Pain Pushes, Vision Pulls: Danny Zaslavsky on Building VINCUE and Betting on Yourself

On this week's Dealer Out of Office, hosts Jake and Frank sit down with Danny Zaslavsky — immigrant kid, car dealer's son, co-founder and President of VINCUE, Porsche collector, and one of the most energetic and honest voices in the automotive technology space. The conversation goes places most industry podcasts don't: grief, identity, the belly of the whale, and what it actually takes to bet on yourself when the whole world feels like it's falling apart.

Danny Zaslavsky didn't grow up with a plan. He grew up in a duplex in Kansas City, passed between his parents' work and his grandparents' house because that was childcare when you were an immigrant family with no community and no resources. His dad came from Ukraine in the late seventies with nothing and started a small car lot. Danny grew up in that lot — cleaning cars, selling cars, watching his dad tornado through departments thinking that was what progress looked like.

What he absorbed from all of it was one core idea his father drilled into him: when you see an opportunity, you sink your teeth in and you do not let go.

The Belly of the Whale

Danny's path to founding VINCUE didn't start with a pitch deck. It started with two gut punches in the same year.

He'd grown the dealership. He'd come out as gay — a process he describes honestly, noting that you don't come out once, you come out many times to many people, and their reaction to it is theirs to own, not yours. He had two kids with his first partner. And then, when the boys were around two and a half, his partner took his own life. The same year, his father had a stroke and lost the ability to speak.

In one year, Danny lost his partner and his dad's voice. He found himself, as he puts it, in the belly of the whale — miserable, full of potential he had no idea how to direct, and watching an industry he loved make the same preventable mistakes over and over.

The dealership was running seven different systems to manage a single piece of inventory. Technology companies were using dealers' money to grow their own businesses while the dealers stayed the same. There was a race to the bottom, and nobody seemed to be doing anything about it.

That pain became the fuel. But he's careful about how he frames it.

"Pain pushes. Vision pulls." He made a deliberate choice to stop being pushed by pain and start being pulled by vision. That shift — from reacting to building — is what eventually became VINCUE.

A Breakfast Meeting That Changed Everything

Years earlier, Danny had watched a friend named Matt Watson get bribed with a computer installation job at the dealership and end up building a piece of software to replace a shoebox of note cards. That software became VinSolutions, which later sold to Cox Automotive. Danny had seen firsthand what the intersection of automotive and technology could look like when someone actually cared about solving the dealer's problem.

So when the pain got bad enough and the vision got clear enough, he called Matt for breakfast. He had a business plan. He'd even entered it in competitions — won some, lost some. Matt asked him one question: have you ever built technology before? Danny said no. Matt said he might need a business partner. And he introduced Danny to Chris Hoke, who had the technical superpower Danny didn't.

Perfectly different. That's how Danny describes it. And nine years later, VINCUE is one of the most talked-about companies in the space — consolidating six legacy systems into one platform for appraisal, inventory management, and acquisition, and now pushing into AI-driven workflow automation to scale human productivity, not just speed it up.

Protect Your Clarity

The most repeatable piece of advice Danny gives in this episode isn't about technology or dealerships. It's about what to guard when you're building something.

Protect your clarity. Know why you're doing it. Know who needs to come with you and who needs to go. Know what's toxic and what's great. And then have the resilience to defend that clarity when it gets tested — because it will.

He's also direct about the role the people closest to you play. In the wrong relationship, he says, you're dead on arrival. In the right one, the sky's the limit. His husband is a champion of his success. He knows what both sides feel like, and he doesn't sugarcoat which one matters.

Scaling Yourself Before You Scale the Company

One of the sharper moments of the episode is Danny's answer to Jake's question about how you ever truly disconnect when you're the one everyone calls. His answer: you don't turn a corner. But you make decisions that scale yourself.

You grow other people. You build mantras — VINCUE runs on two: "game on" and "on it" — that function as behavioral filters, not just slogans. You model behavior for your team the same way you model it for your kids. He and his husband read a book called Raising Adults that makes this point simply: don't tell your kids to eat healthy and go to the gym. Eat healthy and go to the gym. Then invite them along.

He doesn't believe in deserving time off. He believes in choosing it — for himself and for his team — and understanding that the investment in himself is what makes him better for everyone around him.

Outside VINCUE: Adventures, Gardens, and Porsches

Ask Danny what he does when he closes the laptop and you get a clear picture of the same values operating in a different context. He loves being outside. He gardens with his kids — learning what blooms when, what to cut and what to leave alone. He buys cameras so he can leave his phone in the car. He's chasing places where he has no cell reception.

