Justin was born with what he calls “the Car Bug” (an ingrained love for cool automobiles). He started his first business at the age of 12 in order to purchase his first project car at 14. It was a 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback that he turned into a Bullit (Steve McQueen Movie) replica. His love of cool cars ultimately led him to open Benchmark Classics, an investment grade classic vehicle dealership and restoration facility.

Justin conceived, planned and opened the dealership while finishing business school. The company grew quickly, had over $3 million in inventory at one point and produced substantial profits. He built, developed and led a team of 12 people. He also designed and customized web applications for the needs of the business and personally closed annual sales averaging $6.5 million. The company was featured on TV shows and in numerous publications, including the New York Times.

After weathering the Great Recession for several years at Benchmark Classics, Justin was offered and accepted a very attractive position in his hometown of Dallas, TX. The role was Business Development Manager at a large Automotive Group. In-house Entrepreneur would have been a better title as he wrote the business plan for and opened a rapid cosmetic repair auto-body operations division, which grew from nothing to over $175,000 in monthly revenue in 16 months. Justin also created their in house pre-owned vehicle reconditioning program, integrated it into the rapid cosmetic repair division and opened their vehicle Accessories Sales Department.

He ended up joining the largest highline dealership group in the Southwestern United States where he became the top producing Internet Sales Manager at the number two Mercedes Benz dealership in the country. Justin was then recruited to be an Internet Sales Director at the top producing dealership group in the United States. While there, he dramatically increased their internet closing ratio, greatly decreased their average response time and created and implemented automated systems that significantly improved his department’s efficiency. Justin is a born and raised Texan but is also a Badger as he graduated from the University of Wisconsin’s prestigious Wisconsin School of Business. He spends almost all of his free time with his wonderful girlfriend, Andrea, and their three dogs, Motley, Shelby and SIG. The combination of his passion for cool cars and naturally competitive personality led to his goal to drive race cars professionally. This is still in the works!