How This 992 GT3 RS Owner Built a Multi Million Exhaust Company At 19
Road To Success with Benedict Fowler
How This 992 GT3 RS Owner Built a Multi Million Exhaust Company At 19
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Part
straight pipe system
A straight pipe system is a type of exhaust that has no curves or restrictions. It helps the engine breathe better, which can make the car perform better.
Car
BMW 335
The BMW 335 is a model from the BMW 3 Series, which is a line of compact executive cars. It's known for being fun to drive and having a comfortable interior.
Car
Mclaren 720
The McLaren 720 is a supercar that is very fast and has a powerful engine. It's built for performance and is one of the top cars in its class.
Company
ValveTronic Designs
ValveTronic Designs makes exhaust systems for cars. Their goal is to improve how cars sound and perform with their exhaust products.
Car
Lamborghini Aventador
The Lamborghini Aventador is a very fast and expensive sports car made by Lamborghini. It's known for its powerful engine and unique looks.
Car
Ford F150S
The Ford F-150 is a big truck that's really popular in America. People use it for work, like hauling stuff, but also for fun activities like camping. It's well-known for being tough and reliable.
Car
BMW F80
The BMW M3 is a fast and sporty version of a regular BMW car. It's built for people who love to drive and want a car that feels exciting and powerful. It's known for its good looks and great performance.
Part
mid-pipe
The mid-pipe is a part of the car's exhaust system that helps direct exhaust gases from the engine to the back of the car. It can affect how the car sounds and performs.
Car
Bmw 6
The BMW 6 Series is a fancy car that is available as a coupe or convertible. The E63 is one version of this car that was made in the mid-2000s and is known for being stylish and powerful.
Car
BMW 335I
The BMW 3 Series is a smaller luxury car that's popular for being fun to drive. It has a nice interior and is good for everyday use, but also feels sporty. Many people like it because it balances comfort and performance well.
Term
modifications
Modifications are changes you make to a car to make it look or perform better. This can be anything from new wheels to a better engine.
Brand
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a famous car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars. They are known for their quality and advanced technology.
Part
suspension
The suspension is what keeps the car stable and comfortable while driving. Changing it can help the car handle better on the road.
Part
wheels
Wheels are the round parts that the tires go on. Changing them can make a car look better and sometimes help it drive better.
Part
downpipe
The downpipe is a part of the exhaust system that helps remove gases from the engine. Changing it can make the car run better and sound different.
Term
turbocharged
Turbocharging helps engines produce more power by pushing extra air into them. This makes cars faster and can improve fuel efficiency.
Term
secondary cats
Secondary cats are parts of the exhaust system that help clean the car's emissions. Some people remove them to make the car louder or improve performance.
Term
E9X
E9X is a code name for a series of BMW 3 Series cars made from 2006 to 2013, including the sedan, coupe, and convertible versions. They are popular for their sporty feel and good driving experience.
Part
exhaust system
The exhaust system is what helps remove the gases produced by the engine and makes the car quieter. It has different parts that work together to do this, and it can change how the car sounds and performs.
Part
Stoptech ST60 brakes
Stoptech ST60 brakes are special parts that help cars stop more effectively, especially when driving fast or on a racetrack.
Concept
arbitraging
Arbitraging means buying something for less money and then selling it for more, making a profit in the process.
Part
cat back
A cat back is a part of the exhaust system that starts from the catalytic converter and goes to the back of the car. Changing this part can make the car sound better and perform better.
Term
turbo spool
Turbo spool is when a turbocharger starts working to make the engine more powerful. The faster it works, the more power the engine can give you.
Term
equal length exhaust
An equal length exhaust means all the pipes that carry exhaust from the engine are the same length. This helps the engine run better and makes the sound smoother.
Term
equalized exhaust
When car exhaust pipes are the same length, it helps the engine produce a smoother sound. This is because the exhaust gases can flow out more evenly, making the car sound nicer.
Part
catalytic converters
Catalytic converters help clean the air by changing harmful gases from the engine into safer ones before they leave the car. They're important for reducing pollution.
Part
resonator
A resonator is part of the exhaust system that helps make the car sound better. It adjusts the noise so that it’s not too loud or harsh.
Car
Lamborghini Huracan
The Lamborghini Huracan is a really fast and flashy sports car from Italy. It's designed to look cool and drive super fast, making it a favorite among car lovers. People often talk about it because it's luxurious and exciting.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that's known for being really fun to drive. It has a unique shape and is built to be fast and handle well on the road. Many people dream of owning one because it's stylish and exciting.
Car
Ferrari F12
The Ferrari F12 Berlinetta is a super-fast sports car made by Ferrari. It's really powerful and looks amazing, making it a dream car for many people. It's built for speed and luxury, so it's very special.
Car
BMW G30
The BMW 5 Series is a comfortable and stylish car that's great for driving. It has a lot of space inside and comes with many high-tech features. People like it because it feels luxurious and is fun to drive.
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Austin!
Welcome back, everybody, to ValveTronics Design.
What has been your best experience?
Matt Armstrong is a big one, calls me up, hey man, we're doing this project.
I'm like, great, exhaust is on the way, man.
A full, straight pipe system from ValveTronics.
What you want is velocity, the more velocity you get, the higher pitch.
The company ran, it didn't run effectively, I was modifying and repairing the teacher's
cars on campus.
I ended up as a 16 year old having like $30,000 saved.
I didn't really have a clue where I was going to end up.
I sent the guy out his exhaustion, he wouldn't speak to me, he would just blast me on
Facebook.
He says that I lied to him.
The fact that I didn't communicate bit me in my ass.
The customer is not always correct, but your best way to get them to understand your perspective
is...
Austin, behind us, we have your 992 GT3 RS, and what a thing it is.
You know what's funny, you saying it right now, that was really good perspective because
I never sit and like really look at this car, and with the background now I'm
like, yeah, cool.
That is one thing, but in your teens if you didn't do you wouldn't have had this car now.
When I was 14, 15, my father was in construction and he would take me to the job site and
I would dig ditches with him and lay like a corrugated pipe for doing drainage and
such, and it was just the worst job ever.
When I was 16 and I finally got my license, okay, I was working for my father making
$15 an hour, doing construction work, cleaning up job site, just the worst work.
The thing is, is that taught me so much about the type of work that I didn't want to do,
but also the attitude that if anybody can do it, I can do it.
So it doesn't matter if it's shoveling a hole or building a multimillion dollar company,
if anybody can do it, I can do it.
That was always like the mentality that stuck with me because no risk, no Porsche, right?
They say that type of nomenclature really goes uncontested.
If you want the things, you have to make the sacrifices and what I was brought up on
is that mentality of if anybody can do it, I can do it and things need to be earned.
They are not given.
So that's kind of where this car spanned from.
You mentioned if you want the Porsche was like having a car, having your own supercar,
the driving force.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Did you just not want to do shoveling anymore?
It wasn't even the car thing, it was, I think I, okay, I think in our adolescent world,
we think about as car people, if we had a really cool car, how different would the
world view us?
Because I remember like, how cool would it be if I was like the popular kid and
I had the fancy car and I went to pick up the pretty girl for prom or whatever.
So my initial reaction was always cars, like if I had a cooler car, I'd be more cool.
Now I found out through my learnings and becoming an adult, that's not necessarily how it goes,
fortunately, but when I had my first car, which was a BMW 335, I was always chasing
the mods.
It's like, what's the next thing?
Okay, I like this.
I don't like that.
And through this automotive landscape, it's kind of a series of boxes to tick.
But before, I actually never even necessarily wanted this car, obviously people want the
car, but I had a McLaren 720 before this car and I had it, I really enjoyed it.