His mom told him something once that stuck: you can be miserable on a beach in Hawaii, or you can be in bliss on a couch at home. He sees that dynamic in himself and has built a practice of creating adventures rooted in gratitude, with a smaller and more intentional circle of people.

And then there are the Porsches. Danny's answer to the dream car question isn't a Turbo S or a GT3 — it's a Singer. A 964 911 completely rebuilt and customized by a California company called Singer Vehicle Design, starting around a million and a half dollars from the factory and fetching one to three million on the secondary market. He calls it a retro mod, an outlaw. Then he laughs and says that's also kind of how he sees himself.

He already has the Turbo S. Auto Hauler Exchange shipped it. He's not selling it anytime soon.

Who is Danny Zaslavsky?

Danny Zaslavsky is the co-founder and President of VINCUE, an automotive retail technology platform that consolidates inventory management, appraisal, and acquisition tools into a single system for dealerships. He grew up working in his father's car dealership in Kansas City after his family immigrated from Ukraine in the late seventies. He is a Porsche collector, an adventure seeker, and one of the most candid and energetic voices in the automotive technology space. He lives in Kansas City with his husband and two sons.

What is VINCUE?

VINCUE is a dealership technology platform that replaces multiple legacy systems — typically five or six — with a single integrated tool for new and used inventory management, vehicle appraisal, and acquisition. The company was co-founded by Danny Zaslavsky and Chris Hoke and is built around the idea that dealers shouldn't have to use their own money to fund technology companies that don't solve their problems. VINCUE's current focus is on using AI to scale human productivity inside dealerships — removing friction, automating workflow, and helping people achieve more without just moving faster.

What is VinSolutions?

VinSolutions is a dealership CRM platform that was founded in the early 2000s by Matt Watson after he was hired to install a computer at Danny Zaslavsky's family dealership and realized they were managing customer data on note cards. The company later sold to Cox Automotive and remains one of the most widely used CRM platforms in the industry. It's also the company that gave Danny his first look at what was possible at the intersection of automotive and technology — and planted the seed that eventually became VINCUE.

What is Dealer Out of Office?

Dealer Out of Office is a podcast hosted by Jake Berkal and Frank Zombo that features conversations with athletes, business leaders, and personalities — covering stories beyond the car business with no script and no filter.

Jake: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Dealer Out of Office, coming to you live from the very new Auto Hauler HQ Studio and podcast room, alongside, as always, my good friend Frank Zombo. And we have a gentleman on the podcast today who really needs no introduction in the dealer world — a friend of the program, a friend of both of ours. Danny Zaslavsky, welcome to the show, my good sir. How are you?

Danny: Thanks. Great. Thanks for having me in your new office for the first time virtually.

Jake: Absolutely, man. You haven't even been to the old one. So that's a problem in and of itself. Quickly, Danny — where are you at? What's your next week or two look like? The life of VINCUE president — tell us about the journey.

Danny: Traveling. And I like in person — it's part of the reason why VINCUE, we have remote, but mostly we're in person. Hello from Downey, California, which is in LA. I was here meeting with an awesome group doing some cool innovative stuff, and then this weekend I fly to Minnesota for another couple of meetings, then Monday to Tampa, and then Tuesday back to Wisconsin. The Tuesday meeting is probably what I'm most excited for — it's a customer we already work with, Bergstrom Automotive. They asked me to come present on how we think AI is going to change automotive and what we should be thinking about. What a cool challenge — it forces me to actually have an opinion.

Jake: Bergstrom Automotive — probably one of the original Auto Hauler customers. I think they were our second customer ever. Clay Matthews was the face of Bergstrom Automotive. So when we got into this space and were looking for a pilot, I called Clay and said I need a favor. He connected me to Tim Bergstrom, who connected me to Leif Bergstrom, one of their key car buyers. Leif's been a user ever since. Did you know Frank played football, Danny?

Danny: I'll bring it up on Tuesday.

Jake: I want to talk about VINCUE — but before we do, give us the background. How did you get into the dealership space, and how did that forge the idea for you and Chris to create VINCUE?

Danny: So I was raised an immigrant kid. My folks came over in the late seventies and I was born in the early eighties. Like any immigrant kid, I was just passed around — my parents bought a duplex, they lived on one side, my grandparents on the other, and I got passed between my grandma's work, my dad's work, my mom's work, because that was childcare at the time. I had a great childhood. We didn't have any resources, but it was awesome.

I remember feeling more comfortable around adults than kids, mainly because I was raised around adults. And I remember my dad always talking about how people born in this country treat opportunity differently than people coming to this country. He really forced this idea on me: when you see an opportunity, you sink your teeth in and you do not let go.

