Reverb
👤 David Kalt (Sold optionsXpress to Schwab for $1B; then bought Chicago Music Exchange (2010), seeding Reverb with supply, pricing data, cred.)🌐 sitedavidkalt.comLinkedIn
He sold a $1B brokerage, bought a guitar shop, then built the definitive used-gear marketplace on its insider knowledge.
Will it work? · our read
Owned the data. A vertical marketplace wins on proprietary data and insider supply, not on being 'eBay for X.' Kalt had both: a guitar store to seed it and a price database no rival could copy.
01How the money moves
Musician lists gear free; buyers check the Price Guide for fair value
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Buyer pays through Reverb Payments (buyer protection, shipping)
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Reverb keeps a 5% seller fee + payment cut on every sale
02The numbers
$16MStated2016 rev · $240M GMV
2016
the sentence on the page
companies, with 12,327 percent three-year growth (2013–2016.) [ 11 ] In 2016, the company generated $16 million in revenue and supported $240 million in sales of new and used equipment through its…
GMV is turnover, not revenue — Reverb's cut is about 5% of it. Etsy FY24 results
Inc 5000 (2016): $16M revenue on $240M GMV, ranked #18. Etsy filings later disclosed $19.1M of Reverb revenue for part of 2019; GMV reached $917.9M in 2024.
🔒
You have the verdict. Members get the work behind it.
- The CENTS scorecard — where it's strong, where it's soft
- The founder's key move, and the counter-move
- How it could die — the evidence, and how sure we are
- The case against our own call
- A 🚀 launchpad prompt — the case, as a plan for your business
We rate our own confidence — and argue against ourselves. Nobody else in this category does.
Sources always public on all 560 cases · cancel anytime · 14-day refund
See a full teardown, free → ImportYetiSourcesSources last checked 25 August 2026
Reverb.com — Wikipedia (founding, funding, Etsy $275M, 2025 sale)Inc 5000: $16M rev on $240M GMV (2016), ranked #18Reverb Pricing & Payouts — 5% selling feeReverb: privately held again (2025 Etsy divestiture)Summit Partners: $25M Series B + Kalt / optionsXpress background
Revenue shown is first-party but dated: $16M in 2016 (Inc 5000, company-reported, ranked #18). Etsy's SEC filing separately disclosed $19.1M of Reverb revenue for part of 2019. Recent Etsy reports break out GMS by segment, not revenue, so $917.9M (2024) and $942.1M (2023) are GMV/turnover — Reverb's take is roughly 5%, not the whole sum. $275M is the 2019 Etsy purchase price, not revenue. Founder facts (optionsXpress sold to Schwab for about $1B; bought Chicago Music Exchange in 2010) and the sale to Creator Partners + Servco - announced 22 April 2025, closed 2 June 2025 per Etsy's Q2 10-Q - are documented. Reverb is privately held by those two buyers today, not by Etsy. The 'dead twin' failure mode is our framing, supported by the GMV decline and Etsy's divestiture. We never score you.