And I got a call on my birthday, my 25th birthday, and it was for a dealership that I had put
an allocation down four years ago, put $1,000 down to get a 992 GT3 touring allocation.
Didn't get the allocation for so long.
I ended up meeting the owners of the dealership at an event.
I said, hey, I've got, you guys have $1,000 of my money.
They said, really, for what?
And I said, it's for a GT3 touring.
Maybe I can buy it from you someday soon.
So that car, I never ended up getting it, but I got a call on my birthday when I
turned 25, and this car was, they said, we have one GT3 RS allocation.
Would you like it?
And I was like, can you give me five minutes to make a phone call?
And I called my friend Mills, who has the same car.
I was like, do I do it?
And he goes, are you an idiot?
I said, I don't think so.
And he goes, okay, goodbye, goodbye.
It hangs up the phone immediately.
And then I ordered the car and haven't looked back since.
And you've been able to do that through the success of your company.
Correct.
What is that business?
Give us a rundown of what it is, and then we're going to get into, like,
how on earth you managed to grow at.
Scaled.
So you're going to start at the beginning.
Like, we're at all kind of-
What is the compil-
Now, what is it like?
ValveTronic Designs is an automotive exhaust manufacturing company
with the objective of delivering the ultimate exhaust experience,
whether it's for Lamborghini Aventadors, your Porsche GT3 RSs,
or more traditional B&Ws and Dodge Rams and F-150s and such.
So a lot of companies, they specialize.
Most companies ultimately do.
And I wanted to take the ValveTronic ethos of being able to have
the best sound, whether it's the best flexibility,
because what does the best sound mean?
It's very different for this car than it is, like a BMW.
This car can be loud and crazy, but no valves,
because it's a more occasional use car.
But like for an F80 BMW, the best sound means equal length,
single mid-pipe configuration with valves.
That's the ultimate experience.
So our objective at ValveTronic is to deliver that ultimate experience
for product presentation, fitment, ultimate quality,
and just the sound perception of how good an exhaust system
can be per platform.
So that's what we do.
How did you know any of that, though, when you started?
So as you grew up in a completely different industry,
from the one that you talk so eloquently about,
so how does someone just start and then go up
to like a Lamborghini Aventador and be like,
I'm going to make you an exhaust?
And it's going to be the best one, yeah.
So that all stemmed from when I was like 13, 14, 15,
I was building the obsession, as we all did.
I was always watching like fab speed videos of exhaust
and learning about it.
And whenever my father would get, like he had a BMW 6 Series,
the, I can't remember the generation, E63 6 Series,
total lemon of a car, a void, convertible.
The drains weren't drilled in the trunk,
so all the water would sit in the electronics
and fried everything.
The windows would go up and down, top would go up and down,
another story for another time.
But he had this car and he wanted to make it louder.
So I was like, huh, like when you research
and figure out what we could do,
like he doesn't want it too loud
and there's the compromise, like do and do an X pipe.
So at like 13, 14, 15,
I was just learning about this stuff.
And I remember watching all the videos
of the car stray piped and I was like,
word like sounds crazy, dad do this.
And he's like, that's way too loud.
Like I don't want that.
So he ended up not even doing anything.
So it came from my just research and learning online
and looking at pictures on websites
about what the exhausts look like and such.
And it took me so much learning.
And now from like our full engineering team and such,
I still feel like I don't know anything.
I think we've done very, very well,
but everybody in the exhaust industry
that I've found like Alex Gentani and stuff,
these people have been in the industry
because they're real craftsmen.
I have everything to learn.
Like I always like to think
I'm the dumbest person in the room, always.
It's a great perspective
because then you can always learn something.
Every man is my superior and then I can learn from them.
So it's just constant learning.
That's where it came from.
Do you remember the first exhaust system you ever sold?
I think the first one was,
well, I don't remember the exact person that I sold it to.
Actually, you know what?
I think I do.
It was this guy named Stefan
who when I was a freshman at Lehigh University
where I went to school,
I built a 335I axle back.
It was like the first development unit
and he had a blue 2007 through 35 six-speed X-Drive,
like 160,000 miles, but it ran surprisingly.
And we put this exhaust on
and he was like so gung-ho, he was so excited.
And yeah, yeah, Stefan, I remember that
because he was a senior at the time
and I was a freshman.
I remember seeing the car around campus
and I was like, oh, like I wanna make it loud.
He goes, okay, cool.
What are we gonna do?
So yeah, that's kind of where it began.
That YouTube video is still live on the Valtranic page.
Like from six years ago, it's still live.
Do you think you naturally moved into BMWs
because that's what you learned
when you were looking at your dad's car?
So like taking that from your kind of slightly earlier years
of like, right, Dad, we're gonna do this.
You were destined to always kind of start with BMWs.
Well, I think probably
because the BMW world is so big
and it's so lustful for modifications.
There's carbon and wheels and suspension
and everything is relatively attainable.
Like Mercedes stuff, like for non-AMG cars
doesn't really exist.
It does, but it's not nearly as widespread.
At least it feels like to me.
I don't know what the UK market is necessarily like
for those parts, but I think because BMW
was the easiest pathway to get into it.
There's a lot of them.
They're relatively simple to make parts for
and that's probably where it began from is
I was in that world
and my other friends who I was growing up with
or excuse me, my friends who I had ended up meeting
through this first BMW that I got
who always ultimately became my car friends, Will
and Jackson being two of those people.
It was, we called ourselves the excellent motor vehicle crew.
And it was most of the best.
That sounds exactly what the cool kids would say.
Exactly.
I had to say, yeah, oh,
I don't know if they'd say that
because all the kids at my school, like in high school
were all jocks.
They were all like sports and stuff.
And I never got invited to those parties.
And so for me, my school,
my Catholic school that I went to
ended every day at like 1.45.
So I had the rest of the day to
go and try to make money or do stuff.
So I had so much free time
that that's ultimately helped me get started
in high school too about arbitrage and buying parts
and an interesting story is I was modifying
and repairing the teacher's cars on campus
at my school.
It's a fascinating landscape
because I built the trust.
They were like, oh, you know,
it seemed to know what you're talking about.
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What was it that you wanted to do
like before you started your exhaust company?
Like did you have like a trajectory
or a thing that you were on?
It's like, that's my path to this
or were you like totally lost?
I think I was totally lost.
I was like as a freshman.
And you know what?
It's funny you asked that
because I still think today I'm kind of like,
people have asked me what's next, right?
What's next?
What do you want to do next?
I love this business so much
and I love the industry.
And for me it's like,
I don't know necessarily where to go
from, I do other businesses
I'm involved in other automotive things
but when I look back on it,
I didn't have a direct path
because I was,
I went to school for engineering
went to Lehigh University for engineering
and after six months,
I actually switched out of engineering
and I went into like a supply chain
more business focused background.
Once I couldn't pass like
the really complicated calculus.
So I was like, I can't do this.
And ultimately too,
I found that the program that I was in,
I didn't have and necessarily like an attraction
to the stuff that I was doing,
the physics, the calculus, like,
I was like,
I think I had been put into a box
where I like math and science
but I like like exhaust math and science
like sounds and that sort of cool stuff
not necessarily numbers on a page.
So I didn't really have a clue
where I was going to end up
but then once I was a junior
and I started to see
what the possibilities for this company were,
I was like, all right,
like let's go full bore into the Valtronic thing
and I don't really want a real job.
So this is my way of having a good time
and being able to succeed.
So talk us about the story
of how you actually then started
like and it became a viable business.
Like it became something.
So when I was
the landscape kind of goes as follows.
I bought my first car when I was 16.
I had money because I was doing car detailing in the summers.
The only thing I would ever buy was airsoft guns with my money
but those I quickly disposed of
but I saved like every dollar.
