Inside the 2025 Ekho Offsite

We brought ~30 members of the Ekho team from New York to a farm in rural Georgia for our second annual offsite. It was equal parts strategic reset, product sprint, and team bonding — exactly the mix that has defined Ekho’s pace since day one.

2025 in Review

1. XXX%+ vehicle sales growth

‍This year, we saw a meaningful acceleration in the number of vehicles purchased through Ekho's transaction layer. As dealers continue modernizing their retail channels, we’ve proven that our automated, digital workflows don’t just convert — they convert better, with higher intent and improved customer satisfaction. Sustained triple-digit growth is a signal that the category is ready for scale.

2. Team grew to ~30 incredibly sharp folks‍

This was the year we built out full teams across engineering, product, GTM, and operations. Importantly, we did it with a high bar: world-class builders and operators who thrive in ambiguity and move fast without sacrificing quality. Talent density is now one of Ekho’s superpowers, and you can feel it in the speed and rigor of our work.

3. Raised our $15M Series A from incredible investors‍

We brought on partners who have deep experience across commerce infrastructure, automotive, fintech, and enterprise SaaS — exactly the mix needed to scale Ekho’s mission. This includes Activant, JPMorgan, Winnebago Industries, former Tesla executives, and prominent dealer group owners. The round allows us to push more aggressively on product, integrations, and dealer expansion while maintaining the operational excellence our partners expect.

4. Launched the Ekho Dealer product configuration — the “Shopify for dealerships”‍

This release gives dealers a seamless way to run incremental online sales and fully automated in-store sales from a single unified flow. It eliminates the fragmentation dealers have dealt with for years and replaces it with a modern on-stop-shop layer that handles titling, registration, financing, insurance, F&I, signature collection, fraud detection, and accessory bundling out of the box. Early dealer cohorts have already validated the value.

5. Took dealer-connected online sales live with multiple OEMs representing hundreds of dealers‍

Ekho is now powering real transactions for OEMs with expansive dealer networks. Going live at this scale required tight coordination across compliance, data flows, incentives, and post-sale operations — and the speed at which the team executed these integrations is something we’re incredibly proud of. It’s also a strong signal of where the industry is heading.

Offsite Highlights

Setting 2026 company OKRs + Q1 team OKRs‍

We ran truly collaborative sessions where goals and key results were debated, refined, and pressure-tested across teams. The output was our most aligned and ambitious roadmap to date — one that pushes hard on growth, product maturity, and measurable dealer outcomes. These OKRs will guide our velocity through the first half of 2026.

UTV + ATV rides between sessions — on-brand‍

There’s something fitting about a company building the future of vehicle retail taking test drives between strategy meetings. These breaks gave us room to reset and think creatively — and, unsurprisingly, many of the best ideas came right after someone hopped off a UTV.

Company-wide dinner in the barn

‍We wrapped one evening with a company-wide barn dinner, giving people a chance to connect outside their usual circles. A good reminder that sometimes alignment comes faster over a shared meal than a shared doc.

Skeet shooting — strong proxy for who you want debugging production‍

A fun highlight, but also a revealing one — attention to detail matters whether you’re targeting clay pigeons or diagnosing edge-case finance flows. The activity sparked plenty of healthy competition and even more laughter.

Refining our company principles‍

As we scale, clarity on how we work becomes just as important as what we build. We revisited and strengthened our principles — emphasizing ownership, urgency, clear thinking, and delivering measurable outcomes for dealers, buyers, and OEMs. These now serve as hiring criteria, internal guardrails, and cultural anchors.

Mafia around the campfire until the early hours‍

Shared games and debates around the fire reminded us that culture isn’t engineered — it emerges from the people you bring together. And yes, despite the intensity of certain “accusations,” everyone made it to breakfast the next morning with relationships intact.

5-minute lightning talks on everything shipping next‍

Team members presented rapid overviews of upcoming features, dealer workflows, compliance automation, and infrastructure enhancements. These sessions showcased the breadth of what Ekho will deliver in Q1 — and how deeply each person owns their part of the roadmap.

Taking demos with dealers moving hundreds of millions in GMV from a porch in rural Georgia‍

In true startup fashion, porch Wi-Fi + a committed virtual background powered several meaningful dealer conversations. It was a reminder that great products — and strong partnerships — can happen anywhere when your workflows are reliable and your team is prepared.

Pickup baseball, foggy morning walks, and long team dinners‍

These lighter moments helped new teammates build real relationships and gave everyone the chance to reset between intense work sessions. It’s rare to get the entire company in one place — and even rarer to get truly uninterrupted time together.

Built a ton of product‍

Offsites are consistently some of our highest-output weeks. With everyone in the same room, blockers drop instantly and decision cycles shorten dramatically. This year was no different — several key features moved from spec → prototype → ready-to-ship during the offsite.

Why Offsites Matter for Ekho

The vehicle retail industry is transforming quickly, and our partners rely on us to move decisively. Stepping away from the noise for a few days helps us reset, align, and return with sharper execution. Offsites ensure we’re not just building fast — we’re building the right things.

They also reinforce what makes Ekho special: curiosity, rigor, ownership, and a clear understanding that the work we’re doing matters to dealers, buyers, and the broader industry.

We’re Hiring

We’re continuing to grow across Engineering, Product, GTM, and Compliance.

If you want to help shape the future of vehicle retail, we’d love to talk.