Tire Consumer hires B2B veteran Chan Patel as CEO

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Tire Consumer L.L.C., a tire search engine that seeks to connect online consumers with tire dealers, has hired B2B sector veteran Chan Patel as CEO, taking over those duties from founder Tim Shaffer, who will continue as chief operating officer.

Mr. Patel's hiring comes as Tire Consumer is in the process of updating the tireconsumer.com platform, a process the company expected to be completed by the end of March.

Mr. Patel moves to Tire Consumer from RepairPal Inc., where he was director of sales for the past five years. Prior to that he was manager and sales team leader at Branders.com.

Mr. Shaffer noted that Mr. Patel was the "driving force" behind the success of RepairPal and Branders.com and said, "Now, he will set Tire Consumers' strategy to become the first tire search engine in the automotive sector. I look forward to Chan's leadership at the company."

Mr. Shaffer said that under Mr. Patel's leadership, RepairPal built the "largest trusted network" of auto repair shops in all 50 states and secured partnerships with industry leaders such as BOSCH, Technet (an Advance Auto Parts company) and Precision Tune Auto Care (an Icahn Enterprises company).

"I am thrilled with the opportunity in front of Tire Consumer and understand its magnitude," Mr. Patel said. "Tire Consumer is set to grow rapidly to become a leader in the tire search market by continuing to innovate and creating multiple value propositions for both clients and consumers.

"I look forward to working with the Tire Consumer team to building a world-class enterprise-marketing company," he added.

"Accelerating our growth and differentiating our offerings is critical to our success," Mr. Shaffer said. "Mr. Patel's deep experience and proven track record will be the catalyst we need to extend our value as the top provider of tire marketing and real-time analytics."

Mr. Shaffer launched tireconsumer.com in 2015, stating at that time that the site's aim is to provide a platform where consumers can research tires, compare prices and information, then decide whether to make a purchase and from where.

Instead of buying the tires on the website, the consumer is directed to local tire dealerships that carry what they're looking for.

Mr. Schaffer is a retail tire industry veteran, having worked for Just Brakes L.L.C., National Tire & Auto, TBC Corp./Tire Kingdom and Tires Plus for 18 years.