NEW YORK -

Vroom chief executive officer Allon Bloch was talking about the reconditioning software and processes of Texas Direct Auto when he paused mid-sentence.

“I’m just going to kind of geek out for a second just to explain to you how it works,” Bloch said.

He then described the steps TDA takes between acquiring a vehicle and having it ready for retail or wholesale distribution. As part of reconditioning process, he explained, each car’s to-do list gets uploaded into an RFID chip, which allows for an automated recon process to facilitate greater speed.

And that is pivotal to the online model at the heart of both Vroom and Texas Direct Auto.

So, you can see where his enthusiasm is warranted.

“Speed is really important. You want to get the car online really quickly, and you want to be able to sell the car really quickly, but you need to make sure that the (job) is done really well,” he said, emphasizing the dual-importance of quickness and quality. “So, they’ve created software to manage that, manage the workflow and manage the different teams.”

Vroom announced Wednesday morning that it had agreed to purchase Texas Direct Auto, and the deal gained approval from the Department of Justice that afternoon, according to the company.

Bloch describes TDA’s production line as a “used-car factory” that he said has not been built to the same scale elsewhere in the industry. 

And this is only part of the tech-savviness that has Bloch and his team impressed.

“Texas Direct Auto has led online car retailing and their team shares our business spirit of making buying and selling cars online the smartest and easiest way to transact, with an experience that is transparent and fun,” Vroom chairman Elie Wurtman said in the news release announcing the deal Wednesday.

“The continued investment in technology allows the combined company to tackle the operational complexity of making this vision a reality,” Wurtman added. “Millions of people who want to sell their cars or purchase new ones will be able to do it in a more efficient and empowering way that’s as easy as any other e-commerce transaction.”

And with TDA being described as tech-focused and early adopters of online retailing, perhaps it makes total sense that this Houston-based outfit was founded by two former owners of a software business.

Tech entrepreneurs Mike Welch and Rick Williams sold their software company before starting Texas Direct Auto in 2002 — out of a warehouse, no less.

“What we brought to the car business is that we did not know anything about the car business,” Welch said with a laugh. “We basically taught it to ourselves from the ground up.

“I don’t know if either of us are qualified to work at a car dealership, but over the last 14 years we’ve managed to grow this thing to sell about 3,000 cars a month out of this location in Southwest Houston,” Welch added.  

From the get-go, Williams said, the company has been rooted in technology.  

He also points out that TDA was  started around the same time that other technologies we now consider everyday amenities were emerging: the availability of high-speed Internet in people’s homes, consumer-grade digital cameras and e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon.com that were picking up some momentum.

“So, people were actually starting to think about selling products and buying products on the Internet,” Williams said. “We just thought, ‘Cars are an interesting place to start, nobody’s doing cars. Maybe you can sell cars on the Internet.’

“And my mother was absolutely certain that no one would ever buy a car on the Internet,” he said. “But we thought at that time that there was no one else, really, in that space doing it consistently and doing it well, and we thought we could leverage our technology background and start using technology to put cars on the Internet for sale.”

So far, that plan appears to be paying off for Texas Direct Auto. But the combined entities have their sights set even higher: cars shipped, throughout the U.S., within 48 hours after the customer buys.

Bringing in a company like TDA, which has the software and reconditioning/fulfilment know-how, should help.