Highland Park residents Alex Bravy and Ben Wallach launched Web2Carz in 2006. Originally designed a tool to buy and sell new and used autos, the site has grown into a lifestyle magazine.
“We wanted to find a way to not only keep readers on the site when they weren’t shopping for their next car, but also wanted to entertain readers with unique, interesting copy,” Bravy said.
So they hired an experienced editorial staff and started their online lifestyle and autos magazine in December, 2011.
Since the online magazine was created the Web2Carz team has interviewed Adam Carolla about his love of cars and his dislike of Hollywood and President Obama, former Eagles guitarist Don Felder on his new projects and Gene Wilder and Paul Shaffer on a cancer home in Wisconsin debating about removing “Gilda Radner” from their name (which never happened).
With a name like Web2Carz, autos are a big part of their repertoire. The staff has covered the major auto shows in the U.S. and test drives new cars around the North Shore and on trips across the country.
“We get a few new cars dropped off every week at our office right here in Highland Park,” Bravy said.
And that office along Green Bay Rd. in Highland Park was an important decision for the two partners as well.
“Being from the area, we made sure we were going to be located in Highland Park,” Wallach said.
“We’re an online business, we could be anywhere, but it was important to the two of us, and our families, that we remained here,” added Bravy.
But that road back to the northern Chicago suburbs wasn’t always an easy one. Bravy emigrated from Russia with his family when he was only a young boy and not only had to adapt to a new culture but, like every child, had to decide what he wanted to do.
Wallach spent eight years in Israel before moving out to California to pursue a career in the music industry. After working with top artists like Joe Cocker and Tina Turner, he decided the music industry didn’t quite keep the hours he was looking for and started to learn computer code.
Eventually their paths crossed again back in Illinois and they started to commute together by train from Highland Park to their jobs in Chicago, working at online giants like Monster, Orbitz and Cars. They soon began creating ideas of owning their own site and actually started writing code during their train commutes. They launched the site, saw some immediate success, and quit their jobs to take on Web2Carz full time.
Now with a full staff of writers, editors, programmers and social media experts, both owners are looking forward to the next step.
“We’re happy about what we’ve done but, with a lot of work, we can do a lot more,” Wallach said. “We’re very excited about our future.”
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