Follow the Leader: Max Henderson, Compass

WAV Group welcomes Max Henderson to the real estate industry. This article is part of our Follow the Leader Series, where we introduce exciting new faces to real estate. Max joins the leadership team at Compass as Vice President of Product and General Manager of Platforms/Marketplaces, reporting to Robert Reffkin.

Max's roots in technology go deep—he ran his own business doing systems integrations for companies at the same age he learned to operate a car. Originally from Miami, Max attended Cornell (WAV Group founding partner Marilyn Wilson's alma mater). Before joining Compass, Max was part of the early founding team at Google Cloud, which he helped grow into a billion-dollar business. He is humble, smart, hardworking, and understands how to build systems that work at enormous scale.

Max gets real estate—his mother is a Realtor. More than anything, I was impressed by his laser focus on the role of the advisor. When your mom is a Realtor, this notion is drilled into your skull and is literally in your DNA. It is the same DNA that Reffkin was channeling through his bones in 2012 when he and Ori Allen were sitting on a couch trying to figure out how to make it easier to find a place to live in Manhattan. I cannot believe that Compass has come so far in such a short period of time. SoftBank Capital is jet fuel.

Max is welcomed to Compass by an already impressive team comprised of rock stars. His job will be choreographing the assimilation of awkward, disparate industry systems into a working structure. He knows that the industry is driven by legacy. He gets the opportunity to reimagine it. His biggest challenges will be hiring people fast enough to keep pace with the growth of Compass, and operating with ruthless prioritization. Growth companies are in a race against the clock to put numbers on the board fast.

Welcome, Max! I am excited to see what you and your team accomplish. By the way, take a peek at the job openings at Compass. If you want to work with Max, hit him up on Linkedin.

To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.