He also taught me that the rules here are different. In Ukraine, if somebody throws a brick through your window, you replace the window. Here you call your insurance, you call the police, you file a complaint. There's a civil way of dealing with things. And so if you think about how you approach opportunity with that mindset, you can quickly understand the energy you can bring to a moment.

My dad met a guy and started a car dealership in the early eighties, a few years after he came here. He didn't have any money, but the guy he met had a little bit. They started a small pot lot that I spent my whole childhood in — being a pain in the ass, cleaning cars, trying to fix cars, and ultimately selling cars.

Jake: And where did VINCUE come from? Because the energy at VINCUE — everyone I meet who works there shares that same vision. What spawned one of the cooler, more revolutionary companies we've been fortunate enough to work with?

Danny: I don't think disruption happens in an industry first. I think it happens in a person first. And when it happens in a person, it usually comes from a place of pain. You go through something — it's the hero's journey. Everything's okay, and then one day you find yourself in the belly of the whale, and the journey out of the belly of the whale is what forges the new mindset.

For me, that journey was growing up at the car dealership — I had a bunch of success building it. My dad was a bulldog who wholesaled cars and I bought them with him. But my dad was also kind of a yeller — old school car guy, a micromanager who would tornado through departments thinking that was progress. And I remember my energy being entirely dependent on how he came in. If he was in a good mood, I was fine. If he was in a bad mood, I had to be in a bad mood. Under twenty, that's how I thought I was supposed to be.

I also kept a secret — that I was gay. Still am, by the way. And that whole coming out was really interesting because it taught me: you don't come out once, you come out many times to many people, and their perception of you is really not yours to own. It's theirs. Your journey is your journey.

I was lucky enough to grow the car dealership and grow my relationship with my first partner. We had two kids. And then, when the boys were around two and a half, he decided to take his own life. That was a really tough moment, because that same year my dad had a stroke and lost the ability to speak. All of a sudden I found myself in the belly of the whale.

Years before, I had watched a kid named Matt Watson get bribed to come install a computer at our dealership. He asked how we kept customer information. We showed him the note cards. He said, what if I build a piece of software? We said sure. That later turned into VinSolutions, which sold to Cox. And I got my first taste of what the intersection of industry and technology looked like — and what impact through technology could mean.

But in that painful moment, I had this potential inside of me and no idea where to point it. I was miserable — absolutely miserable. I knew I wanted more. I just had no idea how to unlock it. And that's when I started living by a quote I've used ever since: pain pushes, vision pulls. I chose to go from being pushed by pain to being pulled by vision. I started seeking out mentors, crystallizing ideas.

The pain I was suffering at the dealership was watching the race to the bottom. Watching us use seven different systems to manage one piece of inventory. Watching technology companies use our money to grow their businesses while we stayed the same. I was sick of it. I met Matt for breakfast one day and said, hey, I have this idea. I've even competed in business plan competitions with it. He asked: have you ever built technology before? I said no. He said, you might need a business partner. And he introduced me to Chris Hoke, who is my partner today at VINCUE. Chris had the technology superpower. I had the vision. Perfectly different. And nine years later, here we are.

Jake: That's a story I didn't fully know. Even after three or four years of knowing each other. Thank you for sharing that. So if you want to give a quick synopsis of what VINCUE is doing for the dealer space —

Danny: We're here to scale humans. We started this company to bring true data-backed supply chain management to automotive. We take six legacy systems and bring them into one — for appraisal, inventory management, new and used, and acquisition. But the truth is, as humans we continue to be inundated with more and more data. The journey now is: how do we turn that into workflow automation? How do we increase productivity per person? We want to increase gross and churn for inventory, enable better decisions, and remove friction inside the dealership so people aren't glued to a screen. AI is allowing us to scale human productivity. That's what's exciting.

Jake: And I'm assuming there's going to be some big announcements at VINCUE Unleashed in October —

Danny: There will be. I'm so glad you guys are coming.

Jake: Who's Danny outside of VINCUE? Two beautiful kids, your husband — what are you doing when the doors close?

Danny: Anything to be outside. Any reason to walk, to run — I'm a terrible runner but I'm really trying. I love having my hands in the dirt. Planting, weeding, anything I can do in any version of a garden. My kids and I dug a garden on the side of our house the last couple of years. We've learned what blooms at different parts of the year, what to cut and what not to cut. It's been really fun.

The through line that's been consistent my whole life is adventure. Any way I can have an adventure, I'm in. My mom told me something once: you can be miserable on a beach in Hawaii, or you can be in bliss at home on a couch in the corner. I see that in myself and in other people. So I've really worked on creating adventures rooted in gratitude with the right people. My circles have gotten smaller as I've gotten older — but the people I do spend time with, I figure out: where are we going? Are we hiking, biking, swimming? Are we trying new food? Any new experience puts a huge smile on my face.

