FROM DELOITTE AND FASTCO WORKS: Winning the market — A conversation with Deloitte’s Deb Golden and StockX’s Greg Schwartz
46:11 Share

Hey, Most Innovative Company listeners. It's Josh here. Today we have the next episode in Lead Through Disruption, our special mini-series from our friends at Fastco Works and Deloitte. Enjoy! Brought to you by Deloitte Cyber and Strategic Risk. Helping your organization drive peak performance through crisis and transformation. So no matter where you're at in your journey, you can move forward fast.

I'm Deb Golden, Deloitte's U.S. Chief Innovation Officer, and this is Lead Through Disruption. As businesses look for new ways to maximize opportunities and innovate in a post-pandemic landscape, some of the strongest leaders emerging are those who've had to navigate and endure professional and personal disruptions in their lives. Through these challenging moments, these individuals have embraced curiosity, creativity, and the courage to think outside the box.

In today's episode, you'll hear from Greg Schwartz, co-founder and chief operating officer of StockX.

a Detroit-based technology company focused on the large and growing online market for sneakers, apparel, and collectibles, creating a culture of innovation and, of course, hype.

I have to say, I'm personally so excited to have Greg on as a sneakerhead myself, but StockX impact is much greater than shoes. By disrupting the online resales marketplace, Greg and his team are increasing access and market visibility via real-time data and analytics, empowering both buyers and sellers to get the most value on the platform.

And for Greg, it truly isn't just about shoes, but also creating an environment where teams are encouraged to ask questions and solve for the unknowns. We'll dive into this and so much more in today's episode. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this conversation today. As a self-proclaimed sneakerhead, I am super excited to have you on the podcast and talk about

all the things that you and StockX have been able to do to break the glass ceiling, if you will, and really create a one-of-a-kind business. So thank you again for joining us today. Love talking to other sneakerheads. Yeah, excited.

So let's set it up a little bit. So, you know, StockX is a $3.8 billion online marketplace and has tremendous success with so many innovative aspects. And we'll talk through a number of them here today. And candidly, I would argue ahead of the time when it came to creating this type of an infrastructure, everything from

a strong network to superior platform, what we like to call stickiness, but really driving both return buyers and sellers. So you've got the whole continuum, if you will, of the marketplace and not only in sneakers, but you've expanded even beyond that, given the success of the platform and the environment that you've created. And so,

As you think about yourself as a seasoned entrepreneur and inventor, perhaps we can kick off the podcast by sharing a little bit about how you keep the momentum. How do you keep innovating? How do you keep thinking about what's the next idea? And candidly, what gets you so excited about being an innovator?

For me, it starts really with looking at a customer problem and finding something that really is a pain point that creates friction that is ripe to be solved. And that was the case when we started StockX. We saw so many different marketplace models focused on sneakers, which was the first category that we focused on when we launched StockX.

And there was just a ton of friction. There was lack of authenticity. There was friction on the buyer side, the seller side. And for me to get excited, to really get my momentum going, I think it's important to get momentum of any new idea going. You need to feel like you're solving a real problem and have a differentiated

approach to solving that problem. And I think if you have an idea and you feel like it's a big opportunity, it's solving a real problem. And there is a truly differentiated approach, which often comes with risk when it is differentiated. But that's something that I think is really unique, somewhat rare, but that's something that excites me a ton. And I just love jumping into ideas like that and trying to bring them to life. Now, do you think when you say solving a real problem, did the real problems find you or you found the real problems? Yeah.

We have a unique founding story. I got to know Dan Gilbert, who is one of the other co-founders of StockX. A lot of people know Dan as the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Rocket Mortgage. But Dan was an investor in a prior startup that I was running here in Detroit. And so we were both pretty passionate about investing.

the Detroit tech scene and about the opportunity to build exciting consumer businesses. And the idea for StockX really came about, it was a Friday evening in early 2015, where we were talking about the power of stock market mechanics, which doesn't seem related to sneakers in any way, but it was actually the genesis for the business. And we both had a couple of connections. Dan was his kids, mine were a couple of friends.

who are heavily involved in sneakers and dealing with a lot of the pain points. And so through that conversation, it was really the marriage of the idea that there could be a much better solution. But the idea was to take a totally different, radically different approach to this problem that frankly, most people back in 2015, as we were building this thought was completely crazy. Most people were convinced this could never work. And I think that

as part of what was motivating and really excited us and said, you know, they might be right, but if we get this right, maybe we're onto something. Well, and you were truly, truly onto something. And you often speak about the value of making sure you don't know what you don't know and encouraging not only yourself and others, but your team members, your leaders to ask questions to solve for the unknowns and certainly,

that was part of what led you to this entire platform, right? Like we know we can come up with a better answer or there's gotta be an answer, let alone that you knew that there was a question. And so when you think about leading teams through that, and so it's not just,

asking the things because sometimes that can be intimidating. Sometimes people can be worried about, well, what if I don't show up knowing everything? I would argue no one knows everything. And so that's the perfect way to be adaptable and open to innovation and open to understanding questions like that you should be asking to gain additional insight. But for you, how does that leadership look like? What is the thing that you think other leaders listening might be able to take away to help drive that curiosity into their teams?

