A Spokane-based Internet start-up called Dealerswap.com says it will launch within the next few months an innovative web site that will serve auto dealers nationwide.


Though still cloaked in secrecy as to the exact services the venture will offer, the ventures organizers say they have raised first-round seed capital and plan this week to begin seeking what they expect will be another $7 million in second-round financing. The young company, which leases about 4,000 square feet of space in the former Bovay Northwest Inc. building at 808 E. Sprague, currently has hired 13 people, but expects to employ more than 100 by the end of the year.


Our focus is to partner with auto dealers, enabling them to leverage the power of the Internet as a service tool to increase their profitability, says Tom Greenfield, the companys founder. While most auto Internet companies claim to help dealers sell cars, they are more interested in selling financing, insurance, and warranties on line that actually competes with services offered by dealers.


Greenfield declines for competitive reasons to discuss in more detail what services the Internet site will offer, but says it isnt intended for direct use by consumers, and instead should help auto dealers streamline their operations. Also, a number of auto dealers contacted for this story werent aware of Dealerswap.coms specific plans.


The companys web site, at www.dealerswap.com, is live, but the company hasnt yet begun issuing the user IDs and passwords its clients will need to get beyond the sites introductory pages. Marketing information on the site indicates that it will create relationships between automotive dealers, transportation specialists, and other industry professionals through business-to-business e-commerce.


Elsewhere on the site, the company said it was looking to hire for such positions as network administrator, hardware technician, web designer, programmer/analyst, graphic designer, vice president of dealer relations, and regional and district managers. Others of the expected new hires this year will be in customer-service jobs, the company says.


Greenfield declines to say how much the company, which was formed as Dealerswap Inc. but does business as Dealerswap.com, raised in its first round of financing, but he says all of the funds came from Inland Northwest investors. For the expected $7 million in second-round financing, he says, the company will also look to potential investors in the Seattle area and in Californias Silicon Valley.


Dealerswap.com hopes to hold an initial public offering by this time next year, and has hired a senior audit manager to help guide it through that process. That employee, Christine Allard, previously was with a large national accounting firm, where she handled high-technology IPOs.


Some people have told us to move to Seattle or California to prepare for our IPO, but I really believe we can do it here, says Greenfield, the companys president and CEO. We believe Spokane is a great place to do business.


Greenfield, who is a third-generation auto dealer and has lived in Spokane for seven years, teamed up last spring with Spokane businessman Ken Bowman, who now is the companys chief technology officer, to begin working out details for Dealer-swap.com. Bowman, who previously owned a company here called DataComp of Spokane, says he sold that business in October. The two men purposefully have tried to keep a low profile as theyve formed the company, they say.


This is a cutthroat industry, Greenfield says. Bowman adds, We dont have any competitors right now and we dont plan to create any.