Great start-ups aren’t built on marginal improvements. They’re built on asymmetric advantages—insights, technologies, or approaches that create exponential rather than linear returns. Unfair Advantage tells the stories of founders who aren’t just participating in markets, but reshaping them entirely. In this series, we dive deep into the unconventional strategies and unique insights that transformed their industries.
In the automotive retail space, where digitalization is often seen as a series of incremental updates, Sorin and Felicia Bârsan, the founders of Sales Partner, took a radically different approach. By building an API-first platform that seamlessly integrates AI with physical operations, they’re transforming how dealerships sell cars—reducing the entire sales process from days to minutes. Their story exemplifies how combining deep industry expertise with technological innovation can reshape an entire market.
1. What’s the most contrarian belief you hold about your industry that other smart people disagree with?
Most people in the automotive industry believe digitalization is merely an addition of isolated processes, where technology is integrated into specific tasks—publishing ads with pictures on a website, sending offers via email or WhatsApp, configuring a car in a digital tool, etc. The assumption is that dealerships and OEMs can slowly integrate digital tools while maintaining their traditional ways of selling.
We disagree. Like in any other industry, the transformation should follow a ground-up hybrid approach, where the physical world interacts seamlessly with a digital framework. It’s an entire process built like Lego pieces, combining both digital and physical elements.
The future of automotive retail will be a fully API-driven ecosystem, where microservices integrate with physical operations, and AI becomes a personal assistant for sales teams. This allows salespeople to spend more time engaging with customers, asking the right questions, and providing tailored solutions—similar to how Jarvis helps Tony Stark become Iron Man. The person remains at the center of the process, but AI-powered agents handle everything that can be automated in the background.
Some might call this an “unfair advantage”, as those who embrace connected technology will have a clear edge over those who rely solely on traditional skills. But this isn’t unique to automotive—it’s the inevitable evolution of every industry.
2. What market signal made you absolutely certain this was the right time for your solution?
All accelerators and the startup industry emphasize the importance of identifying and solving a real market problem. Our journey started with Business Intelligence and consulting services, where we had to deep dive into automotive data and saw the flaws in existing processes and systems. That’s when we realized it was time for a truly connected and integrated approach—which led to the creation of Sales Partner.
Sales Partner is called an All-in-One solution for automotive because it bridges the gaps in car sales and after-sales (repairs and services)—both of which have remained highly customer-experience-driven and traditionally structured for decades.
We also happened to hit the perfect moment—we launched Sales Partner just before the pandemic, and when lockdowns began our users were able to seamlessly operate remotely and securely from anywhere, while the traditional approach of working from an office became increasingly difficult to manage.
3. If your biggest competitor acquired you tomorrow, what would they gain that they couldn’t build themselves?
Our biggest moat is the solution itself—an API-driven infrastructure with AI integration, specifically designed for automotive by people from the industry, built on the best existing technology by a highly skilled team with backgrounds in finance, banking, automotive, and tech. We are a team that was born with technology in hand, but also one that includes experienced sales professionals who have sold hundreds of cars. We fuel all of this with great enthusiasm and a shared belief that we can change the industry.
Additionally, coming from a serial entrepreneurship background has given us a clear mission and the discipline to build Sales Partner with purpose.
But it’s not just about technology—our moat is a combination of knowledge, experience, team dynamics, and the unique ways we integrate new members into our fast-moving ecosystem. We call this our 3Ts approach—Time, Tech, and Team—and this is what truly sets us apart.
4. Tell us about a key metric that surprised you – what did you learn from it?
We were surprised to see that smaller dealerships with fewer sales reps adopted our platform extremely fast, with an implementation time of less than one week. Initially, we expected larger players to move first, but it turned out that smaller teams value automation more because they lack the resources for a fully digital sales framework. This insight changed our sales approach—we started by focusing on agile dealerships first, proving our model before scaling up to larger enterprises.
We are also proud of our ability to automate and reduce the time it takes to sell a car—from customer interest to delivery in under 10 minutes. This includes:
- Lead allocation
- Offer generation
- Applying commercial policies
- Digital contract signing
- Document issuanceBank payment confirmation (integration)
- Car ordering
- GDPR compliance (electronically processed)
- Automated checks (PDI, approvals, financial verifications, etc.)