I ended up as a 16 year old having like $30,000 saved
which was a huge amount of money to go buy a car.
Obviously I spent all of it
and I had no money to go modify anything.
So I was like, all right,
I got to dig ditches with my father
to be able to have some money
so I can do the downpipe and the suspension and the wheels
at this time though,
I didn't know anything about how to make the car better.
It was a 2012 automatic X-Drive 335 BMW.
So now when I look back at it,
I still see those cars and I'm like, ah, cool
but at the time it was very boring
because it was only fun if you went really fast
and that's obviously dangerous for a 16 year old.
So I had that car and then I sold it
and I bought an E46 M3.
Manual 2002 is a Emola Redover Cinnamon car.
Yeah, that's it.
Loved it, loved it.
Such an awesome car.
And got my feet wet more with manual rear wheel drive
and it really got into the driving side of things.
But then I missed the turbocharged aspect.
So I sold that car
and then I bought a white 335i manual X-Drive car.
Thing is, is that car had already been modified.
It had the secondary cats deleted.
It had the downpipe already
and my mom thought it was too loud.
So she goes, Austin, either you have to make the car quieter
or you have to sell it.
And I was like, well, neither.
Those are an option, mom, sorry.
So I ended up working with a shop
called Your Tech Loversports
and they kind of like custom fabbed me.
Something that we now refer to as the one half PE mod.
So if you look, let's say that we're envisioning
the rear of the vehicle, 335.
You have the two exhaust tips.
The E9X cars have two like kind of boxy kind of diaper mufflers.
One has a factory valve.
So because it had a factory valve,
we made that side a straight pipe
and I made a little valve controller
so you could control it.
So I'm like 17 doing this
and I think it's the coolest thing ever.
I think I'm so cool, still to this day.
But we got, I got that to work
and I was like, huh, that's what an interesting concept.
And the car was loud, but it was flexible.
So I went to these little car meets by my house
and where I grew up.
And I remember meeting Tom, Tedward from the YouTube channel.
I met him and he wanted to do like a little video
on the car.
So we made one video and it did relatively well.
He was like, why don't you explain your exhaust?
I'm like, who will explain it?
So he makes a three minute long video.
It gets like 300,000 views or something really quickly.
My Instagram is linked in the video
and everybody asked me, they said,
hey, I wanna buy one.
I'm like, well, in the video,
I explain how to do it.
What's it?
I'm already paying you guys.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Why don't you just do it yourself?
And they go, I wanna just buy it.
And then at the point, I was like, huh,
here's the viable business opportunity.
Let's see if we can translate this into stuff
that people want to buy.
So that was when I was like a senior.
I started senior in high school and I got into this
and I was like, okay, like here's an opportunity.
I had a prototype.
And then when I went off to college,
I was definitely kind of an outcast.
I didn't really wanna go party.
I was not super lustful about that college experience
because when I was in high school,
I was in something called what's the word mass?
Which was a group chat of all the Metro West area towns
in Boston and they would put the addresses
of like project, textile, house parties.
So we would go to a huge house party
at least once every two weeks.
So I was very partied out.
So I had kind of done that experience.
And when I got to college, I was like,
I've already done all this.
Like I'm not interested in joining a frat
and having to do all that crap.
So I ended up not really having anything to do.
So from there, I was like, all right, I'm bored.
I don't have my cars because I'm a freshman.
I can't have my cars on campus.
What am I gonna do about this?
So I set up a car club for people like me
who maybe just like cars and wanna get into the car hobby
but don't have an outlet for it on campus.
I set it up, we were doing weekly meetings
and I was kind of like the lead person.
We actually got a good number of people to engage and enjoy
and I would tell stories and stuff
and talk about this cool exhaust product.
And then everybody would ask me, they'd go,
well, where's your car on campus?
And I go, I'm a freshman, I can't have one.
They said, well, you should figure that out.
You've been able to figure out how to set up a car club.
You should be able to figure out
how to get your car on campus.
And that began the engagement of, okay,
let's figure out how to get the car on campus.
I went to the entrepreneurship department at my school
and I said, hey, I've got this school project
that I wanna do.
And they go, okay, what is it?
And I go, it's an exhaust system for BMWs
where you can control it.
And they go, okay, what do you need?
And I said, well, I really need to have my car here
for testing purposes.
It was actually a front just because I wanted to go
drive around and have my car on campus.
So I ended up getting them to allow me
to buy a parking pass so I could park the car on campus.
$500 for parking pass, ridiculous.
That's what they charge, stupid.
I get the car, it's on campus.
And from there, I'm like, okay, cool, I got my car.
Now what?
I would do drives, I would organize events with the club
and it was so fun, but the school kept asking me,
how's your progress?
How are you doing?
Have you done this?
You said you were gonna do it.
Have you done that?
And I'm like, yeah, like I'm working on it.
And then it got to the point where
the university was gonna pull my parking pass
because they knew I wasn't doing anything.
I just wanted to have the car.
So they said, you've got like two weeks
to make some big progress on your project.
Otherwise we're pulling your parking pass.
And I was like, okay, all right.
So let's get some prototypes made
and put together a formal business plan.
So I really had no idea how to do that,
but I found a facility local to help me make a couple.
It was like a cheap shit muffler shop.
And I was like, okay, like I'll make another one
and sell my school.
Look, I made another one.
I made that and then I was like,
oh actually, cool, maybe I can sell this.
And then I met that guy, Stefan.
And then he was like, I actually would like to buy this.
Like, because you have the same car as I do.
So he wants to pay like six, 700 bucks for it.
I'm like, oh man, I can make some money.
So I ended up selling that first unit to him.
And then I found out that the school
has an entrepreneurship program that runs in the summer.
It's called Launch Base C or it's called the hatchery.
It was when I was there.
That program I got accepted to
and I stayed there my freshman summer at university.
So I'm like, at this time of 19,
I stayed there over the summer and got the company going.
They helped me set up an LLC, how to do marketing,
how to get people engaged.
And we did little kind of school things
like little pitch competitions and stuff like that.
Just kind of getting the ball rolling.
And from there, I came out of that program.
There were two of us who had really viable businesses.
The rest of the people,
they wanted to do software and other stuff.
And to me, that was uninteresting.
I was physical products, that's what I'm about.
There was a guy selling sneakers.
Like he was called sneaker head paradise.
I don't know if he still does it, maybe.
And there was my company.
And we did the whole pitch competition and I lost.
I was like, what the fuck?
Why would I lose?
This is a great idea.
So I kind of had this kind of ego thing
on my shoulder now.
I was like, all right, like I'm gonna do this.
Like I'm gonna make this a real thing.
So I didn't like.
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Put you off track, that didn't like...
No, no, no.
It did like come down on it.
It's kind of an inspiration.
But I have to say there were other projects
that were pitched much better.
But usually, I was kind of looked in the mirror
and I was like, are these things actually gonna happen?
I don't think so.
But there was like software, tech stuff
and like dog petting things
and all sorts of stuff.
And I was like, all right.
No one wants, no one gives a crap about my exhaust,
especially at a university like that.
You know, making someone's car louder?
But is it not loud enough?
It's not loud enough?
Yeah, well, I also too, just kind of a side note,
I would get in trouble because when I was,
when I was in this program, that 335 I sold
and I bought a E92M3.
And so I started prototyping with the E99X
which is loud.
Which is loud.
So I had the fucking challenge X pipe
and Lehigh University for anybody who's familiar,
it's on a hill.
And when it would rain,
I would just fucking slide all over campus.
And I remember there were people at the bus stop
and I would just slide up the hill.
And people would be like, people would be screaming,
like running out of the road.
It was just, I thought I looked really cool
with people running for their lives.
You know, stupid.
But after the freshman year,
I was like, all right, I can really get this going.
I sold the 335.