I think it's such a strong quality for anyone on a team when you can come into a team environment and be very transparent about the things that you don't know. For me, it started with decades before StockX, my first startup where I was a naive, young, aspiring entrepreneur. This was back in when I was finishing up college. And I thought I had all the answers. I said, I can be the CEO, I could be the marketing person, I can build the product.

And you realize very quickly, in my case, this was through a failed startup, a couple of failed startups, that that just is not the right approach, that there is a ton that maybe you know a bit about, but

but there are things for me that I really was passionate about, that I was better at and things that were not my forte, things that were not my areas of expertise. And so for me, it took a couple of failures to really learn that lesson the hard way. But with StockX, my approach was, this is not about me at all. This is about the customer. This is about the business we're building. And so at the beginning, it was really about identifying what were the areas that were weaknesses for me and let's solve for them. And one of the first examples of that

was, you know, and this was the very early days, the first few months of the company, I knew that there were people out there with just more depth of knowledge around the Sneagrad culture and all the data behind it. And a lot of things that was still, there's a bit of a learning curve for me. We found a phenomenal additional co-founder in Josh Luber, who had been immersed in the space for his entire life.

And, you know, it was a decision very early on that he would be perfect CEO for the business, perfect face for the company. And we had a great partnership because both of us, you know, recognized early on the things we knew, the things we didn't know. We were honest about that. And I think that led to a good marriage to help us get the business off the ground. And certainly it sounds like, you know, you've not only been open to the art of curiosity, which is something I often talk about because I think...

having that curiosity, asking those questions, but also you laid the foundation for failure, not only allowing yourself to fail, but what things you might be able to learn from that. And one of the things that I think is also important as you think about becoming an entrepreneur is that risk, right? I always call it, what is the calculated risk that you're willing to take? And you mentioned it a little bit earlier as well about risk. And sometimes, you know,

It's counterintuitive. And whether that's because we're challenging the status quo, whether that's because you've got 15 people around you saying it's a horrible idea, but 17 other people are saying it's a great idea. There's a lot of things that come into how to decide to take a calculated risk. And so StockX isn't static. That's the other thing that's amazing, right? Not only did

you create a business that was state-of-the-art many years ago, it continues to be state-of-the-art. So you're continuing to take not only risk and reward, but some level of calculated risk. How is this going to adapt to the consumer? What if we change our platform too much in one direction? And so how do you evaluate that type of risk-taking so that you maybe are both comfortable with the potential for failure, but also obviously the opportunity for reward?

Well, I just fundamentally believe that you cannot innovate without some aspect of risk. And I just think to go after big ideas, big opportunities, there's obviously a desire to do something that is different, that is innovative, and that inherently comes with risk. So I think that's just part of the game.

You know, I think this ties back to what we were talking about a few minutes ago that I think it's important not to try to make these decisions in a silo. I think surrounding yourself with people that you trust, people that bring unique and diverse perspective, that's helpful when it to bring balance to the conversation as you're thinking about that next idea, next project, that next business. I try to evaluate risk across a few different buckets. One is, is it a risk worth taking? Is it a big enough opportunity if you're going to

go through the heartburn, just the challenges of overcoming the risk and trying to get to the right outcome. You want to make sure that the reward is really worth it. And then you want to make sure that you're uniquely positioned to win. I felt like we had an unfair advantage having Dan on the team, having Josh on the team, myself having had started a couple startups being located in Detroit. So I think as you look at these risks, making sure that you're uniquely positioned to win, you have a bit of an unfair advantage.

and that it's a big enough opportunity and that you've again, that you've talked to a number of people to make sure that at the end of the day, you've got to trust your gut. There's a big part of that as well. But you try to avoid doing that in a silo and having too big of a bias. But once you've checked a few of those boxes, I think you have to commit. You have to go all in. You have to fight through the noise.

