bcbusiness.ca october 2016 BCBusiness 41
A
rookie car salesman
with a knack for
building websites,
Cody Green had an
idea. Customers at the
Saskatoon Hyundai
dealership where he worked
were coming in to nd the
vehicle of their dreams—only
to discover that loan pay-
ments were higher than
they expected, or worse, that
they wouldn't be approved
for a loan at all. So Green,
then 24, decided to quit his
job, register the domain
Canadadrives.ca and start
cold calling dealerships to sell
them on his new online tool
that screens customers for
eligibility for nancing.
From those early days
in 2010, the business grew
rapidly; Green soon moved
operations from Saskatoon to
Vancouver and expanded his
team from a handful of web
marketers to 150 employees
in 18 months. These days,
Canada Drives uses its robust
online presence and advertis-
ing to draw consumers to its
website, where a question-
naire asks for basic nancial
information. Those leads are
then sold on to dealerships in
the customer's area.
That Green's technological
Cody Green
Founder and Co-CEO,
Canada drives
interest focused on the
automotive sector is hap-
penstance. At 19, living in
Edmonton and studying
music at Grant McEwan
College, Green had been
pitched on the idea of selling
cars by a friend. "I can't say
I was particularly passionate
about vehicles, but I enjoyed
interacting with people,"
he says. The auto industry
wasn't keeping up with digital
advertising, and the process
of purchasing a vehicle—78
per cent of Canadians nance
their purchase—was woe-
fully backward, he says. So
he moved into what was an
unoccupied space and built
a business. "It seemed like
the demand was there and
the timing was right for me to
step away and pursue this."
As co-
CEO (with Michael
Galpin) and 50 per cent
owner of Canada Drives
(along with a group of private
investors), Green has built
an outsourced nancing
department for auto dealer-
ships—providing marketing,
advertising and pre-screen-
ing for auto lots from Victoria
to Halifax. To date, 400,000
Canadians have used Canada
Drives, with the company
facilitating over $1.1-billion
worth of auto loans. But for
Green, who struck out on
his own in his early 20s and
never completed his degree,
it was never a sure thing. "I
think that any entrepreneur
who says there isn't some
element of self-doubt is lying
to themselves," he says. "I
am always pushing forward
to see what's new—and I've
always thought I could make
up for any lack of knowledge
in hard work." — J.P.