I bought this E92M3 and you might ask,
how did I have the money to do that?
While I was still working on this project,
I would always be on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace.
Well, Facebook Marketplace wasn't that big back then,
but it was, but usually Craigslist.
I'd buy Stoptech ST60 brakes for a thousand bucks
off of some part out, sell them for three grand.
Buy HRE wheels, some guys got his winter set,
he needs to sell the summers, the car got traded in.
I was always arbitraging stuff.
I was always doing detailing work,
whatever I could do to make money.
So when I bought the E92 and that product
was really, really good at the time,
at least for me, it was much better than my first one.
Cause it like it fit and the flexibility was there.
It was really, it was much better than I thought.
So from there, I was like, okay,
here comes the real landscape.
This is the E9X product.
Let's go full-born in the marketing.
On my Instagram, I would just,
I would say like, wow, look at this 335
or this E92 M3, how cool would it be
with a voucher make exhaust?
I would just rip pictures off like someone else's Instagram,
repost them, tag them and say,
how cool would it be if this person had an exhaust?
That was my marketing strategy.
And did it work?
It did.
Yeah, some people were like,
oh, like I've actually been looking
at these cool exhaust systems.
Like what do you guys do?
And I said, oh, we make flexible exhaust solutions.
So that's where it kind of began
in terms of the marketing.
And then, and I'll never forget this,
Spencer Burke, who's a big E9X person,
Spencer ended up getting a new E92 M3.
He was a big creator.
He wanted an exhaust and I got set up with him.
And it was the first time I ever
given anybody a free exhaust.
He was like, hey man, you know,
I'm looking to get exhaust sent to him.
And that's where the real trajectory began.
Cause it was big YouTube.
It was big popularity stuff.
Cause you guys are now 321,000 followers
on Instagram.
It literally started with you picking the customers
that you wanted to buy an exhaust
and going direct to them.
I'm also picking the cars that looked good on Instagram
cause I knew that they would get some views.
Many of you might not know this,
but away from the recordings that I do in my van studios,
I've actually got a digital marketing agency.
Now we specialize in a lot of automotive clients,
but we cover everything really.
Our team is made up of PPC specialists, SEO specialists
and the most talented designers I've ever seen,
which have done work like the Starnagloss website,
the TWR website and many more.
We've actually just built icon box
for the auto Alex crew as well.
Meaning that people that watch their channel
can buy their favorite merch seamlessly and in style.
So if you're interested in starting a project
and you'd love to speak to us,
just tap the link below and let's hop on a call.
So what on the whole makes an exhaust take a car
from like stock to the next level?
Like on the, what are the like three main things
that you do change an exhaust?
So I'll give you two different examples
cause they'll be easiest to relate.
I'll give you three.
Let's start with the BMW FADM three
probably the viewers or they understand that.
So if we take that exhaust setup,
there's a couple of different components.
You get your downpipes,
you have your downpipes and you have your cat back.
So the downpipes, you've got your factory emissions
equipment and you have stuff that's really not the best
for performance in terms of volume
and ultimate turbo efficiency.
Getting rid of that by doing high flow cats
or doing a free flow setup cranks up the volume
dramatically turbo spool power.
It's much, much better to get more power.
So that's, we know that.
The next thing is, is designing the best cat back
is very vehicle specific.
Kind of as I said when we began this, the FADs
we wanted to develop a system that was equal length
because making an exhaust isometric or equal length
really smooths the tone.
So the FADs like Will's car or excuse you,
Jackson's car has one downpipe is 14 inches.
The other one's 28.
So because one downpipe is double the length,
the exhaust has to travel twice as far
to get to the same point.
Because, you know, if the straight six BMW engine
you get three and three, this is very short
but this is much longer.
The problem with that is is when you have the exhaust
exit at different pulses, it's like this.
It's not smooth, but if it's,
if the length of the exhaust is equalized,
it's like this, it's very smooth.
Go to it.
So when you equalize that exhaust,
you're going to get a much more high frequency smooth sound.
So why don't the car manufacturers do that?
It's expensive and standard.
It's expensive and it's much more challenging engineering wise.
And I also think that there's kind of a low barrier
to entry when you talk about exhaust systems.
And exhaust system is a very big afterthought
for the factories.
They've got to have a factory FAD exhaust system
has primary cats, it has secondary cats,
it has a resonator and it has a big boxy muffler
because the cars to be sold worldwide.
It's got to be sold in China.
It's got to be sold in Taiwan.
It's got to be sold in Germany.
It's got to be sold in Oslo or in Norway.
It's got to be sold in all these places
and they all have different emissions regulations.
So it's not worth it to craft a really nice exhaust,
especially for the American market,
which is much less stringent than the EU market.
That's why they do that.
And it's also, they incorporate all these things.
So the tailpipe emissions are very clean.
Because when you have a car that's got primaries
and secondary cats and all this stuff that's attached to it,
technically the tailpipe emissions are cleaner
because it has to run through all these things,
but the car's efficiency is so bad
using way more fuel and your efficiency is way down
because the exhaust is so restrictive.
That's why.
Now, even if you take the BMW performance exhaust system,
how many people do you think are working
on exhaust systems at BMW USA or BMW corporate?
I don't know the answer,
but if you really put the best engineers on that,
I don't think they would end up,
A, being in that department
and B, making that type of exhaust system.
Because it's just, it's really just,
okay, pipes are here, the engine's here.
Okay, let's just finish it out.
But some people do get it right.
So we're going to get onto supercars
and like what supercar you first did,
because that must have been a hell of an excite.
It was.
Because some do get it right.
Unfortunate enough to have a Huracan perfomante.
That's a car to me that I think doesn't need
an aftermarket exhaust system.
I'll explain why it does.
They got it to me bang on from the vaginal.
My 600 LT does need an aftermarket exhaust system
because it just feels like someone's holding a crop
over an aftermarket.
Which is probably something to do
with the petrol particulate filters.
If the car has the OPF filters, yeah.
But so when you talk about those types of restrictions,
usually you're coming from a perspective where,
okay, we need more volume.
So that would be in the downpipes,
usually for these cars.
Now we talked about a couple of different examples.
We talked about the F80.
You've got your, you need equalization.
Let's take this car for example.
The objective with this car,
what's the systems on your JCR?
JCR.
JCR does a really, really nice job
because they've perfected the pitch.
Same thing with this setup.
What you want is velocity.
The more velocity you get, the higher pitch.
When people talk about an X pipe,
like where the pipes come together,
the X's objective is to blend the sides
of the two sides of the engine.
But it's also designed to kind of force the exhaust
through a restriction.
And so it's like a garden hose.
You put your finger over a garden hose,
the water's gonna come out faster.
So it's adding restriction to increase velocity.
The more velocity, usually the more pitch.
So with this setup, we have a set of shorter,
like a short run headers, excuse me, short runner headers,
which if you have shorter runners,
you can actually increase some of the raspiness,
which in these cars,
because of the configuration of the engine increases pitch.
It's usually not the same on certain cars.
Some people like long tubes,
but that's the configuration here.
It's a free flow setup, so there's no cats.
And then the exhaust comes together
and then it wise into a single section
that wraps all the way around,
increasing the length and increasing the velocity.
So if you increase the length of the exhaust
and increase the velocity,
if you measure everything properly,
you can calculate the wavelength,
and cause the sound waves are like this,
you can catch the wavelength right at the top
where it's the highest frequency.
And that's what we did with this system.
So how many times though,
does it take you to cut up bits of metal
and get that right?
So this setup was a good testament to that
because this was the first,
I've got one of the best engineers
in the world now who's been doing exhaust fabrication
and crafting and engineering for the past 25 years.
And he is an utter master in CAD and solid works
and designing the system through CFD analysis.
