The Quality Makers: Michael Rapetti of The Motoring Club

Michael Rapetti founded The Motoring Club as a brick-and-mortar members club for car people, but over the past six years, it’s grown into much more than that. Today, it’s also a bustling coffee shop-meets-retail space, plus a coworking hot-spot for founders, creatives, and, of course, car people. 

I’ve been a member for the better part of the past year (I’m actually writing this from TMC’s West LA location) and while I’ve never identified as a car person per se, I’m a big fan of the space and community that considers it home. 

I had the opportunity to catch up with Michael on the heels of TMC’s successful second opening in San Francisco and learn more about the past and future of the club. Here’s the scoop…

‍To kick things off, I'd love to hear the story behind The Motoring Club.

“The idea behind The Motoring Club was one of those things that simmered throughout my life because at the heart of it was my personal need for a community around cars. 

I'm from New York, and then I moved to Colorado, and then San Francisco, and then back to New York. Throughout my adult years, I had different hobbies and interests, but cars were always something that interested me, and I could never find community around them. 

There was a point in my career (I was running business development for Vroom, the car startup) where I was working in tech, but also working in the car industry, and that was my moment where I was like, alright, this is cool.

So, six years ago, I had a freak out and decided to drop everything in New York and move to LA to pursue the idea of creating a brick and mortar social club for car enthusiasts. I gave myself a year to pound the pavement in LA and test the idea of ‘If I build it, they will come.’ 

Luckily, because nothing like it existed in LA, I was able to build a community and five years later, it evolved from the original location where it was just a social club and car storage to a new, bigger home here in West LA that includes a public-facing coffee shop and retail – and now a second location in San Francisco.”

OK, I'm curious about that last piece. Because when I think about it, The Motoring Club is two, maybe three businesses in one. How did the car storage and members club and coffee shop come to be? Was that always your intention?‍

“It was an organic evolution. In the beginning I started with car storage and the social membership. Then, from there I realized it was a cool warehouse of cars, so people wanted to rent it out for private events – so we added events.  And then we started doing some fun merch, which became a retail avenue. And I realized there was more of a demand – people that maybe weren’t interested in a full membership or didn't live in the area, but wanted to experience the brand.

I wanted to have this social club that's a little more exclusive, but I also wanted an aspect that's more inclusive – where you can invite more people to enjoy the space and the cars. 

In the early days, when it's just a private club, your audience is small and limited. Cars are so cool, and I think they should be appreciated more. So, the coffee shop piece was the place to open things up to more people.  So now it's basically a bunch of different businesses in one, but they all fuel one another.” 

Whenever I talk to a founder and hear their story, it’s typically wrapped in a bow – I did this, and then I did that, and now it’s a success! I know that’s rarely the case. Can you speak to the challenges you’ve faced getting things off the ground?

“The reality is it’s been a seven-day-a-week grind for six years. At a high level, you’re creating this cool space and building community, but at the heart of it, when you're building community, it's so much about you. You have to be the one trying to authentically connect with people and get people involved.  

If you look back on it, you're like, ‘Oh, great, yeah, people just showed up and you did events and it worked,’ but so much of it is these little things behind the scenes: connecting people one on one and seeing friendships grow and strategizing with the right brands and partners.

It took me basically putting the rest of my life on hold to build this thing. And so the last six years it's been… my life. It continues to be, which is great. I'm proud of it. But, you know those memes that are like, ‘Be your own boss?’ The Instagram versus reality of what it is, it’s not for everyone. I think I'm just kind of built in that way, and I'm psychotic, and I love the chaos of it.”

In terms of growing The Motoring Club, how'd you choose San Francisco? And is your plan to continue opening new locations in new cities?

“One of the big learnings here [in LA] is that  so much of what makes this place special is the location and the building. If you're building a space with cool cars, the architecture, the look of it has to be cool – it has to be in an area that people want to gather daily. In a popular city, it's tough: you might not find the right location or the right deal for years.

In the early COVID days, I realized there was opportunity with the commercial real estate situation, so about three years ago, I started to look at spaces in San Francisco. Honestly it was earlier than I was ready, but I was betting on San Francisco. I was based up there during my formative years and fell in love with the city. And working in San Francisco accelerated my career, and I met so many good people, so I really wanted to come back and bring something to the city. I was also tired of reading all the doom and gloom news about how retailers were running away from San Francisco and how it’s unsafe, and I figured someone's got to do the opposite and run back in and do something cool.

Looking at location 3, 4, 5, the goal is to really build out a network in cities that our demo is going to or traveling to. And so the goal is international presences, multiple clubs, people having access in multiple spaces.”

Community is such a buzzy term right now – it seems like a lot of people are searching for it. Around here there’s an ultra-popular run club, a wine club, a backgammon club. How do you build one? What does that look like? 

“To me, community starts with a small group of passionate people and then builds as those people invite others and spread the word. In San Francisco, for instance, I worked with our new GM Mike even before we had the space to just meet some people and get them together because at the end of the day, that's what it's about. It doesn't have to be fancy: Let's get 10 people in a parking lot and hang out, or let's get 10 people out on the road and drive up to Napa, and then learn from those people what type of thing is lacking in that community, and then we can go from there.

It’s not about the number of members, but it’s about the quality. It’s not easy, but if you're authentic about it and curating the right experience, then, you know, you have a decent shot.”

Thinking about the locations themselves, there's obviously something innately cool about cars, but beyond that, how have you designed such aspirational spaces? Is that all you? At least once a day I hear someone walk in and ooh and ahh about how cool the coffee shop is. 

“Yeah, that's been a fun aspect of it. When I started this, no way did I think that I would be the interior designer, buying all the furniture, creating the space. 

The reality is, I bootstrapped the first location, so I was on a tiny budget. My design ethos was born out of the necessity to be cheap. That forced me to be creative and find interesting items for the space at flea markets or on Facebook marketplace. And then I just realized I loved it…and that I kind of had an eye for it.

With these classic cars, I want the cars to speak for themselves. And then I've been in too many spaces that seem overbuilt, uncomfortable. And so at the end of the day, I want the style to be comfortable and cozy and for people to feel like they’re in their own home.”

As you reflect on the past six years, are there any specific experiences that come to mind as favorites? Any I-can't-believe-we-did-that moments?

“Some of the events that we've done have been pinch myself moments – we've had big brands like Porsche that I've always loved throughout the years, coming in. In the early days we had a few huge events that I never imagined we'd be able to get brands like this.

One was with Red Bull, who did an F1 event in the Marina space where they actually built one of their F1 cars over three days and started it up in the club – and it was so loud.” 

To wrap things up, I feel like I have to ask about your favorite cars – any that you own, have always loved, are eyeing? 

“I think part of the fun about cars, and a lot of the people that we've attracted in this community is that there’s a lot of different variety. 

Tastes are always changing, and the kind of energy I wanted to bring here is that anything is cool. Anything can be cool. It doesn't have to be the fanciest or most expensive car. 

As for me, I tend to like the quirky old classic stuff. My main love is Old Land Rovers, so I have a ‘95 Range Rover – that's my baby. And then mostly older European stuff, and the list of cars I dream about owning is extremely long, but it includes classic air cooled Porsches, and definitely funky European rally cars like Lancia Integrales.”

Want to keep up with all things motoring? Check out @motoringcoffee and @themotoringclub and drop by if you’re in LA or SF (the coffee’s really good). 

*This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.