Josh Luber

Josh Luber has always searched for more. More sneaks. More knowledge. More ways to move business forward.

As a 12-year-old gym rat/visionary/wanna-be NBA starting point guard, Josh Luber was always looking for a way to get ahead of his peers. A better jump shot. A cooler haircut. A pair of Air Jordans, but not just any pair, the black ones, the flyest ones, the ones with the reflector tongue, the ones that his mother would never ever buy for him because, “Why in the world would any human being—let alone a 12-year-old child—need $160 sneakers?!”

Thirty years later, Josh has a closet filled with the rarest of rare sneaks, an 8-year-old daughter with a growing collection of her own, a degree from Emory, an MBA from Goizueta, and a finger on the pulse of both the sneakerhead culture and online tech community—tools he is using in an attempt to reinvent e-commerce as we know it. Today, Josh sits in the middle of a brave new world of finance, tech and culture. He is co-founder and CEO of StockX, the world’s first “stock market of things.” StockX is an online marketplace which connects buyers and sellers (mostly of sneakers) using the same method as the world’s stock markets… an anonymous, transparent and authentic bid/ask market.

Before creating the company, Josh spent some time at IBM—immersing himself in data analysis and strategy—but quickly discovered that there might be a way for him to capitalize on something he was truly passionate about: sneakers. “When you’re a startup guy and you get a job at a big company, what’s the first thing you do? You start working on stuff on the side,” says Josh. He started tinkering with data, collecting information, and linking up with other like-minded and completely-different-minded entrepreneurs. Josh soon realized that the growing sneaker resell market was a Wild Wild West of sorts, void of regulations, ethics and frankly, consumer knowledge.

After his business plan caught the attention of Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and chairman and founder of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans Inc., the two of them realized that Josh’s big idea wasn’t big enough. “Dan was kind of coming from top down,” says Josh. “I was like, ‘This would be perfect for a sneaker stock market.’ Dan was like, ‘No, this should be how the whole world works. This should be the future of all e-commerce.'” Turns out, Dan and Josh were right. StockX now has 130 full-time employees, 50 current job openings, and is averaging over $1.5 million in sales every day. Josh envisions an expansion into retail coming soon and continues to connect more and more dots within the primary and secondary markets. With each day, Josh’s big idea grows larger—as he continues to search, and uncover, more.