and try and get a product out to market or a new feature out to market as quickly as possible, because that's really the way to learn, not what people are saying on the sidelines, what actual customers are saying once they get a hand on whatever you're building. Yeah, so let's touch on that for a little bit, because obviously StockX is truly customer-facing in so many different ways. Again, buyer, seller,

lots of different ways, not to mention corporations looking at StockX. I was reading a number of articles where so many people just looking to StockX from different angles that not only is engagement important, but so is loyalty. And that seeing that other brands that you're selling and reselling are also looking at what that market is. You mentioned earlier the culture. The culture of StockX

sneakers and the resale market writ large has changed so much. It in and of itself has been disruptive because if you think about sneakers have always been there about your personality and who you are, but the way that they've just exploded over the last several years has been quite immense. And so as you think about the disruption that that's brought, how do you consider risk to the customer? Because obviously you want to keep the customer engaged. You want to keep them loyal to who you are and what you're providing. But at the same time, for

this market in and of itself being so disruptive means that you have to keep on almost the cutting edge, but you almost have to keep ahead of them in some capacity. So maybe can you talk a little bit about your customer engagement and loyalty and how you get stickiness there? We're really fortunate to have 1.5 million sellers on the platform over the lifetime of StockX. We've had 12 million buyers lifetime on the platform. So we have this deep, rich, vibrant community that we're interacting with every day. And

And they're not going to be shy about letting us know if we do make a mistake, if we do launch a feature that has a bug or there's something that needs to be tweaked. And so I think for us, we're really fortunate to have a rich community on the platform every day that is giving us feedback literally real time. We're also in a unique position as we think about just what trends we're going to be focusing on. Some of it is the product, but some of it is also what are the trends that are important in our space?

And while we curate the catalog on StockX, and we obviously have an important role in doing that, we don't set the trends. We're fortunate that we work with or we have products from some of the top, most coveted brands in the world that are traded on our platform. We don't set pricing. That's all done by the customer. So I think we're in this unique position where we provide the foundation, we provide the platform, but we also let the customers have a say in

what the price is going to be, what products are hot, what things they'd like to see next. And I think it's just so critical that as a company that you're constantly listening and making sure that the platform is adapting to what the customers are saying.

So let's talk a little bit about that customer base. So obviously, StockX focuses on a breadth of individuals, as you mentioned, millions of people who are either selling or buying from the platform. But a good chunk of them are Gen Z. And so as you think about, to your point, not only are Gen Zers happy to provide their feedback, they're also ones to be on the forefront of trend setting. And so when you think about

the interesting ways you can leverage that consumer index. One of the things I'm very interested in hearing more about is StockX has compiled an interesting culture index that on a larger scale shows the direction of the industry. So you're taking that feedback and that direct kind of information that you are getting and really trying to help push the direction of the industry, which I find fascinating because culture, you know, while we could say constantly changes,

there are some big ebbs and flows. We know preferences are influenced. We know today, obviously, it's an always-on environment. With the pandemic, everyone turned to online in some capacity, and everybody wants everything yesterday. So let's talk a little bit about what StockX has been able to do to pivot

from growth through pandemic into a generational culture. And so what would you say are the couple of key things that StockX and you have done to remain adaptable to embrace that change rather than run from it? I mean, I'm pretty sure you ran towards it as a way to away from it, but what keeps you adaptable?

Yeah, so a few different things there. I mean, first of all, you're right in terms of the customer demographic we serve. Around 60% of our users are under the age of 35. They're definitely a tight wraparound, the important trends that are happening that are shaping the culture that we're in. When we started StockX, one of the key tenants of our platform was that the importance of transparency, the data that was powering the platforms.

We didn't want to keep that tucked away under the hood. We wanted to surface that because we felt like it was just incredibly important to empower our customers with knowledge. And whether that's knowledge about what people are willing to pay, whether that's knowledge about what is popular based on the sales history of any given product, we felt like if we can empower buyers and sellers with knowledge, it helps them make their purchase or selling decision with more confidence.

And so that was something that was pretty unique to our model and something we really believe in today. It's driven a lot of value beyond just that customer benefit. And when we put out data, it drives a lot of awareness of the platform. But that again, that started with how do we provide more ammunition, more data, more knowledge for that customer?