We achieved this by carefully listening to our customers’ pain points and relentlessly searching for the best ways to solve them.
5. What’s a decision you made that looked like a mistake at first but proved right 6 – 12 months later?
We built Sales Partner as an API-based, all-in-one solution, unlike the monolithic systems that dominate the industry. This approach was more challenging at first because it required more time to get the initial solution running compared to a traditional, more classical setup. However, once in place, it allowed us to seamlessly connect with any system—giving us unmatched flexibility and scalability.
Now, the biggest advantage is that we were AI-ready from the very beginning—even before we fully realized it. We incorporated Sales Partner – the Company – just one month before ChatGPT was launched, and looking back, it feels like we were building for the future without even knowing how fast it would arrive.
6. Which growth lever are you most excited about that isn’t obvious to outsiders?
When focusing on a specific direction, it’s much easier to achieve better and faster results. From the beginning, we aimed to make connectivity and integration as seamless as possible. That’s why when we first integrated AI into Sales Partner, the actual implementation took less than a day.
In that time, we built a working AI-powered feature that could automatically add a car to stock or open a service work order in under 20 seconds. This was possible because of our 3T philosophy (Time, Tech, Team), our commitment to making Sales Partner a fast and efficient platform, and the fact that today’s technology allows us to turn ideas into real-life features almost instantly.
7. What’s the hardest decision you’ve had to reverse, and how did you manage that transition?
Probably the hardest decision we had to make was rewriting our code from the ground up once AI emerged, to ensure our technology was fully prepared for the AI era. It wasn’t an easy choice, especially after we already had a working solution, but in hindsight, it was one of the best things that could have happened to us.
This challenge pushed our limits, tested what we were truly made of, and helped consolidate our team—especially in terms of integrating new members quickly. As anyone in the industry knows, it’s not always easy to tell highly skilled developers that after months of work, “Hey, we need to do it better!”
But we took inspiration from Tesla, which rewrote its own software to survive the global chip shortage. We did the same—not because we had to, but because we wanted to be ready for what’s next.
8. Describe a crisis moment that reshaped how you think about the business
In the beginning, we were a startup working with big players in a well-established industry, which meant we had to do three times more than our competitors just to survive. We weren’t just competing—we were fighting to deliver faster and better, all while operating with very limited resources.
At times, we even heard things like, “You know, we all thought you wouldn’t survive long enough to finish the project.” But instead of discouraging us, it fueled our motivation. After months of pushing forward, we saw some of our biggest skeptics turn into our strongest supporters. They realized that our goal was not just to disrupt, but to genuinely improve the industry—even if that change wasn’t immediately visible to them.
It’s like having the solution right in front of you, but you need to go through the full process before you can truly see the impact. And the truth is, 99.99% is still not 100%—there’s always room to grow, improve, and innovate.
9. What’s something you’ve built into your company culture that initially seemed inefficient but has paid off significantly?
When we hire people, we focus on finding the right character fit for our team and aligning with our 3T values (Time, Tech, Team). Most of the time, it’s difficult to find someone who has both experience and the right mindset, so we prefer to hire for potential and train them.
Of course, this requires time, effort, and a lot of patience—something customers and investors don’t always have. It’s understandable; no one wants to wait too long or spend too many resources before seeing results, so we had to adapt.
Our approach was to work in parallel: while we were training the team, we made sure our technology was intuitive and easy to use. The idea was to make Sales Partner as understandable and structured as possible, so new team members could quickly grasp the system.
Think of it like giving a 6 to 9-year-old kid a Lego set—they start with hundreds of small, separate pieces, but with the right instructions and structure, they can assemble something functional. We built Sales Partner the same way—always validating with business users first to ensure that our team could then build the right “Lego pieces” (our APIs) into a fully functional software solution.
10. What will it take for your solution to become the industry standard in 5 years?
Over the past 12 months, we’ve had countless conversations with industry leaders about the challenges facing the automotive sector today. The industry is at a turning point—while the world is more connected than ever, it is also more fragmented. OEMs, importers, and dealerships are struggling with rising costs, complex regulations, increasingly informed and demanding customers, and economic uncertainty.
