Making first cars happen

Carbi takes a needs based approach to finding a first car. Spend a couple of minutes telling us your budget and priorities and we find the best low insurance group car from a trusted local dealer.

Why I'm building this

I've spent 25 years in tech delivery, helping teams turn ideas into working products. Carbi started when I spotted a real world problem close to home with some free time to validate the idea and built it out. Parents and their teenagers spend precious weekends trawling Autotrader and dealer-hopping, unsure what to trust and confused by the mad insurance costs and overwhelmed by choice.

So far I have:

• Talked to parents and teens to understand the pain points.
• Built and tested a lightweight prototype with no-code tools.
• Productionised the prototype and iterated with feedback.

Now I'm running a pilot to test and learn before scaling or pivoting.

What's happening now

Carbi (as of late '25) is in pilot phase, with ads running on Facebook and Instagram targeting parents of teens and pointing at a landing page and form.

Still very much in discovery: fast feedback loops, real data, iteration.

What's Next

Once the pilot ends, I'll review the results, iterate the product, and decide how to scale, change or abandon it. That might mean expanding to new regions, adding instant dealer matching, or automating more of the search and communication process.