So this wasn't that hard.
When I didn't have him, fuck.
It was an utter nightmare.
It's complete nightmare because it was impossible
because you have to get it.
Okay, let me add an inch.
Okay, let me pull an inch off.
Like, this is not right.
Do I need to?
So when did you get your like first employee
joined the company as like an aggregate?
Who was the first person to do it?
My first employee was Phillip.
And Phillip was a Penn State student,
but he was also working at Honda as like a service writer.
And he had a BMW E46.
Cool, so it was a BMW?
Of course.
And he had this BMW.
And I was like, okay, like you like BMWs.
Oh, he's thinking about getting an F30 BMW.
Okay.
And that's kind of where it began
for his journey with us.
And he's still with us.
Which I love.
And how many people do you have now?
About 40.
Really?
They were just in like manager staff.
We have, there's eight full-time fabricators.
And then in terms of like building stuff
at our facilities overseas,
there's about 175 people that manufacture
our specific exhaust systems in our partner factories.
Do you find that stressful, having that many people?
No, I have to have really good management.
And that's only something I've found lately.
Because in the past, and my father was the same way
he kind of taught me this.
He's like, something that you're gonna find
very scary Austin is waking up one day
and what happens if people aren't there?
If people like don't show up.
That's a scary thought.
But it was one of those things where
I had a vision for what I thought the company could be
and what it could look like.
Through organizational charts and figuring out
what's important to the organization.
I needed to find somebody who could help me scale
with me doing the things that are important.
Like coming to meet you and be on this podcast.
Those are things like an operational manager
or like a director of ops or executive management.
That's what they do.
For me, I'm not like,
where's your time card, your late type of boss.
I'm just not that person.
And I can't be, because I'm the creative.
I do what I do.
So finding the right people to scale the organization
has been really, really challenging.
It's the biggest thing is hiring the best people.
But it's worth it to pay up for the best people
because they're worth their weight in gold.
But what's the one of the most stressful moments
you've had through that process?
Yeah, I'd say the most stressful moment for me
was before my executive leadership came in
who I found through LinkedIn and Indeed.
Before I found them, the company ran,
but it didn't run effectively and smoothly.
It didn't run like a real organization.
This was about nine months ago.
I had some people on my team who,
they weren't value added to the company
and I didn't realize that.
They were dragging people away from their objectives.
They were gatekeeping things.
And then when my director who's still with me,
when he came in, he wrote notes down
for his first meeting he ever took with us,
which was in August of last year.
He took the notes and we still reference them to this day
because he looks at it and goes,
awesome. This was such a big pivoting,
like a huge turn point in the company because
a year ago we operated kind of as this small company,
kind of loosey-goosey, not super focused,
but now we operate like a real corporation.
And that transition of having to get rid of those people
who are not value add was very stressful
because I didn't know what they were going to say.
I felt like I needed to take care of them.
And I got to the point where I was like,
wow, these people are really dragging me down,
but I didn't see it.
And that was a moment stressful, yes,
but also like I was a little disappointed in myself
that I didn't see it, but I didn't know anything.
So it was kind of like this is bound to happen.
Are you way more now like keep the good ones
as much as you can and get rid of the bad ones?
Oh my God, yeah, higher fast, fire faster.
Yeah, it's higher slow, higher fast.
Excuse me, higher slow, higher slow, fire fast.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because what's life about?
Living.
It is, but what makes living very enjoyable?
Making money.
See, that's what your head's at.
But what I always found, I find this,
whether it's we're at car week or we're at a cafe
ordering a coffee or we're with conversations like this,
life is about your interaction with people.
The fact that I came up this road
and got yelled at 400 times saying,
you need to leave.
We don't want you here.
It's like you're dealing with people.
You and I, we're dealing with people right now.
And that's the thing about the organizational culture
that you build is if you find the best people,
they all integrate into the organization.
They teach you so much.
Like my director came from, he came from Trader Joe's.
He ran scale objectives at Trader Joe's
and he was the guy they would set up.
They would buy a new warehouse
and it'd be 100,000 square feet
and they would say, all right,
we'll see you in eight weeks
once everything's all set up
and the ownership of Trader Joe's would just leave.
And he'd have eight weeks to set up the place
and that was his job.
And so he comes into my organization
and goes, this is odd.
This is strange.
This is very bizarre,
but we're going to get through him.
We're going to work through him.
And it was one of those things
where he's definitely, he's mid 50s now.
He's one of those people where he loves the chase
of being able to really scale the organization
because he can,
because we're always making improvements.
I'm happy to spend money to improve quality,
have the best engineers, whatever,
because at the end of the tunnel,
at the end of the rainbow for me,
which is un-chaseable and I'll never get there,
but I'm going to try it,
is to be the best automotive exhaust
manufacturing company in the world.
The best experience, the best products.
Whenever anybody,
with your someone's automotive landscape,
they buy a, they're 16
and they want a muffler for their truck,
Valtronic.
All right, they get some money,
they got their first corporate job,
they buy a BMW, Valtronic.
All right, things are looking good.
I want to buy a 911, Valtronic.
Oh, I bought an R8, first supercar, Valtronic.
Things are going well.
I bought a GT3 RS, Valtronic.
And more recently, you've even done
a Lamborghini Rivalta,
which isn't a simple car to do, is it?
Well, it was actually,
Gentani released theirs first,
but I had the car under wraps
since the cars were brand new.
Like it was, we released it in September,
but we were, the car was at our shop,
like mid-August.
And what do you have to do?
Convince a customer or say,
look, I will give you a free exhaust on your car
if you give it to me to develop the system.
Unfortunately, I found somebody who has tons of cars,
he didn't care, which was good.
There's a few of those.
That does happen.
Good people to know.
Especially a car week.
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of people that like that.
But I found this, this guy actually found us.
He said, hey, I've got all these cars,
but I'm getting the sort of wealth though.
I have to get it to maintain a relationship.
I'm not really going to drive it.
Do you want to make an exhaust for it?
I was like,
Ops.
Yes.
Please bring us the car.
So brings us the car and there was no manual.
So we had no idea,
because my team at the time,
the engineers were relatively,
they weren't so experienced now that they are now,
because we're doing more Lamborghinis and Porsche and stuff.
They didn't have the resources and like the tools
and expertise of how to take the car apart.
So I was calling every single Lambo dealership to be like,
give me just give me a text,
somebody who knows what the fuck,
or send me the disassembly manual.
No one had anything,
because the cars were so new.
The cars, they would come in,
the cars got recalled back for the software issue.
My friend found this.
You have friends?
Matt.
Yeah, there's a few, only a few,
and I keep being close.
But Matt Armstrong, famous YouTuber,
rebuilt Supercars and he's just done his world side.
He got the Valtronic.
And through, did he have an assistant on it from you?
Yeah, that's our system.
That's mental.
Couldn't sound in nuts.
But he found out through that whole process,
there was literally no parts available for the car.
There was no manuals.
There's like, you literally were completely in the darkness.
How can they release the vehicle?
How could they send that out there?
That's unfinished,
because you need to be able to supply a customer with a car.
And it was launched like, what, two, three years ago now?
It was like, you've had like 600 days to solve this together.
But they're just in Italy at a cafe somewhere,
and they're like, the car's done, don't worry about it.
Yeah, it's no problem for them.
The first project, big project we did with all the engineers
was the Revolta.
We took it all apart,
and that was the point where we talked about
isometric equal length exhaust.
We chased that because we knew we had to lengthen
one of the exhaust pieces to make it
so everything comes together at the same point.
You get the highest pitch frequencies.
And then our rear section,
we did two X pipes to maximize velocity
so you get the most pure sound.
It's not technically the loudest system.
There are other louder systems
with the head of larger piping.
