George Arison | Disrupting the $1.5 Trillion Used Car Market with Shift

George Arison is a serial entrepreneur and the founder & CEO of Shift, an online peer-to-peer marketplace for buying and selling used cars.

Prior to Shift, George spent time as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and a Product Manager at Google before starting Taxi Magic (now known as Curb & acquired by Verifone), the first on-demand mobile transportation booking technology, before Uber and Lyft were an inkling in the minds of ride-hailers everywhere.

George, a Georgian immigrant, was the first student from the Soviet Union allowed to attend a private U.S. high school without a government sponsorship. He later graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont. George also pursued his other professional passion in politics, helping his native country of Georgia transition to a democracy. He co-founded Georgia’s first-ever free market-focused think tank, Partnership for Social Initiatives (PSI) and authored the book "Democracy and Autocracy in Eurasia."

In this episode, George shares stories of his humble beginnings and immigrating to the United States, what he’s learned about entrepreneurship and innovation throughout his career, advice for startups looking to raise venture capital (he’s raised over $300 million), how Airbnb’s founding team helped Shift find their “wow” moment, and the vision for the future of the auto space industry and car ownership in a post-pandemic world.

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