Steve Voudouris
Steve Voudouris is the founder and CEO of Turn 5, a Malvern, Pennsylvania-based company that owns two of the United States’ premier online aftermarket parts resellers: AmericanMuscle.com, a Mustang-only property, and ExtremeTerrain, a Jeep lover’s paradise. Voudouris has more than 15 years of business experience dating back to his days as a green-around-the-ears high schooler working with his brother and a family friend out of his parents’ basement.
Turn 5
Today, Turn 5 has more than 300 employees and enjoys an enviable reputation for quality, service, and smarts. Voudouris attributes his company’s success (and his own) to a vibrant company culture and a disciplined focus on two singular car brands. In a recent interview, he explained, “We really hire people that understand those vehicles, that drive the vehicles. We… create a great experience for the customer because we’re very focused.
Innovations
One of Voudouris’ singular innovations is Turn 5’s Mustang and Jeep loyalty program. Every Turn 5 employee — “from maintenance on up to finance,” says Voudouris — gets a up to $2,000 biennial bonus that can be put toward the purchase of a new Jeep or Mustang. Some use the money to purchase their first new car, says Voudouris, while others purchase their sixth or seventh. But the program’s effect is clear, as many Turn 5 employees own a Jeep or Mustang, and virtually all are experts on each brand of car.
“[The loyalty program] is a cool thing that keeps employees at all levels of the business engaged with our customer and our product, and it’s just a fun thing that we do,” says Voudouris.
AmericanMuscle Car Show
Speaking of fun, Voudouris is responsible for another Turn 5 innovation, the annual AmericanMuscle Car Show, which is held every August. According to multiple reports, the 2015 edition was officially the year’s largest Mustang-only car show in North America.
Make A Wish Foudation
At the 2015 blowout, Voudouris and the Turn 5 team partnered with the Make-a-Wish Foundation’s Philadelphia chapter to turn a humdrum 2000 Mustang into a replica of the amazing Boss 302 Laguna Seca, making a Michigan teen’s day. In the process, they raised more than $55,000 for the organization — one of the year’s largest car-industry contributions.
New Opportunities
Voudouris founded AmericanMuscle.com in 2004 after a frustrating attempt to mod out his 2001 V6 Mustang. Voudouris lost patience with the archaic aftermarket parts shopping process, which at the time was largely confined to mail-order catalogs that often took six to eight weeks to deliver orders, couldn’t be relied upon to have the right parts in stock, and frequently lacked quality photographs and descriptions. Voudouris and his partners developed a business plan that addressed these pain points and moved the part-shopping experience online, where it belonged. In Voudouris’ model, the customer always came first — and could always count on enthusiast-driven content, high-quality products, and the support of a close-knit community.
In 2009, Voudouris and his partners were recognized as the Small Business Administration’s Young Entrepreneurs of the Year, an honor bestowed in a private White House ceremony with the President in attendance.
Expansion
In 2012, Turn 5’s growth accelerated, and the company undertook a dramatic physical and personnel expansion. Around this time, Voudouris and his team recognized a once-in-a-decade opportunity in the off-road vehicle (specifically Jeep) market — a “very different, but no less enthusiastic crowd,” he says. That opportunity became ExtremeTerrain, Turn 5’s second online property. After the incredibly rewarding and educational AmericanMuscle.com experience, it was easy for the Turn 5 team to build ExtremeTerrain into the premier provider of off-road Jeep parts and accessories.
Awards
Since the late 2000s, Voudouris and Turn 5 have received numerous awards and accolades from high-profile organizations, including the SBA Young Entrepreneurs Award, Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot 500 Award, Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Retail Companies, and Bizrate.com’s Platinum Award for Customer Service Excellence.
Steve Voudouris and Make A Wish Mustang
Of course, material success and personal recognition aren’t the only markers in Voudouris’ life. In fact, they’re not even the most important. As Turn 5 matures, Voudouris is increasingly committed to leaving a permanent legacy of charitable giving and community-building in southeastern Pennsylvania and beyond, such as by helping the Philadelphia chapter of the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Follow Steve Voudouris
You can keep in touch with Steve on the all of the usual social media accounts:
You can also find Steve Voudouris on Crunchbase. Be sure to check out Steve’s bio pages on ExtremeTerrain, AmericanMuscle and Turn 5.