And then when it comes to innovating and adapting, I think it's critically important that any leader understands the difference between things that are table stakes, the things that are anti-deplay, and the things that are truly beyond whatever that core is of your business. And when you start separating the two, of course, you need to spend some time on the things that are table stakes. But when you start also carving out time to think about what is important to go beyond the core of your business, that's when you start really understanding

focusing on those net new ideas and adapting and going beyond the core. And that's one of our key values is we say it's hungry for what's next. And I think that that's important for any company. It's important for us to keep top of mind so that you don't get too bogged down on what you're doing yesterday. You're also thinking about what you need to be doing tomorrow. So someone doesn't come up behind you and do that before you do. All right. So let's talk about what's coming up next. So you talk about hype beast culture. And for those listeners who may not know what that is, that's

Truly being passionate or even maybe having a craze around acquiring or geeking out over some streetwear, including, of course, sneakers. How do you distill what's hype and what's here to stay? So at the end of the day, there's lots of hype all the time. And candidly, where do you focus? How do you focus and why do you focus? Part of that is just distilling what's hype and what's not. So how do you help determine that?

It's a great question. I mean, on one hand, when we're building our team, we're looking for people that are customers themselves, people that have been immersed in the space, whether that's our merchandising team, whether that's authenticators that are really the heart and soul of our company that are touching every product that

passes through our ecosystem, you wanna make sure that we have a team that has been immersed in that space. And that's not every team member, but a lot of our team members, if they haven't been immersed in that space, they have a kid that was immersed in the space, or they have friends, or they have just an interest in things that are tangentially related, so it's easy for them to get excited about it. But I think it's important that you have at least a subset of the team, as many people as possible, that are working on the product, that are working on the customer experience, that really are part of that community.

We've been really fortunate to hire a great team across a number of those areas that come from that background. The other aspect of it is what I was touching on earlier, which is really we have an opportunity to have this adaptable platform that's driven in real time by employees.

pricing based on what the customer is willing to pay, products that are selected based on what is being brought to market by some of the most coveted brands in the world. And so it's a combination of listening to our team who has authentic connection deep into these communities, but also making sure that we're listening to our customers, both buyers and sellers. We find that they're always on the front line of what's coming next and they're partners in the curation process, partners as we think about what trends are coming up next.

We'll be right back after this short message from Deloitte Cyber and Strategic Risk. As cybersecurity threats become more pervasive, to stay ahead of the curve and react to rapidly changing conditions, you need Deloitte Cyber and Strategic Risk with you on the front line to power the high-quality results most critical to your organization. A team committed to outcomes with a long track record of driving peak performance through crisis and transformation.

So no matter where you're at in your journey, Deloitte can help you turn challenges into opportunities and confidently move forward fast.

Do you think with the innovation trends and the things that you just talked about, I mean, there's a lot of conversation in the field, regardless of this field or others, in how the pandemic has pushed innovation. Some say, you know, it's caused us to be more creative. Others have said it's hampered our ability to be creative. And so I'd love to hear your perspective on

How do you think, not necessarily the pandemic itself, but obviously we've all moved into this hybrid workforce, whether it be remote, people in person, it's not going back to the quote unquote way that it was. And so how do you think that has impacted not just the culture that you're supporting, but as you think about the shift in the workspace and the individuals being able to come together to have that innovative spirit? Yeah.

It's been a massive shift. I mean, it's been a huge learning. I think that that was such a unique moment in time that challenged so many companies and really made it, in our case, we had to think about what are the aspects of our platform that allow us to navigate that type of just hopefully once in a lifetime cycle. For us, we were very fortunate that we had authentication centers distributed around the world that we

weren't really dependent on any one location or one product line because different things came and went in terms of popularity throughout the pandemic. But in terms of the culture, in terms of ways of working, I think there are aspects of it that candidly were a step back. I think that there's just incredible power

in-person connection when it comes to building relationships, when it comes to speed of decision making. At the same time, I think there were some benefits. I think that people being able to have the work-life balance that not sitting in an office from the early morning to late in the evening, five days a week, the work-life balance that comes from not having that as a sort of a regimented schedule, which at least I know I had for many years as I was starting these companies, can be a massive advantage

benefit to your mental health, to your physical well-being. And so where we're at now is just trying to find the right balance. We call it a hybrid working model. In the areas where we have offices like Detroit, we're bringing people back to the office a couple of days a week. And then there's several days a week where we say, you know what, work from anywhere because we realize there are benefits to both. So I think it's just critical that you recognize that there has been a shift and that we adapt to it. But I definitely think there were pros and cons as we come out of it and reflect back.

