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Mehrsa Raeiszadeh (left) and Mike Wood are the co-founders of MintList.

Photo courtesy MintList

MintList founders speak on success

By Jim Gordon and Leeta Liepins

Published 2:19 PDT, Fri July 8, 2022

Last Updated: 12:28 PDT, Tue September 6, 2022

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MintList is a platform that allows people to buy, sell, and trade their cars. The award-winning Vancouver-based company was founded by Mike Wood and Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, now its chief executive officer and chief operating officer respectively.

Our City Tonight spoke with Wood and Raeiszadeh about their path to success and how MintList works.

The car industry is a trillion dollar business in North America MintList has made buying and selling cars more advantageous for the consumer. Can you explain how MintList’s service works?

Wood: We make the buying and selling less frustrating by making it accessible and easy for everyone—consumers and dealers. Often, when a consumer wants to buy a new car, they have to figure out what to do with the car they already have. We get the best price for your car without you having to negotiate.

And you are there through the whole process?

Wood: When you go to sell your car, you may not remember all the options your car had when you bought it. We ask you to take a video of the car on your cell phone, and from that we create an inspection report. We then pull together all the car data, like factory options, and then we put it (into) a package that our buyers can understand.

As a buyer, one of the questions that comes to mind is: ‘How do I test drive a vehicle?’

Raeiszadeh: The owner will do the inspection with (their) phone. Our system, from the video taken of the car, can pick up any scratches on the car and even the condition of the tires. This, along with factory information, is packaged nicely, listing all the information that’s needed so that the buyer may offer you the most value for your car. So the buyer doesn’t need to test drive.

You also handle new cars as well.

Wood: The online-only dealers today are dealing in used cars only. We have hundreds of “brick and mortar” car dealers on board—new and used—and we vet them all, making sure they are dealers you’re going to want to deal with. We also back up every car with a warranty that’s underwritten by a third-party insurance company in Canada, with a 60-day warranty on any car you purchase regardless of the dealer it’s coming from.

Explain the tax benefit.

Wood: I don’t think a lot of people recognize that you get a tax credit when you trade your car in on a new car. Let’s say you buy a $50,000 car and you trade in a $30,000 car, you pay tax on $20,000 instead of on $50,000.

MintList has gathered a lot of attention and awards. You both also bring award-winning careers to the table and have a great synergy between the two of you. What (are) your (backgrounds)?

Raeiszadeh: I came to Canada after grad school in the (United) States to join an early-phase “start-up” but I wanted more, so I started building MintList with Mike and we won first place in the 2021 New Ventures BC (Competition).

Wood: I have years of experience in the auto industry, from washing cars as a teenager to owning and running car dealerships. I was also the first Canadian president of the National Leasing Association in the (United States).

For more information about MintList, visit mintlist.com. To watch the full video interview, visit richmondsentinel.ca/videos

Jim Gordon and Leeta Liepins are contributing writers to the Richmond Sentinel.