Drive Episode 7: Rent the Runway’s Jennifer Hyman on Realising Radical Ideas

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NEW YORK, United States — Welcome to episode seven of Drive, BoF’s podcast sequence that includes trend’s most dynamic entrepreneurs, delivered by DHL. On this episode, Jennifer Hyman, the co-founder and chief government of Lease the Runway describes her accelerated journey from Harvard MBA graduate to chief government of her personal firm.

Hyman launched Lease the Runway in November 2009, together with Jennifer Fleiss, her part mate from Harvard Enterprise College. Their thought was to create a rental enterprise mannequin for luxurious ready-to-wear and equipment. The corporate has since acquired over 10 million members and raised extra funding than another female-led enterprise backed enterprise in america.

“The thought of the expertise economic system right this moment, that folks choose experiences over possession, is nothing new, however on the time it was radical to imagine that the expertise economic system could possibly be a part of the closet and a part of getting dressed,” she tells BoF’s Lauren Sherman.

Nevertheless, within the early days of her firm, disrupting the style possession mannequin required Hyman and her workforce to persistently execute flawlessly. “I needed to create belief in very quick intervals of time. I entered conferences anticipating that the primary 5 conferences with a person, they might say, ‘No approach, that is horrible, I am going to by no means do that.’ Then on the finish of the assembly I might say, ‘Okay, properly, three months from now I will come again and I will inform you about how we executed all of the issues I simply talked to you about.’ I might, and they might start to see a sample that they might belief me. That I used to be really going to behave on what I promised.”

In an effort to service her new enterprise mannequin, Hyman additionally needed to deal with the physicality of trend product, and the vagaries of renting it to human beings. “We’re within the enterprise of inbound logistics. Most e-commerce corporations deal with outbound logistics. How shortly can I get this product to the client? In our enterprise, we deal with how shortly can I get this product again from the client, be sure that it is good and ship it out to the following buyer.” The corporate now operates the most important dry-cleaning warehouse on this planet.

Certainly, it’s Hyman’s capacity to imagine in her imaginative and prescient and deal with sudden challenges, in addition to a particular type of ardour, resilience and self-discipline, that helped to make Lease the Runway a sustainable enterprise. That is one thing we name Drive.

We hope you get pleasure from Episode 7!

That is the final episode of Drive Season 1, delivered in partnership with DHL. Keep tuned for Season 2 in 2019 and uncover the whole series here.