Fair Lays Off 40% of Payroll, Fires CFO

Vehicle subscription service provider Fair has laid off 40% of its workforce and fired its CFO, Tyler Painter, TechCrunch reports.

Painter is the brother of CEO and co-founder Scott Painter, also known as the founder and former chief executive of TrueCar. He is to be replaced by Kirk Shryoc, described in a Fair release as having experience in both fleet and capital markets.

“It’s hard building a sustainable company and these are the choices you have to make.”

Fair’s mobile app debuted in 2017. It allows users to find, select, and purchase pre-owned units from auto dealers, drive them for as long as they wish, then return them; the selling dealer is given the opportunity to repurchase the vehicle before it goes to wholesale. Users who drive for ride-hailing services are offered access to leasing services.

Writer Ingrid Lunden noted the company is valued at $1.2 billion and is backed by $500 million in equity investments and billions more in debt funding, grouping it with other “highly valued venture-backed startup with little end in sight to their huge losses,” listing Uber and WeWork as examples.

Reached for comment, Scott Painter told Lunden the company has grown quickly and now must focus on profitability.

“It’s hard building a sustainable company and these are the choices you have to make,” Painter said.

This story was originally posted on Auto Dealer Today.