For us, what was most important is the pitch,
the quality of the exhaust sound was paramount.
And that was not something I was going to compromise on.
The system is sold as we have full system
and then just the cap back.
You really need the race pipes to get the sound quality
so we always recommend people do it.
But it was odd because Lamborghini couldn't help us
with the auction sensors
because there are wide bands,
both primary and secondary,
which this car actually does.
But the car would throw a light
for the fact that it didn't have cats,
but then you couldn't just clear the light.
You have to take the car to Lamborghini
and all this stuff,
and then we had to figure out,
okay, if you shut the hybrid system,
if you shut the car off
and then you restart it,
but then you clear the codes
while the car is on,
it drives fine for that drive cycle.
It's very weird.
And I just, with all this stuff,
I look in the mirror and I go,
why is this so complicated?
People want to modify the cars.
Let them modify the cars.
Like it doesn't push back on the manufacturer.
Do you actively feel like the manufacturers
are trying to push back on people?
Absolutely, because it's all IP.
Yeah.
The cars are getting quieter.
Like earlier on, we were passed by a 296.
You might.
It sounds like it's off.
And it sounded like a Dyson coming
past like a Hoover down the road.
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Rob Ferretti said this very well.
He said he's like the 296 thing.
They're under MSRP.
When was the last time you could walk
into a Ferrari dealer and buy a car
under MSRP in the last 10 years?
Probably never.
The fact that that's the case showcases
that the bit's been lost.
Like it's over for that type of car.
If I had to design my perfect sports car experience,
being somebody who's going to have a life cycle
of buying expensive cars, hopefully, God willing,
people keep buying my products.
This for me works.
It's comfortable.
It's fast.
There's no trunk space.
But it does everything right.
The 296 does nothing for me.
And the fact that the cars are worth the same amount of money,
my money would go nowhere near that car.
And that's a problem because Ferrari should be this
lustful, exciting, loud, flamboyant experience.
Seeing a 296 go past you, regardless of the color,
and it's that quiet, why do people love the 458?
Is the 458 a better car than the 296?
No.
Does it sound better?
Absolutely.
Would you have one over one?
Absolutely.
Exactly.
Much rather have a 458.
And I've been lucky enough to own a couple of 458s
because they're brilliant.
And the 458, you felt like they threw
absolutely everything at it.
They threw it at all.
And now you feel like they throw half the bits at it
and then make it a lot cheaper.
Yeah.
But to scale to the point of being able to do
supercars and build multiple exhaust systems
and have a team of engineers working on it,
did you have to take funding out
to be able to do that of your own?
Unfortunately, I've always done it by cash flow.
If you saw my personal bank account
and be like, oh, this guy's broke
because all the money goes back into the business.
Because for me, the value is the business.
The value is being able to take care of the people
in a scaly organization.
To be able to buy watches and the cool stuff like that,
but besides that, I don't think that it's super valuable
to go and spend $1,000 on a t-shirt or something.
Like this is a third of a t-shirt from Zara.
Perfect.
So for that type of spend, I'll buy a couple things
that are for me like I want.
But I've not found that there's a real reason
to spend a bunch of money on stuff like that
because it keeps the money in the organization
to do the things like pay for the development
and pay for the stuff that I really want to get done.
So I've always found that that's a really important thing for me.
You talk about your brand so passionately,
you're always mentioning the name,
you're always mentioning all the cars
that you've worked on.
What is it that really like
groans your gears about the industry?
You actually spoke about competitors quite highly so far.
Oh, I had no competition.
What gets on your hands?
No competition.
There's no competition.
You know why?
Because at the end of the day,
and I say this genuinely with all my heart,
it doesn't matter who you buy your exhaust from,
Valvetronic, Gentani, Fabspeed, whoever,
buy them from China.
It doesn't matter either.
You can buy them supplier direct.
All that matters is that you are enjoying
your automotive hobby,
that you're making the car louder
because you want to make it louder.
Regardless of what's better, this, that, the other thing,
it just makes me very happy
that this industry is so big
and people have such an excitement around sound.
My father said it to me.
He was like, Austin,
and I was like 18, starting to get into this.
He's like, do you really think there's a lot of people
who want to buy exhausts?
And I go, I guess we're going to have to find out,
but the market is massive.
People with sports cars exhausts
such a lustful thing.
It's so enjoyable.
It makes this car so exciting.
And the fact that other companies pop up
and they want to sell a product, great.
If you can sell some people, fantastic.
Exhaust is like wheels.
Exhaust and wheels are different than suspension.
Suspension you'll do once,
and it's kind of a wear item,
and you maybe do it again,
but probably not.
Exhaust, you'll switch around.
Wheels will switch around.
Cosmetics, you'll change.
So saying that one company is better than another,
or I buy from this
because screw those people,
that I find so silly.
It doesn't matter what you're buying.
It just makes me happy
that people are buying into the hobby
of modifying their cars.
But does it wind you up
when people compare you to other people?
Like Alibaba, for example.
So here's what's fascinating
about that whole landscape.
We'll talk about this t-shirt, right?
$40 Zara t-shirt.
I think this is money well spent.
A friend of mine has the same t-shirt.
It says Laura Piano on it.
How much is that t-shirt?
$300.
It's like $1,000 t-shirt.
Now, that's kind of a vile example
because that doesn't really...
It's not a comprehensible thing,
but why is that Laura Piano t-shirt better?
Is material better?
Maybe.
It's the fact that you get to walk
into the Laura Piano store,
buy something that says Laura Piano on it,
and it feels a certain way.
You feel a specific way wearing that t-shirt.
Because I put the t-shirt on,
I don't feel a thing.
But it's like, cool, Laura Piano t-shirt.
When people talk about what is worth the money,
it's all about the experience.
We talk about Valtronic,
and Valtronic exists
not to sell exhaust systems,
but it's to deliver the ultimate
in terms of the audible experience.
The way you purchase things on the website,
you can ask questions to our team
and call them up and say,
hey, I don't understand this.
Can you explain it to me?
You go to the checkout page on the website,
or you have to navigate the website.
It's simple. It's easy.
We explain the situation.
We explain the different setups.
You go to the YouTube videos.
I explain everything.
There's full comprehensive sound clips
and understanding of what you're getting
and here's what the car is, etc.
The product arrives in two to three days.
It's perfectly packaged.
You get little fun knick-knacks,
like a t-shirt and a cool bracelet,
and the product is top notch,
and it fits, and it works,
and it sounds good.
All those things are the experience.
People think that buying an exhaust
is just buying the product.
A bunch of people here,
I can recognize our Valtronic exhaust tips,
and I can recognize copies.
And I go, oh, where'd you get the exhaust?
Ah, I bought an Alibaba.
I'm like, oh, cool, how's the experience?
He's like, yeah, sounds good.
I'm like, no, no, no, how was your experience?
Like you're buying process or anything.
And like, that's not important to them.
And that's very interesting because
people who buy Valtronic,
they're willing to spend the money on the experience.
It doesn't matter where the Laurel Piano t-shirt comes from
and this one comes from the abroad,
come from Bangladesh.
It's about the experience.
So if you look in the mirror and you say,
okay, I'm not willing to spend the money,
but I want the same or like a similar type of product,
go buy a knockoff.
But what does that say about you as the enthusiast
that this hobby of yours is not worth spending the money
for the best experience?
Why do you work hard?
You work hard because you want the best experience.
It's like, I'm going to stay at a hotel.
One hotel is $500.
One hotel is $100.
Both got a bed, both got a shower.
But what's the difference with the experience?
So someone has had their best exhaust experience
buying from you,
but what has been your best experience
in supplying a customer?
Like, what's one of the people that you've done?
Just like, I can't believe my journey
has led me here to supply like this guy.
