Katie Mares did not set out to change the automotive industry. She just wanted to buy a car.
She visited six showrooms. Six times she walked in as a woman, a mom of three, someone with a budget and a clear vision, and six times she walked out feeling invisible. The seventh was different. They asked the right questions, listened, and treated her like the decision-maker she was. She found the perfect vehicle from a brand she had never considered, for twenty thousand dollars less than she had budgeted. That experience did not just change her car purchase. It changed everything.
She started asking why a woman could have a better experience buying a seven-dollar coffee than spending seventy thousand dollars on a vehicle. The research confirmed what she already felt. Women influence eighty percent of vehicle purchases and make up sixty-five percent of buyers, yet the car buying experience has been designed by men, for men, since the beginning.
So she got to work. Over the next fifteen years she became a number one bestselling author, a TEDx speaker, and a consultant to brands like Volvo, Toyota, and Honda, taking the stage at NADA, Women in Automotive, and other major retail automotive events as the female consumer expert the industry did not know it needed.
When she met Nic and Jeremy, something clicked. A shared vision, a new identity, and a company fully committed to the woman they had all been thinking about. DriveHer was born. A community built on transparency, shared knowledge, and the belief that buying a car should feel like something you own, not something you survive.
Katie joined DriveHer because she is the woman it was built for.