Candidly, we're still learning from it. And I think, you know, as we think about the adaptability that changed the pandemic in and of itself being disruptive to how we innovate, if we think about the things that are on the forefront of even innovation, things like generative AI, we're going to continue to learn more.

how to innovate and the ways that we do that, whether in the same four walls or different, I think is going to be constantly changing. And one of the things that continues to be key to that, and again, you mentioned a number of points about having a team and that team being incredibly important to you, particularly perhaps during moments of opportunity and then also moments of tension. You know, you mentioned a number of times about leaning into growth and opportunity and

I'm sure StockX has had its number of challenges and whether that's volume of trades, because I got to tell you, I know there's days that I'm like, I got to get in, I got to get in. I was like, am I going to make my trade, right? And it's silly, but when you're on the hunt for the thing that you know you want to get and you know you can get it from StockX, like, by the way, it's my daughter, it's myself, it's my husband, we're all on trying to help one another. So we ourselves become our own team of people trying to get in for the trade and super proud to be on the platform. But as people

people running and leading the platform, I'm sure volume of trades becomes an issue at times, just one component that you're managing. There's been times when it's actually shut down facilities around you. So you have to be prepared not only to innovate constantly, but you're maintaining and sustaining

an environment in the moment, because at the end of the day, downtime for you is like something that you want to avoid at all costs. And so how do you think about overcoming those things? Because again, you probably can't have 100% built-in redundancy, but obviously having enough

built in to be able to overcome, in that instance, logistical obstacles, but also to then say, oh my gosh, we've got a really great thing here. How do we actually look at replicating this to the next great thing? Yeah, obstacles at the end of the day, unfortunately, are inevitable. And I think the great companies, the great leaders make sure that when they encounter an obstacle, when they encounter a setback,

that they spend the time to do the retro and to really learn from the mistakes that were made that led to the obstacle. And whether that's an internal mistake or whether it's something from the macro environment, every one of those obstacles is an opportunity to learn.

One of the first ones that we encountered, and it was so painful, it was 2017. It was Black Friday. This was before we had authentication centers around the world. And we just did not anticipate the massive amount of volume. We were a young company. We only had a handful of team members. And the product was arriving by the truckload for us to authenticate and get out to buyers during this peak holiday season.

And we frankly did not have the infrastructure, the size of team in place. And so we got backlogged very quickly. And I just remember everyone in the company at that time rolling up their sleeves, no matter what your role was. Of course, we couldn't all authenticate. We only had a handful of authenticators. So that was inevitably a bit of a bottleneck at the time. But we were all unloading the truck, unboxing, boxing. And you come out of an experience like that

that was a team effort, that was painful for our customers. And not only did we have to apologize and try and make it right for all those customers, but we also had to take a step back and realize we don't want to ever let that happen again. Another example of knowing what you don't know. So we went out and we hired world-class experts in supply chain, and we started expanding our facilities. And we just said, we want to use this as an opportunity to make sure we never have a black

Black Friday or any day that was like that 2017 where we just couldn't keep up. And so that was really an example of a learning opportunity for us where we were all hands on deck, but we also feel like we came out of that stronger than ever and really were in a great position that next year for Black Friday.

Amazing, but probably nail biting at the same time for Black Friday. And so as you think about these types of accomplishments, because that's amazing that you were able to do that. I'm assuming, again, having learned enough about the supply chain and being able to move that forward in other capacities. And when you have the whole team and all hands on deck, that's amazing. But there's certainly got to be someone who supports that.

You know, I often even this past weekend, I was reflecting with a number of leaders outside of my own normal circle. And it was great just to be able to talk to humans about, oh, my gosh, I mean, that's happened to you, too. And so, you know, we had this moment of all of us looked around at each other and we said, wow, we come from very different backgrounds, very different jobs.

But as leaders in very different businesses, we've all had these moments of crisis. And it was actually a funny moment because all of us were like, wow, we're not alone. So in the terms of recognizing that we all have crisis moments, but also realizing that we're not alone, I think is also really important. Not only that, but also in having some sort of support. And so when you think about your most...

highly critical crisis moments. Who do you turn to for support in those moments? Yeah, I'm really fortunate to have a family, a wife and three kids that are incredibly supportive through the lowest of lows and all the ebbs and flows of now multiple startup journeys. I think being able to come home after a rough day like that Black Friday in 2017, it

have a couple of kids tell you about their day. It really is a great reset and puts things into perspective. So I really just appreciate having that as a sounding board. My father was an entrepreneur. For him, it was brick and mortar, also fashion. And so while it was totally different scale, it's nice to be able to talk to people that are outside of the day-to-day, but also have been through their own struggles. And he's been a great mentor. And then I think just being able to lean on

others around our company. And I really feel fortunate to have people that I can talk to throughout the day that want to be partners on each of the challenges we're facing, you know, are able to approach these challenges with a positive mindset. At the end of the day, it's just so important that you have great partners, great team, and been very lucky that we've had that in StockX since the beginning.

And so talking about positive energy, obviously with everyone in this always-on culture, we continue to run the risk of employee burnout. And that's not just...

