South Florida startup Autoket launched a marketplace for automotive fleet parts
By Karen-Janine Cohen
To the average Joe or Josephine, auto parts might not be the most interesting objects – until you need one of the thousand or so items that make up your car. Then, quarter panels, starter solenoids and the camshaft phase variator can become downright fascinating. Yet getting the right parts in the right quantities can be complicated, especially when it comes to maintaining trucks, limos, and other fleets.
That was the insight that led Charles Masters Rodriguez to found Autoket, an AI-powered B2B marketplace for automotive fleet parts. The company is now working out of the Alan B. Levan | NSU Broward Center of Innovation. The center is a public-private partnership between Nova Southeastern University and Broward County focused on developing and supporting South Florida innovators.
“The first time I saw problems with parts was in the military as a diver, and we had to order specialized parts to keep the unit up-to-date and combat ready,” said Masters [pictured above]. That included maintaining a fleet of vehicles. “As soon as I got out, I saw that the commercial side had the same problems.”
After leaving the U.S. Army in 2019, Masters started MK3 Industries, an auto parts ecommerce distribution company. That gave him six years in the automotive industry dealing with auto parts, he said, noting that MK3 grew revenue to $2 million. Meanwhile, he became aware in detail of the difficulty across the sector in timely sourcing the right parts. “The shops can’t find the parts they need for the right price,” he said. “There is no one-stop platform to connect to other buyers. That is why I came up with Autoket.”
The company uses AI to search the many databases that list auto parts. Part of Autoket’s secret sauce is that the parts already come with identifiers, such as serial numbers, a universal part code, and other information. “All these parts have multiple identities,” Masters said. In general, each part has many data attributes, thus Autoket is able to aggregate the data and product descriptions.” Using AI that translates to a more streamlined and faster procurement process, he said.
“We are standardizing all the data in terms of parts and facilitating the transaction between the reputable buyer and seller of these parts,” he said. Amassing the data is key to getting the most out of artificial intelligence. “The basis of AI has to be the data,” Masters said. “You can start building AI and machine learning around that data.”
Fellow veteran and former logistics officer Joseph Wyatt is Autoket’s co-founder and the duo were then joined by Alexander Antaya as co-founder and chief technology officer.
This year, Autoket successfully completed the Levan Center‘s offerings crafted particularly toward veterans. The site went live in mid-November and, said Masters, within a week or so, they already logged $3,000 in sales.
To get the company off the ground, Masters put in $10,000 of his own funds. Autoket participated in Techstars Los Angeles’ accelerator this fall, receiving a $120,000 Techstars investment. Another $40,000 came from grants and pitch competitions.
Autoket won the university track competition at eMerge Americas in 2024 (Masters is a Florida International University alumnus), and won a Veterans Florida pitch competition in 2023.
Masters grew up in Puerto Rico, where he fell in love with everything having to do with being in the water – his father taught him to spear fish at 12. He then won an appointment to West Point and was commissioned as an Army officer. Educated as an engineer, Masters became part of a team known as the Army Divers. The specialty can be intense, and can include such things as underwater demolition in conflict areas, protecting other forces, inspecting the hulls of ships, and sometimes, search and recovery missions. At times, his unit would be deployed within 48 hours, and their fleet of vehicles and combat equipment had to be “kept up to date and combat ready,” Masters said.
From there, he became aware of the special challenges in maintaining, in particular, automotive fleets. “We are focused right now primarily on the trucking fleets,” he said, noting that the vehicles need a lot of maintenance that require standardized parts. “Every hour these trucks are down is worth thousands and thousands of dollars.”
Meanwhile Masters is committed to helping more veterans consider entrepreneurship and remains deeply involved in the South Florida veteran community.
It is a good fit for many who served, he said, noting that those in the military know what it is to have commitment, purpose and mission, and how to work in teams. Those are the qualities that also make starting and growing a business a good fit, Masters said. “Entrepreneurship is one of the greatest things a vet can do to keep giving back to society, and to other vets.”
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