THE CURSE OF GROWING TOO FAST

FAIRE is a platform for small businesses, but it grew big the wrong way-almost becoming a $12 billion wreck. Here's how it fixed the problem, and why you should think twice before skyrocketing.

- LIZ BRODY

It's weird that there aren't more hundred-billion-dollar companies, because it doesn't seem that hard to do, Max Rhodes caught himself thinking one day in 2021.

He was sure making it look easy. The company he'd cofounded, called Faire, had gone from stumbling startup to galloping unicorn. Fueled by a steady diet of VC money, its valuation kept climbing: $1 billion, then $2.5 billion, up to $12.4 billion, and even $12.59 billion, the numbers rising like bubbles in champagne, jubilant and intoxicating.

As with so many tech startups then, Faire was fully embracing the unofficial motto of Silicon Valley: "Growth, growth, growth at all costs." And why not? After four years of building and iterating, investors were finally behind them. The company had over a billion dollars of their capital to spend. Faire's leaders doubled their team. Then they doubled it again. They'd be the next DoorDash or Airbnb at this rate, they figured.

Then the trouble began.

At Faire-an online wholesale marketplace that connects indie brands (that want to be sold in local stores and shops) with small retailers (looking to find the best products to stock)-suddenly, many of these business owners were getting upset. And loud. "The customer service is quite slow," said Sarah Kim, founder of a stationery business called Selah Paper, on her YouTube channel at the time. Another YouTube reviewer, business coach Dallas Gordon, griped, "They used to be proactive, but now it takes days and days to get an answer. If you get an answer at all."

As Faire burned through $30 million a month, by the second quarter of 2022, its breathtaking gallop went slo-mo. Decisions took forever, and its explosive growth was petering, leaving its leadership in a fog.