Your employees, everyone's employees, everyone seems to be going through something at any one given amount of time. And I know you've gone so far as to say that things like unlimited PTO or time off simply isn't enough. And so perhaps you can share some of the things that StockX is doing to foster well-being. I mean, not just physical well-being, but mental well-being and why it's important.

It always amazes me when companies say unlimited time off, but then they're putting tremendous pressure on their team members not to take any time off and the contradiction in that. For us, we do have unlimited PTO. And I try to really stress the importance of taking advantage of that. If I notice a team member, if it's been weeks or months and they just haven't taken any time for themselves, when I'm on a one-on-one with a team member, I am not only asking that team member to take some time off, but make sure that they fully disconnect and

and have that refresh opportunity when they're doing that. We talked about hybrid work environment, but when we saw some of the value in allowing people to disconnect, some of this was during the pandemic, we realized that we could make that a part of our regular cadence. So every other Wednesday, we have something called no meeting Wednesdays. And this is an opportunity

not to necessarily take a day off. Of course, you can do that anytime you need to, but this is an opportunity to focus on catching up on emails, to close your eyes and think about things that you just don't get to do when you're rushing from meeting to meeting, from call to call. And no meeting Wednesdays has been just a huge success for us. We find it's really one of the most productive days at our company. And so I think things like that, every company has their own version of that, but for us, those are really important.

Yeah, we've done a lot of no meeting days as well. And I think just the ability to not only not have meetings, but the amount of emails also seems to be less. So we do no meeting, no email, but again, allowing people the time and the energy to use that creative space just to think. We've seen a huge amount of positive impact just to give people time

both by the way, not only just the time to get done the work that they didn't get done because they've been running from things, but it does allow people the freedom to say, well, if I did want to take off the day, maybe I'm not going to miss as much or maybe there won't be that pressure. Or even if we're not providing the pressure, some individuals themselves may feel that pressure. So giving them that ability to say, look, this is about you, I do think is very important because whether direct or indirect, there is an insurmountable amount of pressure on everyone, leaders, professionals,

professionals, students, children, parents, you name it. I'm out of pressure on people in today's day and age. So I think being able to foster that type of an environment is going to be critical to let people recognize that it's okay. And so to help people recognize it's okay, what do you do for your mental fitness?

For me, it's really about making sure I'm spending a decent amount of time with my family going for a run. One of my hobbies and one of the best ways for me to disconnect years back actually got my pilot's license. And so that's been something I'd always dreamed of. And for me, when I'm up in an airplane, it's an opportunity to make sure devices are completely turned off. Of course, you have to be totally dialed in

to the moment focused on multiple different things. And so it gives me good perspective, just being up in the air, but also being that dialed in and the mental challenge associated with it. So I try to make sure that there's a good balance of being able to step away from work, whether it's to get in a plane and go up in the air, whether it's to be with family, go for a run. Those things are so critical

to my personal just mental state. And if there's a period of time where it's been a while and I haven't been able to do one of those things, definitely I feel more drained. I feel I don't have the same energy. So I try to make sure that's part of my routine. I certainly can appreciate that. And I also feel like people who like yourself give 120% during the day

When you give that same 120% to the things you're doing outside of work, you just also appreciate them 10 times more, I feel. So like, even though I'm always on at work and giving it my all and totally in, the same thing if I go out and whether it be working out or going on a vacation, if you put that same amount of energy into those things and just truly disconnect, you're

It's funny how much you think about the things that you gain that you might not have otherwise because you weren't present because your mind's somewhere else. Absolutely. You come back in more energized, ready to go, and it's so important. I think it just pays off dividends. Yeah, I totally agree with you. All right, let's pivot a little bit as we think about one of the things I often love to talk about is grit and resilience and talking about how

how life lessons, again, we've talked a lot about some failures. We've talked about your own in terms of some of the pre and earlier entrepreneurship that you've had, some lessons learned with StockX. As we think about what I call grit and resilience, I've heard you say getting scrappy. And I certainly welcome that.

Thank you so much.

but also what you've been able to drive around innovation and entrepreneurship in Detroit. Yeah, Detroit for us is such a core part of our identity. I'm born and raised in Detroit. I left for a few years, but made the decision to come back to Detroit, which again was another example of, I think, is I was in New York at the time and they said, you're moving where?

