Beginning in 1929, Henry E. Wenger and William E. Slaughter, Jr. ran the Aurora Gasoline Company from the basement of Wenger's house in Detroit. In 1933, Fisher persuaded Wenger to invest $38,000 to build an oil refinery. Years later when asked how at twenty-five years old Fisher was able to persuade a middle-aged man with a wife and two kids to invest a large sum of money during the Depression, Fisher replied that he "must have hoodwinked him." But Wenger's son says: "My father was a dreamer. And so was Max. They were kindred spirits."