We believe change happens when industries face major disruptions, and now is the time for automotive retail to transform. Sales Partner is more than just a solution—it’s a technology that connects the entire ecosystem, enabling seamless operations while allowing businesses to focus on what they do best.
With the rapid rise of AI and automation, Sales Partner has the potential to become the Digital Framework for Automotive Retail—integrating OEMs, importers, dealers, and end customers into a fully connected and intelligent sales infrastructure. We are actively engaging with OEMs, their importers, and local representatives to demonstrate how we can rapidly implement a scalable and effective digital environment that delivers tangible results from day one.
Becoming the industry standard in the next five years will require strong partnerships, bold decision-making, and a commitment to driving real change—and we’re ready to lead that transformation.
11. Which adjacent market opportunity excites you most once you’ve dominated your current focus?
Fleet sales and leasing is a major opportunity. Right now, the process of acquiring, financing, and managing fleets is highly fragmented. Dealerships and service repair centers still operate in a traditional way, often leading to lost information that needs to be manually retransmitted via phone, email, or other disconnected channels.
We designed Sales Partner to seamlessly integrate different workflows around both cars and customers, making it easier to connect the entire ecosystem. Given this flexibility, we see new business lines emerging within our platform soon—further expanding its capabilities.
12. What capability are you building now that will become your biggest competitive advantage at scale?
Let’s say we launch a new AI product based on Sales Partner this year—one that we believe has the potential to transform the automotive industry forever.
13. How has your definition of product-market fit evolved since your last funding round?
Initially, we thought product-market fit simply meant dealerships adopting our platform. However, as we evolved, we started working more closely with OEMs and importers and have now begun discussions with independent repair shops.
The industry is in urgent need of a truly connected solution. With the rise of Digital Finance Frameworks, digital identity, eGovernment services, eInvoicing, and increasing cyber threats, industry players must adopt turnkey solutions that seamlessly integrate with the evolving digital landscape. Businesses need tools that simplify operations, enhance security, and improve customer experience—especially as customer expectations rise, and leaving online reviews has never been easier.
At the same time, AI is growing at an unprecedented rate, reshaping how businesses operate. We need to acknowledge that this is no longer the future—it’s the present. Our next generation is already using AI intuitively, and as an industry, we must embrace and leverage it to stay ahead.
Sales Partner is not just about digitalization; it’s about future-proofing the automotive ecosystem by enabling businesses to stay connected, efficient, and ready for the next era of mobility.
14. What convinced your first enterprise customer to take a chance on a startup?
Convincing the first enterprise customer is always a challenge, but for us, it came down to how we worked, not just what we built. What made the difference was our ability to deliver quick results and respond rapidly to challenges. When problems arose (as they always do in a startup), we embraced a trial-and-error approach, but we made sure to fix almost everything within 1-2 days—minimizing any impact on the customer’s operations and, more importantly, on their customers.
Beyond the technology, what truly convinced them was our commitment to their success. We weren’t just providing a tool; we were an extension of their team, ensuring that our solution worked seamlessly in their real-world environment.
For any startup, the key is finding a visionary decision-maker—someone willing to take a calculated risk and believe in the potential of what you’re building. It’s never easy to break the ice, but once you do, you learn, improve, and ultimately become better and stronger.
15. Which metrics do you watch obsessively that others in your space might be ignoring?
We closely track several key metrics that others in our space might overlook, but three stand out as game-changers:
- Lead-to-Customer Conversion – Lead management is the most critical process in automotive retail. Turning a lead into a paying customer requires constant adaptation—both in technology and business strategy. We’ve been laser-focused on optimizing this process, frequently adjusting our code and business logic in real time to maximize conversion rates.
- Market Behavior & Brand Performance – We don’t just track sales numbers; we analyze which car brands are gaining or losing market share—and why. Understanding these market shifts enables dealerships and importers to make smarter, data-driven decisions about inventory, pricing, and strategy.
- Operational Efficiency & Automation – We apply the 90/10 rule: identifying the 10% of tasks that consume 90% of operational time and evaluating whether they can be automated. If automation is feasible, we assess the cost vs. benefit to ensure it delivers measurable value and real impact.
By obsessively tracking over these metrics, we’re not just improving our platform—we’re helping our customers run more profitable, efficient, and future-proof businesses.