For me, Detroit is just an example of another unfair advantage. There's incredible talent in Detroit. There's access to capital, not only from firms that are in and around Detroit, but we found that we can attract capital from the West Coast, from the East Coast as a Detroit-based company. And then exactly as you said, there is a grit, a determination, a hustle that I think exists in the fabric of Detroit that you

feel when you're downtown, you feel when you're engaging with other people in the community. And that's because for a while now, Detroit has been a bit of a comeback story. And we found that when we were recruiting people early on, when we brought them to Detroit, not only were they excited, inspired by what we were building,

But we're also able to get people really excited about the sort of indirect mission of, hey, we're part of the turnaround of a great American city with so much history, a history of innovation. And so we're not focused day to day on the turnaround of Detroit. We're focused on having a phenomenal global marketplace. But by being in Detroit, by hiring hundreds of people here in the city, by getting out into the community and

And whether that's doing service projects, whether that's engaging with schools, educating people on entrepreneurship, those are all things that, again, getting back to mental well-being, I think, helps us feel like this is about more than just profit, more than just the business we're in. And so it has a huge halo effect. So I really feel like Detroit has been an unfair advantage across so many different fronts and a huge part of our identity.

Well, thanks to you and to StockX for not only, again, giving back to your community, but really creating an entire ecosystem. I mean, you're...

StockX is an ecosystem of itself, and here you are creating yet another ecosystem of relationships to evolve a community, which, again, kudos to you and the StockX team for being able to give back to the community and drive that change there. How do you think about who to get engaged with from an ecosystem perspective? I think we're seeing today's day and age change.

The more people you know, candidly, the better, but also picking who you do business with, why you do business with them, how you do business with them is also becoming critical, I think, particularly when you think about anyone involved in consumer, let alone the supply chain business. And so maybe could you talk a little bit about collaboration and just looking for ecosystem partners?

Yeah, absolutely. For us, we want to collaborate, we want to connect with people that have shared values. And so whether it was partners that were looking to potentially invest in StockX early on, for us, it was never about just the check or any dollar amount. It was about, do they have shared values? Are they bought into the bigger mission that we're on? Do they understand the passion for the problems we're solving?

that they understand and appreciate what we just talked about. The fact that Detroit is a core part of who we are, things like that are really important to make sure you have alignment on upfront. And they weren't all traditional venture capital firms. I mean, some of these people were fortunate to have people like Eminem and Mark Wahlberg

and other people that are highly influential within our community of this current culture, hype culture that we talked about that were excited to be part of that bigger mission. And then those are partners that ended up getting engaged in, again, not just investing, but adding value as we were building the company in those earlier days. And then we also think about collaboration across

the different partners, whether that's brands that we're interacting with, with things we've done like a DropX where we're partnering with the brand to drop exclusive product on the platform. And then always keeping an eye on and obviously important are just the collaborations that the brands themselves are doing. And it's become such a huge part of this ecosystem, whether it's New Balance doing a partnership with an up-and-coming brand like Amy Leondor or

Our Dior and Jordan brand, these collaborations are ones that we try to really keep a close pulse on and make sure that we're doing our part to help amplify. It's just amazing. I think it really just brings out the best in everyone. Like these products and these individuals could be stellar by themselves. But when you start to open up the opportunity and see...

not only what they're creating for the consumer, but also, again, I mean, you mentioned a number of both companies and individuals that are also highly well-known for giving back to their communities as well. So we have a lot of people. I mean, I do fundamentally believe that if we want to see the change, we have to be the change and surrounding yourself with individuals that are also doing that. Again, kudos to you and the company because that is true collaboration and connectivity. When we talk about

creating that culture and really supporting that culture. And I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up diversity and inclusion as we talk about a means to foster inclusion, particularly as we think about the culture of innovation and that intersection with diversity and inclusion. So maybe you could talk a little bit about how you cultivate that inclusive environment within that

type of operating realm. For us, it's just another one that is anti-to-play. Unfortunately, I feel like companies often talk about diversity inclusion as a box to check. And for us, it has to be about so much more than that. It's embedded in the fabric of the company analysis.

that comes to life in a few different ways. One, we're fortunate to have a phenomenal chief impact officer that is one part, can't be one person, but he's one part of the ecosystem of our efforts in this space. He reports directly into our CEO. It's not something that we put off in the corner of the company. We want it to be front and center. We want to make sure that this is not just him, but our entire leadership team. It's bought into the fact that diversity of thought

an inclusive environment that helps drive creativity, that helps drive innovation in itself. And then we try to bring this into our day-to-day. So we have things like candid conversations, which every couple of weeks or once a month, at least, we're going to pick a topic that our team members feel passionate about, whether that's AAPI, whether that's Hispanic Heritage or Women's History Month, our topics that we've said, let's actually bring the company together and

and have truly candid conversations across people in our company, people from outside the company that have tremendous experiences and stories to tell. And some of those that ended up with just tremendous emotion, tremendous conversation and dialogue. And I think things like that are so important. So people realize that we're willing to carve out time

in the middle of our busy days to focus on the importance of things like that. And then it's got to be part of, you know, as we're looking to hire new team members, this has to be at the very beginning of the process, making sure that we're looking at this through the lens of valuing having a diverse workforce. And so it's something that's so important. And we find that the more we lean into this, the more benefit that we get, our team members get, I think the better it is for society.

