Episode 83: Car Subscriptions with Max-Josef Meier, CEO & Co-Founder of FINN

In this week’s episode, we speak with Max-Josef Meier, CEO, and Co-Founder of FINN. FINN offers all-inclusive, immediately-available monthly car subscriptions to customers.

In the episode, we learn everything from how FINN’s subscription model works to Max-Josef’s experience in the industry and how he got started in car subscriptions.

Keep reading to learn more about the episode.

Max-Josef Meier

Max is a second-time entrepreneur. He started in 2008 with Stylight, a search engine for fashion. He built the brand for eight years until he sold it to an ecommerce company. 

After that, Max was an angel investor. He wanted to build a company in the ecommerce industry that could grow into something large, meaningful, and impactful. 

That’s when Max-Josef came across car subscriptions. Max found the concept fascinating from both a consumer and business point of view. He didn’t know much about the car industry but he decided to get started.

Max-Josef realized that in terms of high-cost subscriptions, your car typically comes next on the list after your home and health insurance. So cars are one of the most significant recurring cost items. 

At the same time, acquiring a car hasn’t changed for most people in decades. They still go to a car dealership, and it may take a few hours to find the right car. Maybe they’ll negotiate a little and then make all the arrangements for the vehicle, such as organizing maintenance and insurance.

Max-Josef found it a beautiful idea to bring that experience online.

FINN

FINN was started in 2019 and is now Germany's leading car subscription company. FINN also launched in the US earlier this year.

The target group of FINN is typically those with families in their 30s and 40s. FINN customers are described as former hipsters who lived in the inner cities, like New York’s East Village. When they got older and decided to start raising a family, they moved out to places like Long Island and would find that they needed a car. 

As these customers are typically Millennials, they’re used to purchasing everything online, so the convenience of FINN works well for them.

The FINN Business Model

When creating FINN, the idea was to make subscribing to cars as easy as buying a pair of shoes online. 

When you browse FINN online, there’s a broad range of pre-configured cars. Germany has around 20 car brands and many models available to choose from. In the US, it’s still early days, but about ten models are available and this selection will grow in time.

Once you’ve chosen a car and reached the website checkout page, it’s like buying a product online. The only extra step is to upload your driver’s license—simple. 

The only additional expense you have is charging or fuelling the car; gasoline or electricity expenses. Everything else is included in FINN’s monthly rate. There’s also no down payment or deposit. 

The subscription includes the car, insurance, delivery, and maintenance. All vehicles are delivered straight to the customer’s doorstep at no extra cost.

FINN subscriptions are currently either six or 12 months fixed term. If you have a six-month subscription, you can upgrade to a new car and prolong your subscription. However, FINN isn't in the business of swapping cars every week.

The company describes itself as being between rental and leasing with its short-term subscriptions.

The Development of FINN

Max-Josef and his team started working on FINN in April 2019. The first car was available in October of the same year. The timeframe took a little longer in the US.

Behind the scenes, building the technology platform for FINN was quite complex. FINN has integrated more than 200 service providers, ranging from marketing and ecommerce tools to maintenance service providers and insurance companies.

For example, FINN works with Liberty Mutual in the US to help with financing. Developing FINN is a lot of work and only possible thanks to the team and service providers behind the brand.

The Biggest Obstacles

Since the beginning of FINN, one of the biggest challenges has been supplying—actually obtaining cars. You can’t just go around the corner and buy a few cars because that wouldn’t scale and you wouldn’t get the right price.

Investors would look at the company and see your profitability looking weak.

FINN needed to buy cars at a reasonable price. But to buy cars for a good price, you need a lot of them and you need to have a lot of money.

Max-Josef admits that in the beginning, he didn’t know how and if the company could finance the cars. However, he knew they had to start somewhere. 

The team wrote down the first batch of vehicles and went to the bank and equity investors to explain the situation. That’s how FINN managed its car supplies in the beginning.

Standing Out From the Competition

Max-Josef credits his team’s focus for standing out from the competition. The team lives and breathes car subscriptions. Max-Josef is convinced that the most significant car subscription platforms will be provided by companies that only offer one service, which is what FINN does.

FINN’s operations are entirely tailor-made for car subscriptions and nothing else. When FINN buys cars, they come directly out of the factories and are sent to the brand’s partner compounds.

From these partner compounds, the vehicles are sent directly to the customers. It’s a highly efficient process that differs from many rental car companies that require thousands of customer care workers. FINN is fully digital and more like a wholesale process than its competitors.

Rental car companies are often much more expensive, and people don’t want to spend that much money on a car.

It certainly sounds like Max-Josef has found the magic formula for car subscriptions, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for FINN.

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