CARY, N.C. -

A nearly 50-year-old Corvette may be part of the reason Jeremy Anspach is in the car business today.

“I'm a Detroit native who grew up loving cars. Before I was born, my father bought a 1967 Marina Blue big block 435HP Corvette Coupe. That car is still in the family and is one of the things that inspired my curiosity and appreciation for the car business,” said Anspach, the 33-year-old chief executive officer of PureCars.

“Until leaving Detroit and moving to Charleston, I had no idea the car business wasn’t the only business in America. In Detroit, cars run through people’s blood and that energy definitely helped fuel my career,” he said.

“But I think what really made PureCars happen was my desire to drive every car made, from the time I got my learner’s permit and my driver’s license. I drove everything from a Civic to a Turbo Porsche and from that I learned how broken the online experience was,” Anspach said. “That realization fueled my interest in pursuing ways to help the car business with the use of cutting-edge technology.”

Helping the car business is part of what makes Anspach proud. That, and the development of PureCars and its team over the past nine years.

“I’m proud of founding a company that has helped thousands of dealers and millions of car shoppers. Our tech is what gives us a competitive advantage, but that tech is nothing without great people. The people we have, the culture that we have created, and the success of the team as a whole is what makes me most proud of my career,” he said.

“It’s an amazing feeling to see something develop from just an idea in 2007 to an industry-leading solution and company in 2016 that consistently wins awards, receives dealer praise and, most importantly, gets incredible employee satisfaction ratings,” Anspach said.

He said he admires people who meet an industry need and grow “businesses from scratch.”

Anspach said: “I really like focusing on late adopters because I find them to often be ‘fix-it’ people who noticed a structural crack in an industry, technology or process and went after fixing it. Steve Jobs comes to mind, for example. The music business wasn’t broken. I had a Walkman, but Jobs knew it could be better and then made the iPod a massive success. Innovators are always inspirational to me, but I think the people that I admire the most are the ones who realize that taking care of their employees, families and communities matter most.”

 

Jeremy Anspach, 33, is the chief executive officer of PureCars.

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