The trade school this business never had.

I'm Will. I've spent 16 years in automotive retail. I sold cars for a year, got promoted into the box, and struggled there for the better part of a year and a half. Nobody trained me. I practiced on live customers, and the store paid that tuition. That struggle is the reason this academy exists.

I found my feet, made finance director, and built a team I'm still proud of. From there: regional finance director over 25 stores, a year as GSM, regional again over 12 stores when the territories were redrawn, another year and a half as GSM, and in September 2019 the GM chair. I ran three stores back to back until March 2026. Somewhere in the middle I graduated the NADA Academy. I'm not a YouTuber, and I've never filmed a course in a rented Airbnb.

Here's what those 16 years taught me: this business trains its people worse than any other industry that touches this much money. We hand a green pea a demo tag, point at the lot, and call it onboarding. The ones who survive learn on live customers, and the tuition for that education is paid in your gross and their pay plan.

Every other high-stakes profession gets a simulator. Pilots get the sim before the plane. Surgeons get the cadaver lab before the OR. Car people get "go take an up and try not to blow it."

So I built the simulator. An AI buyer that grinds payment, hides objections, lies about the other store's number, and grades every word out of your mouth. Wrapped around it: the curriculum I wish someone had handed me at year one, taught the way operators actually talk.

I priced it at $49 because the people who need it most are on a mini month. And I capped the founding class at 15 because I want the first members shaping what gets built, not just consuming it.

see you on the board. · Will