Ernie Garcia is celebrating a Fortune…
The 35-year-old Latino business executive and entrepreneur has been named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list, alongside his partners Ryan Keeton and Ben Huston.
Garcia is the CEO and co-founder of Phoenix-based Carvana, Arizona’s fastest-growing company, which is disrupting the car-buying industry.
Carvana, which launched in January 2013, and is the first complete online car-buying service, handling the process from valuing trade-ins, warranties, to online contracts and delivery.
Garcia was working at an auto-financing company when he saw an opportunity in updating the car-buying experience that was “so big and so clear” he jumped.
Three years after spinning out of DriveTime, Garcia, along with cofounders Huston and Keeton, have turned Carvana into a publicly traded company valued at more than $2 billion.
This self-described “Amazon of cars” now has 1,375 employees and operates in 33 U.S. markets—a fourfold increase in less than two years.
“We wanted to reduce costs, give customers more information, build a rich website experience and have a brand of transparency,” said Garcia in a previous interview. “I think what we provide is a unique customer experience that taps into the demand that’s been present from unsatisfied car buyers for a long time. Customers want to buy cars online easier.”
Carvana was named as one of the Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America by Entrepreneur’s 2016 Entrepreneur 360 list.
