A Conversation With Fair’s Max Goldak
Why this dealer support manager loves working with car retailers and is bullish about the future of auto.
Every company has that one person everybody seems to go to for an answer or an idea about how to get something done. At Fair, that person is Senior Dealer Support Manager Max Goldak, who acts as a bridge between Fair’s dealer-partners and the engineers who build the tools they interface with every day. Fair’s Thom Fain sits down with Max to discuss Fair’s approach in working with dealers, his unique view of the intersection between tech and auto — and the dream car he’s always wanted to drive.
THOM FAIN: Tell us how you arrived at Fair, and what you find attractive about it?
MAX GOLDAK: I was introduced to Tim Martin, Vice President of Partner Development. We chatted over the course of two or three months about a role for me, but it was early on and there wasn’t anything that really clicked yet. As Fair grew, we found a role that involved working with our dealer partners and across all the different parts of Fair’s business. I don’t want to be stuck on my computer doing accounting for 16 hours. No offense to accountants [laughs]. I want to be able to interact with all the different groups that Fair deals with every day. I like working with dealers and engineering, trying to get new features and tools out.
TF: Can you explain all the different areas that you oversee behind the scenes?
MG: At Fair, I have my hands in everything that is dealer-facing: day-to-day transactions or anything that may happen out in the field. It’s taking new feature requests from dealers, recording those and working with the product team to get those requests to the forefront. Also, I help train dealers with the onboarding process so they understand everything. It’s identifying any bugs in the dealer app, while taking everything our account managers are running into and creating an easily digestible form for our engineers so we can address that.
TF: What does it take to train someone at the dealership to use Fair?
MG: We try and constantly evolve our training formula to make it as easy and seamless as possible. The tools we create and put forth make it easier for new dealer teams to come aboard the program, so we try and make those very simple and intuitive. From a training perspective, we want the dealers to understand how we operate our deals — and at the same time learn from them how to constantly improve that process. For example, we’re currently working on building a dynamic training piece so dealers understand exactly how deal docs should be filled out.
TF: How have you seen car-buying transition in the time you’ve been here, and where do you see that going?
MG: Just in the nine or 10 months I’ve been here, there’s been lot of news coverage about new subscription models for cars. In general, I think that people are looking for that instantaneous ability — similar to Amazon Prime — where you can order a car and go pick it up. That’s the kind of the world we live in now and I think it’s going to further head toward that direction. Our job at Fair is to help dealers be able to deliver that kind of experience and thrive, too.
TF: Can you tell us about a time you worked with Fair engineers to fix a bug?
MG: Sure. We send out a notification to dealers when a Fair deal comes through, but one night we discovered a software bug that was allowing notifications to be sent after business hours. We sprang into action immediately and hustled with engineering to figure out a fix. It took about three hours to resolve, with me coordinating between our account managers in the field and our engineers in the office. It was pretty intense, but we got it fixed before anyone lost too much sleep.
TF: How would you say working at Fair has affected your view on the intersection of tech and auto?
MG: I did not think there was an intersection of tech and auto [previously], so working here has kind of redefined it for me. I used to think that auto was always going to be a thing where you go to the dealership and negotiate the price. Fair has kind of opened my eyes that there’s a lot of ways auto can continue to evolve to help dealers and meet the demands of the modern consumer at the same time.
TF: What do you like about working in Santa Monica?
MG: I enjoy being by the ocean. It’s just a very interesting place because it’s very, very culturally diverse. Since we attract tourists, I can get any kind of food at a restaurant. Everything is easily accessible. It’s fun to just grab a Bird [scooter] and go. There’s some good coffee shops. That’s one of my favorite things.
TF: If you could drive anything, what would your ideal car be?
MG: We’ll go for the top level, which would be the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO.
TF: As the business evolves, how do you see Fair’s relationship with dealers going forward?
MG: As Fair becomes a larger presence in the automotive space — and a more recognizable household name — there’s a sense of trust that we’re looking to achieve. Dealers should feel like we’re always going to take care of them and we’re not going to do anything to jeopardize our relationship. This business is actually all about relationships and trust. To that end, Fair will continue to create an easier and easier process for dealers. It’s a pretty exciting time here and, I believe, in auto in general.
