Car enthusiasts and college friends Kyle Mayers and Wally Namane often found themselves frustrated by the lack of a specialized marketplace for buying and selling car wheels. After graduating college and initially going their separate ways, the two eventually reconnected to found WheelPrice, an e-commerce platform solving this gap.
WheelPrice is an online peer-to-peer international marketplace that enables consumers to buy and sell used car wheels. Car enthusiasts can purchase and sell wheels either directly via the marketplace or through auctions facilitated by the platform.
The startup also provides AI-driven functions that assist users with browsing and buying decisions.
Fitting the niche
Modeled after other online marketplaces such as StockX and Poshmark, WheelPrice distinguishes itself with special features tailored to the needs of car wheel enthusiasts—who comprise a $5 billion industry.
“We took a page out of proven businesses’ playbooks and just applied it to a space that was dramatically underserved,” Mayers said.
When browsing the WheelPrice marketplace, consumers can sort listings by wheels’ diameter, width, manufacturer and other wheel-specific parameters.
Additionally, WheelPrice recently launched an AI-powered fitment assistant—the first of its kind in the industry—which allows users to ask an AI assistant questions about whether specific wheels will fit their car and receive a real-time response.
“In the aftermarket world, people will spend weeks or months trying to understand whether or not a set of wheels will fit,” Mayers said. “We leveraged AI to simplify that process, and car enthusiasts can now casually chat with our AI assistant, send it a link or ask if a certain set of wheels will fit their car, and they’ll have an answer immediately.”
The startup also recently published the beta of its WheelPrice Index, a page on the website that allows users to view trends in the cost of a specific model of wheels over time.
What further sets WheelPrice apart from other online marketplaces is the community the website has built, Mayers said. The startup frequently hosts a range of events across the United States, and these events have attracted thousands of car enthusiasts.
The WheelPrice model
WheelPrice takes 10% collectively of every listing that is sold on the website, specifically charging a 7% fee to sellers and a 3% fee to buyers.
Although users can choose to ship their wheels independently, the cost of shipping heavy wheels, especially internationally, can be costly to consumers. To solve for this, WheelPrice offers its own shipping management. The startup partners with a shipping company to access commercial rates and grant them to users, while still charging a premium price for users to access WheelPrice’s shipping services.
Spearheaded by Kirk Vanderheijden, WheelPrice’s creative director and an experienced marketing professional, WheelPrice’s social media is also a prime source of monetization for the startup. With over 250,000 followers and 150 million impressions across social platforms, WheelPrice has monetized collaborations with other companies seeking exposure to the startup’s community.
WheelPrice has also generated revenue by selling ad space on its website. The range of revenue streams in combination with the low operating costs have created high margins for the startup, Mayers said.
Expanding the market
In 2023, WheelPrice was selected to participate in the Techstars Atlanta accelerator, which was influential in the startup’s growth, Mayers said.
“When we entered Techstars, we were just car guys with tech backgrounds that were building a product,” Mayers said. “By the end of Techstars, we understood the mechanics of running a startup.”
Since then, WheelPrice has participated in a range of other accelerators, including NC IDEA, LaunchCLT, and the Yale Black Venture Summit—all helping the startup to gain exposure, connect with local ecosystems and hone the fundamentals of running a company.
The startup also participated in CED’s Venture Connect summit, where it won the audience vote for its pitch in the “Marketplaces and Platform Innovation” category.
QUICK BITS
Startup: WheelPrice
Founder: Kyle Mayers (CEO)
Founded: 2023
Team size: 5
Location: Charlotte
Website: www.wheelprice.com
Funding: Bootstrapped
WheelPrice has been focused on establishing its credibility and community, but now the startup is ready to take on the next step of expanding the commerce aspect.
As WheelPrice continues to scale its success in the wheel aftermarket, the startup also hopes to expand into all areas of the automobile aftermarket, which is in total a $100 billion industry.
“We want to become not only the world’s go-to marketplace for used wheels, we want to be the go-to place for car enthusiasts to buy and sell in any automobile aftermarket,” Mayers said.
