Lyamen Savy is the CEO and founder of www.321 Ignition.com, a Seattle-based startup focused on helping car dealerships evolve to meet the next generation of car buyers’ demands online and in the showroom. She brings over 18 years of sales and marketing expertise and her vast knowledge in the digital space coupled with her focus on customer experience in the automotive industry.  Her unique background has steered 321 Ignition’s mission to enhance the car buying journey for the next generation while identifying ways to increase profitability and efficiency for car dealerships.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I grew up in Azerbaijan and had to leave in the early 1990s because of the war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.  My family arrived in Seattle, WA, struggled to achieve the American immigrant dream life and I have lived here ever since.  After graduating from the University of Washington, I started my career in sales doing telemarketing before moving to digital marketing and brand development at various startups and Fortune 100 companies before landing a dream job at Microsoft. With over 15 years of marketing experience in various industries, I am most excited now to be able to bring all the key learnings from other industries to automotive at such a pivotal time in our lives.

What inspired you to start your business?

I was inspired to start 321 Ignition after seeing a few friends in the automotive industry struggle with a basic website and marketing tools that were available in the automotive.  I was surprised that dealerships were still using antiquated methods to generate leads and sell cars.  I knew this industry is ripe for disruption and I could be that new blood that brings fresh approach and ideas that I have seen work in other more technologically advanced industries to automotive.

Where is your business based?

We are based in Bellevue, WA with an East Coast office in Fairfield, CT. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

The first steps I took to start 321 Ignition was embarking on three months of thorough research of dominant players that control the automotive digital market, their current website products and car shopping tools, their customer acquisition strategies, and pricing models. The more I researched, the more I realized the automotive digital space is controlled by 6 huge companies that are too big, slow, and too complex to adapt to new technologies, and so I decided to start my company. The next thing I did was reached out to an old friend, DJ Haddad owner of Haddad & Partners, a creative agency that I used to work with at Capital One and at Microsoft, to share my idea and see if he would be interested in becoming my business partner.

 What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

The most effective way of raising awareness for 321 Ignition is to first make sure we align our business with our values, beliefs, and personality.  From there everything we do (thought leadership through participating in industry events, participating in podcasts and on social media webinar sessions or conferences and summits,) reinforces our unique differentiators.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Our biggest challenge has been recruiting and managing remote teams. We’re a global company and have been working remotely from day one, which was helpful when the COVID epidemic started. However, finding talented people to work remote is a challenge because the person has to be self-motivated and disciplined. Being able to offer our employees ability to work remote is a great way to recruit the best talent and more women with families who wants the flexibility to work from anywhere any pick their own hours, but it takes a disciple person to be able to manage their own schedule and juggle all of the things that a start-up brings. We’ve been able to overcome them by doing post-mortem after employees didn’t work out, learned from our mistakes, and improved our hiring criteria and onboarding process.

How do you stay focused?

I stay focused because 321 Ignition is my ‘baby’ for all intents and purposes.  Being an entrepreneur and a child of refugee immigrants, I know the value of sacrificing for your long-term goals.  It’s been easy to keep my focus because I was raised by my grandmother, who at an early age instilled the importance of giving 100% to make your dreams come true.  She always said, “if you're going to do it half-assed, don't do it at all. Work your ass off so you can reap the rewards.”. She was a strong and determined woman, so I had her as an example. Failure has never been an option for my family. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We are the only mobile-first website provider in the automotive.  We have a ‘customer first’ perspective and think about how the customer experiences the brand before they walk in the showroom and at every touchpoint along their journey.  We are obsessed with the customer experience and believe the ‘customer is the star’ as opposed to common auto industry adage, ‘the car is the star.’

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

The most effective strategy to grow 321 Ignition has been through word-of-mouth by providing our customers with a high level of customer service and being results-focused.  Developing thought leadership opportunities at various industry conferences and networking events have also created lasting partnerships and industry allies. 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

My best advice is never to rest on your laurels.  Regardless of how much success you’ve had in a past company or job role, you have to be hungry, humble, and relentless as an entrepreneur in a new venture.  There will be many peaks and valleys along the way, and you can’t get too ‘high or too low’ throughout any.  Not everyone is cut out for that.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app is a workout app called Seven because it gets your blood pumping in a short time by having you do high impact workouts that are quick and require very little equipment (most is with your own body weight.)  You can do it anywhere anytime. Physical fitness and mental strength go hand in hand.  Strong body, strong mind.   My favorite book that had such a lasting impression on me is called, Good to Great by Jim Collins.  It took Jim Collins and his team 5 years to research 1,435 companies to find the answer: how 11 companies that made the leap and transition from being good companies to great companies, and how most companies fail to make the transition.  I very often reference quotes from that book in conversations with my employees…My favorite chapters, “First who, then what”, “Confront the brutal facts” and “The flywheel effect”.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Excel is by far my favorite business tool. Like Jim Collins talks about in his Good to Great book, “Confront brutal facts” and data doesn’t lie. I absolutely love data and can spend hours playing with pivot tables trying to understand the patterns and make sense of things.  Excel allows you to take a large amount of raw data and really quickly identify important information and visual way to tell a story.

Who is your business role model? Why?

I’m inspired by Reshma Saujani (CEO/Founder of Girls Who Code) – She started her career in law and then through years of life experience, realized that girls were not having equal exposure to many career fields, she took it upon herself to start Girls Who Code. She’s also written books on the importance of raising girls to be fearless, take risks, and not worry about being perfect.  Her mantra on the power of being brave really speaks to me as an entrepreneur and as a woman in a predominantly male industry.

How do you balance work and life?

I clearly don’t….

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

My favorite way to decompress is to work out and listen to music (either at the gym or go for a walk by the water),  When I am working up a sweat, I forget about any of my stresses and just focus on what my body is telling me.  I tend to blare dance club music and break into some dancing between lunges.  It’s the best escape for me after a hectic day of calls and computer work. 

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

Oh wow! In my world, things move so fast, I’m not even sure what the next 6 hours have in store for me. But I guess if I could look into a crystal ball, I’d expect to see myself coming up with even more innovative ways for dealerships to sell cars online. Technology is evolving so quickly. And it’s always been my mission to make sure 321 Ignition stays ahead of the cutting edge. And if I look really closely, maybe I can see myself on a beach with a vodka water extra strawberries and my cellphone ... and a laptop! 

How can our readers connect with you?

I’m on LinkedIn and Facebook or they can email me at Lyamen@321ignition.com.