Tarek Mansour, is the Co-Founder & CEO of Kalshi, a regulated exchange & prediction market where you can trade on the outcome of real-world events (buy and sell event contracts). Kalshi has had a huge start to the year post-election from unlocking significant new markets, launching new products, integrating with top brokers like Robinhood and Webull, and welcoming Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor. Mansour delves into the process of navigating regulatory hurdles, including the surprising decision to sue the government. as well as the maddening  journey, challenges, and bold actions needed to be made in order to create an entirely new asset class.

Key Takeaways:

- How Kalshi is reimagining financial markets by letting users trade on anything in the news.

- The difference between gambling and investing in event trading.

- Why Tarek believes prediction markets could one day rival the stock market in size.

- Kalshi’s vision to make trading on real-world events accessible to everyone, from politics to sports and entertainment.

Kalshi is a federally regulated financial exchange and prediction market based in New York City. It allows users to trade on the outcomes of future events through event contracts. The platform was launched in July 2021 and is designed for both retail and institutional traders. Kalshi is notable for being the first federally regulated exchange of its kind, approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The company was founded in 2019 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, both of whom are MIT graduates. Tarek worked at Goldman and Citadel, Luana worked at Bridgewater and Citadel. Kalshi was part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch and has raised $110M from SV and Wall Street heavy weights like Sequoia, Henry Kravis, Charles Schwab and more.

Molly on X: https://x.com/MollySOShea

Tarek on X: https://x.com/mansourtarek_

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction: Struggles of Launching a Regulated Product

00:40 Welcoming Donald Trump Jr. as an Advisor

05:15 Vision for Prediction Markets

15:27 Expanding into Sports and Entertainment

23:11 The Future of Prediction Markets

30:38 Institutional Demand and Market Potential

31:52 Gambling vs. Investing

41:37 Insider Trading in Commodity Derivatives

43:38 Entrepreneurship vs. Trading

47:30 Business Model and Revenue Streams

52:16 Future Goals and Product Development

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