Sanford Tech Firm Dealer Funnel Hires Industry Veteran as CRO

Dealer Funnel confirmed on January 6, 2026 that Shane Born has joined the company as chief revenue officer, a move that management portrayed as a strategic step as the Sanford-based firm broadens its product reach and customer base. Born brings more than 20 years of industry experience, including senior roles at ProMax, and will lead revenue strategy for a company focused on unified SMS, telephony, email, chat, voice, video and AI-driven marketing automation.

The hire marks a notable business development for Sanford and Seminole County because Dealer Funnel operates locally while serving a specialized niche in automotive retail technology. The company’s platform aggregates multiple communication channels and layers AI-powered automation on top of them, reflecting broader industry trends toward integrated customer engagement tools and data-driven marketing for car dealers. Strengthening sales leadership could accelerate customer acquisition and product deployment, which in turn may increase local payroll and professional services demand if the company scales operations from its Sanford headquarters.

For local dealers and service businesses, Dealer Funnel’s expanded leadership signals potential improvements in vendor support and product maturity. A chief revenue officer with longstanding dealer-industry experience can help tailor product road maps and sales approaches to dealer economics, inventory cycles and service-bay utilization patterns. That alignment matters in a county economy where automotive retail and repair contribute to small-business revenue and employment.

At the regional level, the appointment underscores a continuing shift in the auto-retail ecosystem toward technology firms that bundle communications, sales workflow and AI-based marketing. Firms that can deliver unified messaging across SMS, telephony, email, chat, voice and video while automating follow-up stand to capture more dealer budgets as digital retailing and remote customer engagement grow. For Sanford, home to Dealer Funnel’s headquarters, successful expansion by such firms can have multiplier effects through hiring, office leasing and contracts with local IT and marketing providers.

Local policymakers and economic development officials tracking the county’s technology cluster will likely view the hire as another indicator of growing specialization in automotive-tech services. Over the longer term, sustained growth at Dealer Funnel could support workforce development needs for sales, customer success and AI product roles, and could make Seminole County more attractive to similar startups and suppliers. For now, the immediate impact is a strengthened executive team positioned to push a unified communications and AI-marketing offering deeper into the dealer market.