All right. Well, now we're going to get to one of my favorite parts of the podcast, which is lightning round questions. So things that come first to your mind, nothing that will trip you up for sure, but things that come first to mind. So one of the things I often talk about is breaking myths. I fundamentally believe we should all be challenging ourselves.

quote unquote normal orthodoxies, I think. Normal is boring. And so when we think about myths and things that we want to tackle, what is one myth that you'd love to tackle around leadership or entrepreneurship? You know, that's an easy one for me. You do not need to have a Silicon Valley zip code to start a great tech company. You can do it from anywhere. You can do it from Detroit, but you don't need to be on one of the coasts. Oh, love it. Love it. Love it. All right. What is the last thing you've done that really pushed you out of your comfort zone, but left you feeling fulfilled and satisfied?

Yeah, for that one, it's not a professional one, but I mentioned I'm a pilot. I recently had the opportunity to get an instrument rating and man, was I out of my comfort zone. Having to put on goggles that blind your view outside the windshield airplane, having to depend on those instruments in front of you, that had me far out of my comfort zone, but was so rewarding to go and get that additional rating and be able to fly through the clouds.

That is phenomenal. All right. First day of vacation. What's one thing you would absolutely be doing? First day of vacation. Man, I usually if we're in a cool city, I just want to be out walking around town and seeing the sights. I love to travel. I'm not someone that just wants to sit next to the pool. I want to be out engaging with people, seeing everything that that city, that that community has to offer. So I'm telling the kids, get out of bed. Let's go. Let's go jump into town and see everything.

All right, you've accomplished so much already, obviously with so much in terms of the companies, the people, the teams, the environments.

But if there were one thing that you're like this product or company that currently exists where you're like, oh, I wish I was involved with that. Anything there or something perhaps maybe as you think forward that you want to be involved with? There are so many cool products on the platform. So there are many of them that I wish that I would have had a part of starting. I think one that just becoming popular now that I really think would have been cool to be part of was actually New Balance, which New Balance has been around for more than 100 years.

And still today, actually more so today, has become just one of the most iconic brands, some of the coolest collaborations. And to think about, man, if you had the opportunity to be part of this and then 100 years later still see a company that's evolving, that's innovating, I just think there's something super cool about the fact that they've been able to build a legacy and continue adapting to the changing environment.

All right. And last lightning round question, what would you say to your younger self to prepare for either personal or professional disruptions ahead? Yeah, don't always take the safest path. I think it's easy to say you're in a comfortable environment. You want to keep that comfortable environment going. I think some of the best things in life come from taking the more challenging path, the riskier path, and then just jumping into it and giving it your all. All

All right. Well, I know the audience, at least myself, would be remiss if I didn't ask you for a final question. You did talk a lot about New Balance, but what is your favorite pair of sneakers? I'm a big Air Force One fan. I recently had the opportunity to get the Tiffany Air Force Ones to wear to my daughter's bat mitzvah. And I think the fact that...

13-year-old was willing to dance with me in front of her friends. Those sneakers will always have a special spot in my heart because of that moment. Well, Mazel Tov to you and to your daughter. And that sounds like an amazing opportunity. Those sneakers were legit. So again, I'm super happy to have talked to you today, Greg. And thank you so much for sharing your background, your insights, and of course, your love for all things StockX. Thanks so much for having me on, Debra. Appreciate it.

Greg, thank you so much for being here today. I think I can speak for myself and listeners when I say it's fascinating to hear about the ways you are pioneering the future of online business, continuing to connect passionate buyers and sellers, and ultimately disrupting the conventional marketplace, creating opportunities all along the way. Your commitment to fostering a culture of innovation at StockX, not to mention your surrounding community, certainly resonates with me in particular, and I can't wait to see what's in store for you in StockX.

Lead Through Disruption is produced by Fasco Works in collaboration with Deloitte. Our show was produced by Avery Miles and Matt Toder and editor Nicholas Torres. We'll be back with more incredible stories from disruptors who are positively impacting change in business, culture, and society. We hope their journeys filled with curiosity, courage, and resilience inspire your own as they have countless others. I'm your host, Deb Golden. Thanks so much for listening.