Also, Matt Armstrong is a big one.
You know, the fact that he's been such a value add
in terms of he calls me up,
hey, man, we're doing this project.
I'm like, great, exhaust is on the way, man.
I'm super excited to be a part of it.
And it makes me so happy to see people that know me
or maybe have met me in passing.
They go, oh, I saw the exhaust.
So Matt Armstrong, I'm so happy that he's enjoying it.
That to me is like a total dream come true.
Beyond the cars and all the stuff,
being able to look in the mirror and go, wow,
like I've been able to deliver that experience
to this person who I quite honestly hold in a high regard
is very special.
So that's in terms of the influencer thing.
I also have a customer.
His name is Muhammad.
He's wonderful.
Had a Ferrari F12, had our exhaust system,
or excuse me, had the car stock.
I met him at a show in like 2022,
freezing my ass off.
And I saw this black Ferrari F12
and I was like, oh man, cool.
Like we should get you exhausts.
He's like, yeah, man, I want to put some pipes on it.
We got to make it louder.
It's not, it doesn't sound good.
I'm like, all right, let's do it.
We coordinated, took us like six months to put it together.
And he's like, all right, like I'm ready.
Brings me the car, we put the exhaust on,
and he's just amped.
He's like, this is awesome, man.
This is such a good experience.
His wife drives the car most of the time.
He buys a Pirelli edition of Entador,
gets the alternate exhaust for that.
And he's like, oh man, this is top notch.
Fantastic.
Sells the Pirelli edition gets an ultimate.
And the ultimate to me is very special.
My favorite of Entador by far.
Gets the ultimate says, I need the pipes on it again,
but I need the valves.
I need the, so I can close it.
My neighbors, they hate me already, but the F12.
And I go, do you ever close the valves in the F12?
He's like, yeah, but I lost the remote.
I'm like, I would have sent you a new remote.
Just let me know.
But he still has that car, got the ultimate
and brought me the ultimate.
And the cool thing is that he lets us do the video shoots.
So we get the car in, we do the full exhaust,
we do the race pipes, everything equalized.
We CFD analyzed everything to make sure it's flawless.
You get the best sound.
The X-pipe, the rear comes together,
goes up and then goes out,
but has a big muffler casing behind it.
When you close the valves,
it sounds like a bone stock of Entador.
With the factory cats, it's so quiet.
When it's opened, full Jintani, it's amped.
And that type of delivering that experience,
you should have seen this fucking guy.
He was like jumping up and down like a school kid.
This is like a 50-year-old guy.
When you say full Jintani,
why do you reference them when you already cut your own exhaust?
They have trademarked that sound.
Everybody, it's easy for me to articulate that sound
and say it's full kind of Jintani type sound
than me saying it's full F1.
Because people overuse the F1 term.
It's easier for when I communicate it to relate
because everybody's seen those cars
and watched those videos.
That's, it's an easier way for me to articulate
that sound quality because everybody loves it.
Then saying like an F1 exhaust.
But do those guys like you?
I think Alex is a fascinating creature,
extremely interesting.
And he and I, we don't talk that much,
but I've asked him for guidance on the Ruelto.
I've asked him for guidance on the SVJ stuff.
Initially, when I was doing like the Savage Rally
and I was in college like 2021, 2020,
he hated me because I honestly tried to copy him.
I tried to like take pictures of the event
that are SVJ systems because I wanted to know
how they did it.
Because I didn't know about the equal link stuff
like I do now.
But nowadays, no competition.
Only industry counterparts.
Because there's so much business to go around.
And maybe somebody gets the Gentani
but says, you know, it's a little bit too loud.
I want the valves.
That to me is like real value.
It's because I'd like, he's here.
He's here.
And I'll probably see him at like in and out tonight.
And we'll talk, we'll chat.
We'll talk about projects.
There's never any, well, I'm not that person.
Me having negative outward displays for anybody
is totally not worth my time.
So I just, I figure if someone doesn't like me,
okay, I might avoid.
But he's always been very, very positive
and very respectful to me.
Same thing back.
And that's how real business
and real friendship is done.
But you talk so logically,
you've obviously learned all this through doing it.
Yeah.
But what's been like that moment
that's made you go like, oh, head in the hands.
Like this is really great in me.
That's just like one of the negative parts
having a business.
I deal with some challenging customer service stuff.
You know, we do a thousand exhaust systems a month.
Not everyone's perfect.
And I get some, I get some customers sometimes who,
I actually had a, I had one when I was,
I'm literally walking around Milan
trying to enjoy my time.
Just I'm there solo, like checking it out.
Never been there.
And I'm dealing with this guy on Facebook
who just was so angry.
And I don't know what is wrong in his world,
but he just wanted to outwardly just get angry with me.
He says that I lied to him.
It was a situation where we had an exhaust
for the G30 BMW 5 series.
Your 530 is 540s.
I had a customer come in who had a 540, the 6-cylinder.
We tested the exhaust.
It didn't really fit well,
but the guy wanted to pay for the exhaust.
So I was like, ah, okay.
We also at the same time had a 4-cylinder 530.
So what I did is I just put the 6-cylinder exhaust
on the 4-cylinder, modified it slightly
to get it to work and film the video.
The customer, it's my fault
because I didn't communicate this well.
I didn't communicate well enough
that he was not going to keep that exhaust
because I already had a paying customer for it.
So I said to the guy, I'm like, hey,
let me get you your exhaust
once we have a finished production unit.
And he's like, okay, we can do that.
And I said, it's going to take some time.
Please be patient.
The other customer gets the exhaust
and then communicates back to the other person
because they ended up meeting each other,
like, oh, I got the voucher neck exhaust.
He goes, how?
Like I was the first one.
And he goes, no, like I was the first one.
And so they ended up like really getting upset with me
because they felt that I both lied to them.
And quite honestly, I could have communicated this a lot better.
But something to realize about like organizations
and CEOs and directors and stuff,
they'll sometimes make decisions on things
just to move the business forward with not not focus.
I didn't process like that.
I didn't communicate to this guy well enough.
The fact I didn't communicate back
bit me in my ass like crazy
because this guy went all over the forums
selling me on the fucking scum of the earth
and I'm a piece of shit
and I didn't give him his exhaust.
And I'm literally walking around Milan
with my phone in my hand
trying to resolve this guy's problems
because I'm getting flamed on the internet.
And I just wish that people would look in and say,
okay, let's look at both sides
because a lot of times that doesn't happen.
And our objective is to have the best experience
and that person didn't have it.
But I sent the guy out as exhaust.
I did everything I called the guy multiple times
during this whole interaction.
He wouldn't speak to me.
He would just blast me on Facebook and say,
yeah, Austin, I see you trying to call me
but I'm not answering because you're a piece of shit.
I was like, this tells me a lot about you as a personality
not about myself and my way of caring myself.
So the fact that he wasn't even willing
to engage with me on that
shows a lot about how challenging this business can be
because the customer's always right and I was wrong.
And I didn't communicate it well.
And quite honestly, I learned from it.
And that's the only thing I can do.
But do you believe that statement to be true?
The customer's always right.
Who are you speaking to?
Speaking to the customer?
Or are you speaking to like...
Because a lot of times the customer is not...
As an owner of a business,
sometimes you have to step in and go,
you're being ridiculous, mate.
We need some respect.
Sure, sure, sure.
The thing is though is that is education.
They're not educated.
It's not that they're...
The customer is not always correct,
but your best way to get them to understand
your perspective is education.
So if somebody has the education,
they usually even side with you
because you're the expert.
That's why when I talk about exhaust systems
and somebody wants a specific experience,
they go, yeah, I just...
I don't care what it costs.
JCR is a good example, right?
If somebody wants the most peaky, crazy experience
and doesn't want valves for their GT3,
JCR is a great way to go.
