If you like the shows Silicon Valley or How to Make it in America or if you’ve ever had a lemonade stand, I promise you’ll like what we have coming to you. This month, I’m excited to launch Founder Fridays, a series of interviews with inspirational founders and entrepreneurs who have transformed big ideas into action. The focus is on people who walk the walk and the goal is to inspire anyone with an idea of their own to follow-through and take the next step. One Friday each month, we’ll hear personal stories, learn about some interesting companies and pick up some lessons learned along the way. 

Our first interview is with Josh Luber, founder of StockX. A few years back, Josh created a sneaker re-sale price guide called “Campless,” that he described as the “Kelley Blue Book for sneakers.” Josh had always been huge sneakerhead and he saw that there was a need among sellers and buyers to know the resale market value of each pair. His idea was to take all the sneaker data he’d collected and help transform the sneaker resale market into a kind of commodities market. In 2016, Luber connected with Quicken Loans founder (and Cleveland Cavs owner) Dan Gilbert, who was independently putting his own team together to create a “stock market of things” — essentially, an online platform that would establish a true market value for pretty much anything that someone might want to buy. The two joined forces to create StockX, with sneakers as their first market. Less than two years later the company has grown from six employees to more than 200 and is still hiring…

In this episode, I visit with Josh at StockX headquarters in Detroit, check out their stock room where thousands of sneakers come through each week for authentication and hear a little about how his company is changing the sneaker game.

Text me at (931) 805-4447 to let me know what you think.

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Thanks to the team at Woodward Original for all their help in producing this piece. Check them out at woodwardorginal.com.