From App Store to Stock Exchange: Zedge CEO Jonathan Reich | Seth Farbman's Podcast

On this episode, host Seth Farbman sits down with Jonathan Reich, CEO of Zedge, the publicly traded company behind Zedge Marketplace, the leading platform for mobile phone personalization content including ringtones, wallpapers, app icons, and dynamic wallpapers. Zedge has built a community of around 20 million monthly active users, and Jonathan breaks down how that scale turned into an unexpected new business line: licensing content and building custom data sets for frontier AI models. He shares how the opportunity came about, what makes Zedge's data valuable to AI companies, and where he sees the business heading next. Jonathan also talks through what it's like running a publicly traded company on the NYSE American, the competitive landscape for a personalization platform this size, and what's got him most excited about Zedge's future. If you're interested in how a consumer app scaled to millions of users and found a second act in the AI economy, this is a conversation worth your time. Chapters: 00:00 Cold Open: Episode Highlights 00:48 Welcome & Guest Introduction 01:52 Why the Name "Zedge"? 02:35 What Zedge Does: Marketplace, GenAI Suite & Guru Shots 03:17 The Pivot: Licensing Data to AI Models 05:38 From Ringtones in 2008 to Today 08:17 Jonathan's Journey: Wall Street to Zedge CEO 13:07 Zedge's Innovation Track: Deciding What Gets Built 16:07 Going Public: Advantages & Global Revenue Mix 22:14 Competition, What's Next & Where to Learn More Connect with Seth LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethfarbman/ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sethfarbmanstock TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@sethfarbman Twitter (X) – https://x.com/sethfarbman1