Introducing: Clutsh Network
Clutsh is a new site and a new company founded on the idea that buying a car is an unfair proposition. Every 8 years (on average), people dedicate their free time hunting the entire internet for the right car for them and their family. In those 8 years between purchasing your last and getting ready to purchase your next car, you might as well throw all the shit from that last search right out and start all over. There are new models, new sites, new regulations, new tax incentives, hell maybe even whole new drive-train types and entirely new car companies since last time.
After you fight the internet, sift through the legitimate information from the trolls, and you narrow down your hunt to a few specific models, well, now you have to start talking to car sales people and dealerships, which consistently rank among the least trusted professions. Now you are in a whole new fight, a hurricane of terminology and pushy tactics being thrown at by a team of people who do this professionally... and they didn't have that 8-year gap. They do this every day.
After all that, you go to battle with the sales team and the finance team, hoping you didn't get taken for a ride and that the car you just bought is going to be everything they assured you it would be. But every car, over an 8-year ownership period, will need something, even those EVs that promise a "maintenance-free" existence. Wear items like tires, brakes, shocks, springs, bushings, and the like all will wear with time. Now, for the next 8 years, you have to figure out who you trust to do the work on your car.
Which shop will give you a fair deal for parts and labor?
Which shop will best protect and respect your investment?
Which detailer could you call to shine up your pride and joy?
Which tint guy in your town will use the good tint and not charge you crazy prices?
What if you decided to buy an ugly car like the Cybertruck and you need to get that thing wrapped quick? Which wrap shop does it right?
This is where car ownership starts to suck, and I think this is where a resource like Clutsh Network can help.
The Idea: A Curated Directory of Top-Notch Auto Shops
Here's the idea: We curate and build a directory of only the best shops and vendors in your area. We carefully vet each one before they are added.
How is this different from a Google search? I can tell you from experience those Google ratings are just a starting point. I went through multiple detailers that were all "highly rated" before I found one that treated my cars like I treat them. I owned a Saab that was a maintenance nightmare, and I happened upon a garage in my town that specialized in them - not many people own Saabs, and not many of those people are filling out Google reviews, so they were not as obvious and easy to find as you might assume. Clutsh can help surface the right people, not just the ones with a flashy site or a team of relatives that front-load the reviews to skew the results.
How It Will Work
Once added to the Clutsh Network, we will create a landing page for each business. This page will be created in collaboration with the business, with the foundational principles of transparency and trust are... you know, the foundation. Over time, we will continue to build, add vendors and regions, and grow the network to benefit both the shops listed and the car owners that what their ownership experience to suck less.
Where We're At Now (and How You Can Help)
This is early days, not just with the Network, but with Clutsh in general, so patience will be required. That said, something like this doesn't launch fully loaded and ready to provide value day one. If this is to ever go anywhere, I will need help gathering shops that kick ass.
Today, we're open for suggestions! Know a shop that deserves to be on the list? Do you own a shop that you think fits the bill?
A Note on Transparency (and Monetization)
I don't know if this is a smart thing to do, but I worry about Clutsh not being transparent enough around big ideas like this, so I want to be really candid about monetization plans. Here is where my head is at right now:
I want this resource to be valuable to as many people and to as many businesses as possible, so placing something like this behind a paywall is my least favorite option. I want to make sure this is a free-to-use directory of kick-ass shops making car ownership suck less.
One of the things I hate right now about other resources that exist, including Google, is allowing businesses to purchase better rankings. It's a legitimate way to build valuation and increase income, but it makes people trust the resource less over time, and one thing the car industry does not need is less trust. I want Clutsh, including the Clutsh Network, to be the real deal. We present the facts and do all we can to increase transparency. To that end, I am not a fan of being paid to say nice things or post businesses that I don't feel fit the mold either.
If a paywall is not my favorite, and being paid to stack-rank businesses is out... how would we monetize this and stay afloat long-term? I believe this can be best approached as a symbiotic service we provide: Clutsh has users looking for a good shop, and good shops are looking for customers. More to come on the exact details as they get ironed out, but I want to be clear from the jump that what we do is not motivated by anything other than improving the car ownership experience.
Let's Build Something Great
Okay, that is a lot. Since the product has yet to launch, I will save more details for a later date. Right now, I need names of good shops! Follow the link above to either add your shop to the list or suggest one that we should reach out to and convince.
