620

uh the journey that you've been on and some of the obstacles that you've dealt with and

the, think, maybe unique approach to finding solutions to those problems.

621

think that's something our audience can take away from this episode.

622

Beautiful.

623

Thank you so much for having me today, Jeff.

624

It was my definite pleasure.

625

has been a pleasure.

626

Thank you so much.

627

And thanks to our audience for joining us again on another episode of the breakout CEO

podcast.

628

sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.

629

And if you enjoy the show, a rating or a review goes a long way.

630

Our mission is to promote the stories of breakout CEOs in scaling SaaS, ecommerce and tech

companies to equip peer CEOs with valuable perspectives and confidence.

631

Thanks again for joining us on this episode of The Breakout CEO.

632

I'm Jeff Holman and I'll see you next time.