VIDEO: Reverb Founder David Kalt

–July 2016 Founders’ Stories —

This anti-establishment founder launched a billion-dollar business — and has another on the way

Our July 2016 guest was David Kalt, founder of Options Xpress, Chicago Music Exchange and, most recently, Reverb.com.

Options Xpress is an online brokerage platform for individuals who want to manage their portfolios. The company went public in 2005 and was sold to Charles Schwab in 2010.

After selling Options Xpress, David bought a guitar store called the Chicago Music Exchange and “stumbled” upon the world of buying and selling musical equipment. This is where Reverb.com began and, according to David, it’s “on pace to be another multi-billion-dollar business.”

In this edition of Chicago Founders’ Stories, we hear about David’s anti-establishment roots, how he started to learn to code in his 20s, and how leaving the family business turned into a 150X investment return for his loved ones.

We think you’ll enjoy this great episode from a very unique founder.

Content Breakdown:

0:00 Introduction and backstory

10:40 Why, in his 20s, David decided to teach himself to code and start running businesses

19:33 The genesis of Options Xpress

38:20 How a “sabbatical” from Options Xpress turned into David’s next venture

47:50 The launch of Reverb

57:15 One unexpected company that Reverb takes inspiration from

1:00:58 Q+A

Essential Quotes:

• “There are three passions in my life. Music, code, and finance.” Click to tweet
• “I was very questioning [in college]. It’s that curiosity you need as a rebellious entrepreneur.” Click to tweet
• “With all these [coding]­ bootcamps, I’ve seen some incredible kids in their mid-20s turn their careers around.” Click to tweet
• “To me disruption is taking someone’s existing business model [and] doing it better.” Click to tweet
• “When you run a public company, the conversations change.” Click to tweet
• “Reverb’s on pace to be another multi-billion-dollar business.” Click to tweet
• “We’re very transparent. If you work at Reverb, you should know the business inside out.” Click to tweet

This video is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License. You can view details of this license here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/legalcode