Fair
A car subscription company founded by Max Rhodes.
Fair grew by building the marketplace first, then a free tool that onboarded brands' existing retailers, who were cross-sold to other brands without a sales team. Many VCs passed after asking if founder Max Rhodes was a good employee, not a world-class entrepreneur. Lesson: use a free tool to pull existing relationships onto your marketplace, and judge founders against the role. The sources give no figures.
- Asked: was Max a good employee?
- Answer: mixed
- Many VCs passed
- Asked: could he be world-class?
- Answer: yes
- Delian: Fair could make him leave VC
Same person, wrong question, wrong result.
From Reference-check lesson from Fair's page
What was said about Fair
Many VCs passed on Fair by asking the wrong reference question about Max Rhodes. Many VCs asked whether Max Rhodes was a good employee and got a mixed answer, so they passed. The better question was whether he could be a world-class entrepreneur, and the answer to that was yes.
Delian Asparouhov called Fair the one company that could make him leave VC. The lesson for reference checks: frame the question around the role the person will actually do. In the words of the source: "Same person, wrong question, wrong result."
Hard truths about building in the AI era | Keith Rabois (Khosla Ventures)
Delian Asparouhov called Fair the one company that could make him leave VC. Many VCs passed after asking if Max Rhodes was a good employee, when the better question was whether he could be a world-class entrepreneur.
Many VCs passed on Fair by asking the wrong reference question about Max Rhodes. Many VCs asked whether Max Rhodes was a good employee and got a mixed answer, so they passed. The better question was whether he could be a world-class entrepreneur, and the answer to that was yes.
Delian Asparouhov called Fair the one company that could make him leave VC. The lesson for reference checks: frame the question around the role the person will actually do. In the words of the source: "Same person, wrong question, wrong result."
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It built the marketplace first, then a free tool to onboard brands' existing retailers. Those retailers were cross-sold to other brands without a sales team.
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