Kristi Ross stops by The Business Brew to discuss her career, leading companies through M&A, and two notable exits exceeding $1.7Bn (the most recent of which was valued at $1Bn https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/inno/stories/news/2021/01/21/chicagos-tastytrade-acquired-in-1b-deal.html).  Kristi is the co-CEO of tastytrade, which launched in 2011. She also co-founded dough, a visual front-end trading technology platform that launched in 2014 and ultimately merged with and rebranded as tastytrade when the team launched their own online brokerage firm, tastyworks, in 2017.   Kristi is an award-winning entrepreneur who believes in empowering the do-it-yourself investor to engage more with their finances. She also uses her time to interview innovative entrepreneurs on her show, Bootstrapping in America. She also walks through the ins and outs of taxes for traders in Kristi’s Tax Bursts.   Kristi started her career in public accounting, specializing in financial services industry clientele including individual traders, proprietary firms, market makers, and advisory firms. After her run as a public accountant, Kristi acted as CFO of Automated Trading Desk Specialists, a stock specialist on the Chicago Stock Exchange. She then partnered up with Tom Sosnoff to serve as CFO of thinkorswim Group where she led numerous mergers, acquisitions and integration. thinkorswim sold to TD-Ameritrade for $750M in 2009.   You can find her information here: LinkedIn, Twitter, and  tastytrade.    We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous. Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player! This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  StreamRG.com features over 300 expert interviews.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on StreamRG.com.  Visit StreamRG.com and use promo code BREW for a 14 day trial. Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/ Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production. Detailed Show Notes 3:30 - Kristi’s background   5:05 - How Kristi growing up formed her views on entre