Traction CEO Holly Pezzano was recently featured in VoyageATL article. In it she discussed topics ranging from why she started Traction, how her history with insurance and automotive businesses helped shape the concept and why just buying an insurance agency wasn’t going to give Traction the business we wanted.
My guiding philosophy is “If I can’t find it, I’ll build it”.
How Fellow Homefield Concept ShiftAtlanta Spawned Traction
Homefield launched ShiftAtlanta as an automotive community with the goal of helping bring new people into the Atlanta car community. While Traction did not stay exclusive to Atlanta, the community offered Holly and the team that became Traction the opportunity to see first hand some of the areas automotive enthusiasts and brands needed help.
Through the past few years of running Shift Atlanta, it became clear that one of the biggest struggles and barriers that car people face is dealing with insurance. Either they have modified their cars and worry the parts wont be covered or want to do non covered activities such as drive on a race track.
About The Current State Of The Insurance Industry
You don’t even need to be an insurance insider to know the macroeconomic state of the insurance industry is a mess, particularly in high risk states and areas prone to natural disasters. Yet, at Homefield the belief has always been that with challenge comes opportunity. Buy low, sell high. It’s cliche, but when things are darkest sometimes is the best time to get involved in an industry. As long as you bring a fresh prespective.
When we first got started, we tried to figure out how we were going to work through it, but we found our way. We have a very specific niche and are very happy in this space. What it boils down to is the understanding that you are not going to be able to help everyone and/or be the solution to every problem no matter how much you want to be. What we can do however, we do it better than anyone.
About What Makes Traction Different
We consider ourselves a car brand first and insurance second. We are fully engaged in the car scene and most of us either track and race ourselves. Lots of agents say they know cars but shy away from modified cars, non street legal vehicles when the project is beyond the scope of their knowledge. Also, when customers would be even hesitant to tell their agent the truth about what all they’ve done to their car that can be problematic. We’re giving people the ability to be open about what they have and like to do with their cars and pairing them with the kinds of companies that not only allow, but support their hobbies.
Read The Full Interview
You can read the entire interview with Holly Pezzano and Traction at VoyageATL.