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Industry API Platforms & Marketplaces

Automotive & Heavy-Duty Trucking  |  1999 – 2022

API platforms live or die on developer trust. The experience challenge across all of this work was the same: how do you make something technically powerful feel approachable to the developer evaluating it at 11pm, alone, deciding whether to build on your platform or someone else's? And once you've earned that trust — how do you build an ecosystem that stays ahead of competitors who are trying to take it?

Karmak — Unity Pro Portal

Before the Unity Pro Portal existed, Karmak delivered its DMS data through soft file transfers to a handful of subscribers. Every vendor integration was a one-off negotiation with support or development. There was no structure, no scale, and nothing keeping competitors like CDK from catching up.

The decision was to productize everything — take all of Karmak's heavy-duty DMS data and break it into well-defined, usable API pieces that partners could interface with consistently. Same concept as Fortellis, but HD DMS focused: every API you need to build your interface, right there. No phone tag with support or development. You sign up, get your documentation, start coding. Go through an interface review, get certified, and begin servicing customers.

No more one-off integrations. Everything structured and baked into the platform. The result: 10 million net-new transactions in its first year. It kept Karmak ahead of CDK and others in the HD space and changed how the industry thought about data interoperability.

Karmak Unity Portal Karmak API List Karmak Documentation

Skills Applied

  • API Productization Strategy
  • Partner Ecosystem Development
  • Backlog Management
  • Sprint / Quarter / Annual Planning
  • 3rd Party Stakeholder Management
  • Front-End Development
10M+
Net-new API transactions in year one — none of which existed before the platform launched.

CDK Global — Fortellis & ELEAD CRM

2016 – 2019

Imagine building Apigee from scratch — the developer network, the API marketplace, the end-user interface, the backend routing layer that connects any API frontend to any backend regardless of where it's hosted. That's what I owned at Fortellis.

In the automotive space, getting all your connections up and working can take forever. Fortellis solved that. One place to find every API you could need — including from CDK's trusted vendor network — so you could connect, build, and ship apps that actually worked quickly. No hunting across a dozen different vendor portals. No wondering if the connection was going to hold.

I initiated Fortellis while Director of Product at ELEAD, before CDK's acquisition. Post-acquisition I transitioned to the Fortellis team to see it through launch — responsible for the complete platform vision, developer experience, and the infrastructure that made it possible for third-party developers to publish APIs and for dealers to consume them through a structured marketplace.

Dev Days
Our developer hackathons ran 24 to 36 hours and became known across the automotive industry. Developers came in, connected to the platform, and left with fully functional working software. That was the proof point — not a demo, not a pitch. Working software, built on Fortellis, in a day and a half.
Fortellis Platform Fortellis Marketplace Fortellis Community Fortellis Insights

What I Owned on Fortellis

  • Developer network & onboarding experience
  • API marketplace (3rd party + CDK apps)
  • End-user interface
  • Backend API routing layer (host-agnostic)
  • 3rd Party Stakeholder Management
  • Platform vision, strategy & roadmap

ELEAD CRM

As Director of Product at ELEAD, managed the product team across sales, service, marketing, integrations, and platform segments — and laid the groundwork for what became Fortellis. Oversaw all published APIs and platform requirements before and through the CDK acquisition.