The fact that I'm willing to communicate that,
that's something where education counts.
So if somebody bought something,
it has a negative experience
because I've had people who watch our videos
and it'll be like a full catalyst race BMW exhaust.
And they go, oh, I bought the exhaust.
My car doesn't sound like the video.
But you got the outpipes?
And they go, no, I can't do that.
It's like, I'm gonna get in trouble.
I'm like, okay, well,
if you're not willing to make the compromise
to do the correct exhaust components
to make it sound like the video,
we can't help you.
And we do have people who push back on that.
But usually that's customer education.
There have been times that I screw up,
I mislabel something, I say something's in stock,
it's not in stock.
We're always gonna have challenges like that.
So what's something in your life now,
not in terms of object,
in terms of like experience
that you wouldn't have
if you didn't go through this whole process
and start your own business?
Well, I wouldn't have nearly
as many interesting automotive friends.
Like I ended up meeting
one of my favorite people in this plan
was just Alex Choi.
And he and I would have never been in the same place
in the same room
if I wasn't doing savage rallies
and trying to promote my business and such.
So him and like Alex Perez
and like all those people I've known
for so long, the savage garage people,
I wouldn't have met Otto Schaffin,
I wouldn't have met Mandi,
I wouldn't have met the DDE guys,
wouldn't have met any of these people
who are so much like me.
And we bond over wacky things,
we bond over a lot of experiences.
Is Alex as crazy as what he comes across?
Alex is probably the most,
Alex is probably the most intelligent person I know.
Seriously.
Because if I was to do a podcast title for Alex,
I think it would be probably the wildest title
you've ever seen.
Alex Choi on shooting a Lamborghini
from a helicopter,
jumping a Tesla over.
I read now, it would just go on,
it would be the most insane title you've ever seen.
Well, Alex is one of those,
like he's very passive
and he's very like kind of quirky and goofy,
but you should sit with him and like,
he flies a lot.
And like I'm getting my pilot's license now
and I love that type of stuff,
but anything that you like want to know,
fixing any type of car
and having the knowledge about it,
understanding exhaust systems,
flying planes, boats, any type of construction,
how the LAPD operates, radio communications,
like the, I don't know how there's so much information
in his head.
He's like chat GBT, but in human form.
Now, usually when I ask him questions,
because I always am,
when I'm with him, I'm always like,
oh, what about this?
What about this?
What about this?
And he goes, Austin, shut the fuck up.
Because he's just, he needs to have silence.
But that's like how our personalities are so different,
but we were friends because of it.
And it's, he's just a fascinating creature.
But someone like, someone like him,
I would have never met.
And Otto Schaffin, you know, I would have,
I would have never met him.
We've been on some wild adventures,
like all throughout the world together.
And it was one of those things where,
you know what I'm speaking about, right?
So Otto ended up, I never met him.
And I showed up to Austria because
my, we did like this family trip.
My mom always wanted to go to Paris for Christmas.
I was like, okay, we go to Paris for Christmas.
So we organize it, we go,
and then I organized to go to Austria afterwards
to go skiing, sort of snowboarding.
Basically it was me falling on my face for three days,
trying to get up in there.
Which is, it's just how it goes.
I'm falling over on the kitty hill for the whole day.
And I said, you know what, screw it.
You got to run before you walk.
And I went all the way to the top of the hill
to be two hours to get down.
But I faced plant at three times.
That's how it goes, man.
But that's, it's hilarious.
As long as your face is not broken, it's fine.
But so after that trip, because I was kind of skied out,
like after like two, three days, I had two more days.
And so he was there and I said,
Hey, like I'm here.
I always watch your stuff.
Maybe let's get together.
This guy put me up in a, like a hotel that he's a part of,
organized all these adventures,
had me like meet some of his closest friends.
And we've been friends ever since
because he is just a wonderful, wonderful individual.
And I would have never met him
if it wasn't for all this wacky car stuff.
But I'm finding now that,
although the cars are very cool,
the cars are not what's important.
It's about the connections, about the people.
That's why I love Monterey.
It's because it's like being in a video game
for a couple of days.
And you get to see all the friends you never see.
Like I'm going to get to see Will.
I'm going to get to see Jackson.
I get to see Noah who I haven't seen in probably five years.
So all of those things,
that's what's important to me is those people.
Because beyond the stuff that I might have
and be fortunate to have, it's about the people.
Is it possible to be content yet still want?
No.
Still want to have the biggest company in the world.
Okay.
And are you content?
Because you seem quite content.
But now I am.
Like I only really became comfortable with myself
maybe a year ago.
And probably people who maybe watched this podcast
and have met me,
but have maybe seen me or taken a photo
or something,
but never known the real story.
For me, it's only been lately
because I felt like the company is really moving
in a great direction.
I've got great leadership.
And I'm able to do the things that I love
like doing these types of things
and enjoying the automotive experience
and trying to think about,
okay, how do we take it to the next level?
I was always afraid to look in the mirror and go,
ah, I'm not enough.
I'm not working hard enough.
I'm not, you know, doing what I need to do.
But I realized more and more
that that type of mentality was really hurting me.
So now I work really, really hard.
I'm always thinking about the organization
and how we can be better.
But there are times where I like,
I'll sit and really smell the roses.
And I'm like, wow, this is really, really cool.
Because even coming here,
like this drive, I'm happy we're here
because I came down Big Sur.
The music was just right.
The car sounds amazing.
There's no traffic.
And I'm like, wow, like this is really cool
because I'm really here right now.
And my dream existence is really coming to life,
which is really cool.
Well, I think that's a perfect way to wrap up this hour
in the back of a van on top of a mountain right now.
Like this here is literal clouds.
Yeah, I wish there was no clouds.
Passing, we are over a thousand feet up.
I don't think I've ever done a podcast at altitude like this before.
Yeah, we've all been feeling
like a little bit sick and crazy all day.
It's insane.
I'm surprised the cameras are still operating.
But Austin, I appreciate every single word.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, that's great.
I appreciate you coming up here with your insane car
and telling stories.
Now, we're going to keep the ride.
And I have to see if it sounds better than your car.
I think for sure.
See, love to see you, JCR.
We love you, but I got some competition.
If you want to see that, check out our Instagrams.
I'm going to put yours on screen now
and mine on screen now.
Make sure to like this video.
Subscribe to Road to Success.
If you haven't done also subscribe to Valtronic.
Yes, because your videos are just insane.
I could watch them for hours.
The thing is, don't give me any credit for that.
That's all my media team.
So give them the credit.
And we will see you again soon.
About this episode
Austin, a young entrepreneur, shares his journey from modifying cars as a teenager to founding Valvetronic Designs, a multimillion-dollar exhaust manufacturing company. He discusses the challenges of running a business, including customer service issues and the importance of communication. With a passion for cars, Austin reflects on his experiences with notable figures in the automotive industry and emphasizes the significance of building relationships over material possessions. The episode highlights his growth, the evolution of his company, and the pursuit of delivering exceptional automotive experiences.
Original notes
Check out Tweak: https://www.tweakuk.com/In this inspiring and entertaining conversation, Austin shares his journey from humble beginnings in construction to building one of the world’s top automotive exhaust companies — Valvetronic Designs. From his first BMW to mastering exhaust acoustics for Lamborghinis and Porsches, Austin opens up about business, passion, and perseverance.Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more exciting content about your favourite shows and celebrities. Hit the bell icon to stay updated on all our latest episodes👍 Like, Comment, and Share this episode. Join our discussion in the comments sectionCheck out Tweak: https://www.tweakuk.com/🔗 Follow Us:Instagram: @Roadtosuccessofficialpodcast@benedictfowler
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Road To Success with Benedict Fowler
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