Join Startup Grind Charlotte and the Automotive Digital Marketing Association for an exclusive virtual conversation with Jay Vijayan, founder and CEO of Tekion and former Global Chief Information Officer at Tesla.

During his time at Tesla, Jay helped build and scale the technology infrastructure supporting the company’s rapid growth. He later made the leap from corporate executive to entrepreneur, founding Tekion to transform the automotive retail industry with a modern, cloud-native and AI-driven platform.

Hosted by Rico Glover, Chief AI Officer and BDC Director of Fayetteville Auto Mall, this conversation will explore:

• Jay’s journey from Tesla executive to technology founder

• The decision to leave a successful corporate career and launch Tekion

• The future of automotive agentic AI

• What it means to become an AI-native dealership

• How AI may transform sales, service, customer experience and dealership operations

• The role of employees and leaders as automation expands

• How dealerships can prepare for the next major shift in automotive technology

• Jay’s lessons for entrepreneurs building companies in rapidly changing industries

Startup Grind has hosted conversations with some of the world’s most influential technology leaders and entrepreneurs, including Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, Patrick Collison, Ben Horowitz, Vinod Khosla and Jessica Livingston. This event continues that tradition by bringing together entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence and the future of automotive retail.

This virtual event is designed for dealership leaders, automotive professionals, technology founders, entrepreneurs, investors and anyone interested in how AI will reshape business.