Matt Copley
25 years in automotive spanning retail, media, and SaaS leadership. A decade on the dealership floor across four groups, Corporate Director of Automotive at Raycom Media, and an 8-year run leading Sales, Product Marketing, and Product Strategy at PureCars before co-founding Hrizn.
25
Years in Automotive
Retail, media & SaaS leadership10
Years in Retail Auto
Across four dealership groups8
Years at PureCars
Sales, product & strategy11K+
LinkedIn Followers
Industry thought leaderA quarter-century in automotive, from every angle
Matt Copley's career in automotive started where it matters most: the dealership. Over the course of a full decade in retail, Matt worked across four dealership groups — Precision Toyota, Quebedeaux Buick GMC, the Berge Group, and Avondale Automotive Group — holding roles in sales, internet, and BDC leadership. That experience gave him something most vendor-side executives never get: a deep, operational understanding of what it actually takes to move inventory, convert leads, and keep a dealership running.
That ground-level perspective set Matt apart when he transitioned to the media side. At Raycom Media — one of the largest broadcast media companies in the U.S. (now Gray Media) — he rose to Corporate Director of Automotive, leading digital strategy and ad solutions for automotive clients across local broadcast markets at a critical inflection point for the industry. When Raycom acquired PureCars in 2015, Matt made the move to SaaS and never looked back. Across an 8-year tenure, he led Sales, Product Marketing, and Product Strategy for one of automotive's most recognized advertising and analytics platforms — helping shape its commercial engine and product direction through a period of massive industry change.
Throughout 25 years in automotive, Matt kept seeing the same gap: dealerships invested heavily in paid media but had no real content infrastructure. Organic visibility was either outsourced to agencies that didn't understand the business, or ignored entirely. The content layer was the missing piece — and no one was building it the right way.
Matt met David Gruhin on David's eighth day in the automotive industry. They spent years discussing what it would take to solve the content problem at its root — not with another agency model, but with infrastructure that dealerships own and control. After Matt's exit from PureCars and David's from Cheddar Auto, they made it happen.
A full decade in retail automotive across four dealership groups. Matt has managed BDC teams, sold cars, and understands firsthand what marketing actually needs to accomplish at the store level.
Bridged the gap between traditional media and digital at Raycom Media as Corporate Director of Automotive — then spent 8 years at PureCars leading Sales, Product Marketing, and Product Strategy.
11,000+ LinkedIn followers make Matt the most visible public voice in the Hrizn founding team — an audience built on 25 years of automotive expertise.
Deep understanding of where paid media stops and organic content must start. The retail, media, and SaaS experience gives Matt a rare end-to-end view of the dealership marketing stack.
Retail to media to SaaS to co-founder
Retail Automotive — 10 Years Across Multiple Dealership Groups
Spent a full decade in retail automotive, working across multiple dealership groups in sales, internet, and BDC leadership. From Precision Toyota and Quebedeaux Buick GMC to the Berge Group and Avondale Automotive Group, Matt built a ground-level understanding of how dealerships operate — what moves metal, what marketing actually converts, and where most vendors miss the mark.
Corporate Director of Automotive
Joined Raycom Media — one of the largest broadcast media companies in the U.S. — and rose to Corporate Director of Automotive. Led digital strategy and advertising solutions for automotive clients across local broadcast markets, bridging the gap between traditional media spend and emerging digital channels at a critical inflection point for the industry.
Sales, Product Marketing & Product Strategy Leadership
When Raycom Media acquired PureCars in 2015, Matt transitioned into the SaaS side of automotive and never looked back. Across an 8-year tenure, he led Sales, Product Marketing, and Product Strategy for one of automotive's most recognized advertising and analytics platforms — shaping go-to-market, building commercial teams, and helping define the product roadmap through a period of massive industry change.
Co-Founder & Chief Revenue Officer
After 25 years watching the same content infrastructure gap persist across dealerships, Matt co-founded Hrizn with David Gruhin. Their combined experience — Matt's decade on the retail floor plus his years leading product and sales at PureCars, alongside Dave's engineering and dealership operations background — gave them the conviction and playbook to build the content operating system the industry was missing.
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