What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Jesse Biter, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Jesse Biter

Jesse Biter39 posts

Jesse Biter is a Pennsylvania-born entrepreneur who is based in Sarasota, Florida. Biter created software that allows car dealers to list their cars on Autotrader. He currently runs a group buying system for auto dealers called Dealers United.

Latest News view > Click for Biography view
Oct 1996

Starts HomeNet

Founding0 Comments

homenetlogoAfter he drops out of college his mother loans him $1,000 to start HomeNet, a company that installs fiber-optic cable. To make ends meet, he works at car dealerships, setting up computers and helping  dealers save money by, for example, stringing together their PCs so they could use a common printer.

Bill Gates (was my inspiration) because he started a company in his basement — a software-based company. I could associate with him. He was solving problems with software, and I knew I could do that.

One dealership asks him to build a website to advertise its cars online. Biter doesn’t know how to create a site, with a friend, makes one. Soon he starts building websites for other dealers.

Biter starts building software that allows information about sales and listings to be handled electronically. The software cleaned up any spotty data…

Dealers would spell ‘Chevrolet’ 100 different ways

…and let sellers and buyers both know exactly what was available where, in real time.

1996

Drops out of college

0 Comments

Drops out of  Shippensburg University in the first semester of his junior year.

I went to the state office to register my business, and they asked if I wanted it to be an S-Corp or C-Corp. I asked my business professor, and he didn’t know. I said, “Why am I spending all this money to find out how to start a business?”

1976

Jesse Biter born in Philadelphia

Birth0 Comments

Biter grows up in a middle-class household in Westchester, Philadelphia. His father is an administrator with the U.S. Department of Transportation. His mother sells real estate.

Jesse shows an early knack for business. If the power went out, Biter fixes clocks and other settings on neighbors’ VCRs for $1 apiece. By high school, he has graduated from lawn mowing to his own car detailing business (Biter Car Detailing) and stereo instillation business.

It was a God-given gift. Whenever there was an opportunity to make some money, I would do it. I never knew what I wanted to do in life, but I knew I didn’t want to work for someone else. That was my goal.