Jake: I just got back from hiking Mount Whitney — highest point in the continental US. Stayed in tents, filtered water from creeks. My wife's not much of an outdoors person but she toughed through it. I'll send you pictures.

Danny: I want to see it. I just wrote it down. And speaking of that — a goal of mine is to go more places where my phone doesn't work. No cell reception. I've actually just bought a camera so I can leave my phone in the car and just go see the world differently. Taking photos forces you to see the world differently. You're looking for a frame. You're looking for something beautiful.

Jake: For someone as tech-driven as you — are we too connected now?

Danny: Here's what I'm learning. If you take inventory of your values and use those as a filter, you can make better decisions about technology. I love being present. I don't wear an Apple Watch because I don't want it to take me out of a moment. I'd rather flip my phone upside down and get to the message later. And when it comes to technology at work — scaling productivity doesn't mean running faster. It means achieving more, but smoother. I love productivity. I'm impatient. But my values also say invest time, don't just spend it. And that filter is what keeps me from spending an hour and a half on TikTok when there's more out there.

Jake: What brought you to Porsche?

Danny: One of the reasons I've always liked Porsche is because they keep making the same thing better. Specifically 911s — they've been around coming up on 80 years and they keep taking the same car and improving it. You can get a 911 in 15 different builds. I'm really attracted to that discipline. The engineering behind it is just so good, and the market has responded — the value of those cars keeps going up. There aren't many cars you do better selling than buying.

I had a poster car growing up — a Turbo S 911. It's only in the last couple of years that I was actually able to afford one. You all shipped it for me. I still have it. I don't think I'm selling it anytime soon. I've also gotten to restore some old ones.

And I've never been a great saver. What I've always done — learned from my dad — is invest in assets. A rental property. A car that would appreciate. And for the last ten years, VINCUE. Internally I feel quite poor because I pour everything I build back into what I'm building. But on the flip side, the assets that accumulate have value. Some I get to sell. I'm quick to reinvest. I'm forty-three as of two days ago. That's not how I've always operated. But if you really want to make me broke, take me to a Porsche dealership.

Jake: Money no object — what's your car?

Danny: A Singer. It's a 911 that a company called Singer Vehicle Design takes — specifically a 964 — and completely customizes every inch of it. About a million and a half from the factory. An outlaw. A retro mod. And I think that's also kind of how I see myself. They rarely come up on the secondary market, but when they do they can go anywhere from one to three million. It's not something I'd actually do. But if I could even spend some time with Singer enthusiasts, that would be a special day.

Danny: One last story. I grew up in a duplex with a one-car garage — no motor on it, you raised it manually. My dad's dream car when he came to the States was a Fox Body Mustang convertible. Red. I had a bike with metal handlebars leaning against the wall next to the car. And a Cocker Spaniel named Bo. I was seven or eight years old. I wanted to take Bo for a walk. So I tied his leash around my handlebar and said stay. Then I walked over to open the garage — and Bo followed me. The handlebar dragged the entire length of the car, digging into the paint. That night I had to tell my dad. I said, the dog hurt your car.

I think cosmically I've been waiting for that to happen at my house. My kids are old enough now to have some awareness. We'll see.

Jake: Danny, is there anything you want to leave the listeners with before we wrap up?

Danny: If you're thinking about starting something, or you're working in a dealership and you have an idea, or you want to grow in the area you're in — the most important thing is the people you're around. And protect your clarity. When you start pointing your arrows at a mission and a vision, you have to protect your clarity, because it's going to be tested. You become really clear on why you're doing something, what you're doing, who you need alongside you and who you need to get away from. And then have the resilience for that clarity.

The other battle is personal. The person you're with — your husband, wife, partner, whoever — they may be champions of you, or they may be jealous of you. Nobody likes being left behind. In the wrong relationship, you're dead on arrival. In the right one, the sky's the limit. Don't lie to yourself about how much that matters. Both sides of it matter a lot.

So whatever you're going after — make sure you're working on your whole self. Protect your clarity. Protect your vision and your mission. And just go.

Jake: Protect your clarity. Well said. Danny, thank you for jumping on. We can't look forward enough to October. Safe travels, buddy.

Danny: Thank you guys very much. Thanks for the chance.

Thank you for watching the most recent episode of Dealer Out of Office, sponsored by Auto Hauler Exchange. Auto Hauler Exchange is a B2B marketplace where our customers post their shipping opportunities direct to carriers. The technology and the operations team behind us take care of everything else.