Mike Shahrestani
I Build Businesses, Brands & Opportunities.
Business Development • Creative Marketing • Strategy • Automotive • Technology • Entertainment
I've spent my career connecting ideas, people, technology and opportunity.
Sometimes that means developing a new business opportunity. Sometimes it means creating a marketing concept. Sometimes it means helping fix an operation, develop a partnership, launch a product, build a sales strategy, or recognize an opportunity others may have overlooked.
I don't fit neatly into one box — and that is one of my strengths.
What I Do
Where Strategy Meets Execution
I enjoy working at the intersection of business, creativity and execution. I am usually most valuable when a company has an opportunity, challenge or idea that needs someone who can look at the whole picture and connect the pieces.
Business Development
Building partnerships, opening doors, developing new revenue opportunities and connecting businesses with the right people, markets and strategies.
Creative Marketing
Developing ideas, positioning, campaigns, messaging and unconventional strategies designed to get attention and create action.
Strategy
Helping companies look beyond the immediate problem and identify the larger opportunity.
Sales & Growth
Creating practical strategies around sales, customer acquisition, retention, partnerships and revenue growth.
Operations & Customer Experience
Understanding how sales, technology, process, people and customer experience work together inside a business.
Technology & Innovation
Helping companies understand where technology, automation and AI can genuinely improve a business rather than simply adding more software.
Automotive
Deep Automotive Experience. Broader Business Perspective.
Automotive has been a major part of my professional life and remains one of my deepest areas of expertise.
I understand the automotive ecosystem from the inside — dealership operations, used vehicles, inventory, sales, marketing, vendors, software, technology, customer experience and dealer relationships.
My experience includes working with and serving thousands of independent and franchise dealers, developing automotive technology, advising dealerships and vendors, and helping companies understand how dealers actually operate.
But automotive is not the limit of what I do.
The same principles — business development, positioning, customer experience, sales, partnerships, operations and execution — apply across industries.
30+
Years of Business & Automotive Experience
3,400+
Independent & Franchise Dealers Served
My Approach
I Look at the Whole Business.
One of my strengths is seeing connections between departments and opportunities that are often treated separately.
Often the answer is not another piece of software, another vendor or another campaign. Sometimes the answer is changing the way the business thinks.
I like understanding the complete ecosystem before recommending a solution.
- Marketing affects sales.
- Sales affects operations.
- Operations affects customer experience.
- Technology affects all of them.
How I Think
Ideas, Observations & Perspectives
Experience
A Career Built Around Opportunity
My career has rarely followed a straight line.
I have worked in operations, sales, marketing, technology, automotive, software, consulting, business development and entertainment.
What connects all of those experiences is curiosity.
I like understanding how businesses work, why customers make decisions, where opportunities exist and how people, ideas and resources can be brought together.
Over the years I have helped build companies, develop software, advise businesses, create partnerships, market products, develop revenue opportunities and work with thousands of automotive professionals.
Today, I bring those experiences together when working with companies, entrepreneurs and organizations looking for growth, perspective or a new way of approaching an opportunity.
Selected Experience
Automotive
Dealership operations, used vehicles, inventory, sales, marketing, vendor relationships and dealer strategy across independent and franchise stores.
- Dealer Operations
- Used Vehicle Strategy
- Vendor Advisory
Technology
Working alongside product and engineering teams to shape tools that people in the business will actually use.
- Product Direction
- Automation & AI
- Integrations
Software
Developing and advising on platforms built for retail operations, from concept through go-to-market.
- Platform Development
- Go-To-Market
Business Development
Opening markets, structuring partnerships and building the revenue relationships that carry a company forward.
- Partnerships
- Channel Strategy
- New Markets
Work With Mike
Sometimes You Need Another Perspective.
I work with business owners, entrepreneurs, automotive companies, vendors and organizations that need help thinking through an opportunity, challenge or next move.
I am particularly interested in projects involving:
- Business development
- Partnership strategy
- Creative marketing
- Automotive strategy
- Dealer/vendor strategy
- Technology and AI
- Sales strategy
- Product positioning
- Customer experience
- New business concepts
- Strategic advisory
Consulting & Advisory
Let's Build Something Special Together.
Most of my work now is consulting and advisory — sitting alongside owners and leadership teams on growth, partnerships, marketing, automotive retail and where the business is leaving money behind.
Growth & Business Development
Hands-on work building pipeline, partnerships and new revenue lines — not a strategy deck handed over at the end.
Fractional Strategy
A standing seat at the table with an owner or leadership team working through growth, positioning or a market shift.
Automotive Retail Advisory
Dealer groups and vendors: used vehicle operations, sales process, customer experience and where margin is quietly leaking.
Go-To-Market & Positioning
Sharpening what you sell, who it is for, and why anyone should care — then building the motion to take it out.
Creative Marketing Direction
Campaigns and brand work with a point of view, built to move business rather than win awards.
Workshops & Master Classes
Focused working sessions with leadership or store teams when a team needs to level up fast.
I'm not interested in doing things a certain way simply because that is how they have always been done.
I am interested in what works.
Contact
Have an Idea, Opportunity or Challenge?
If you think I may be able to help with your business, project, partnership or idea, I would enjoy hearing about it.
- Send me a note
- Phone
- 714-417-1167
- /in/mike-shahrestani