Reflections on Our IPO — the First with a Female Founder/CEO, COO and CFO

Today, I am honored and humbled to be sharing this incredible milestone, because sharing is what we do at Rent the Runway. For the past decade plus, we’ve shared the clothes in our Closet in the Cloud and in the belief of a better future for fashion. And today, our shareholders embark on a new chapter with us as we become a publicly traded company.

We founded this business in 2009 because we believed there was real, true power in sharing. It was a new way of looking at the world, at the fashion industry and at the designer pieces we could never afford — unless we came together. In doing so, we knew we could reduce the environmental impact of fashion. It was a paradigm-shift, away from the industry’s old model of exclusion and waste, encouraging women to spend too much and toss too soon. It was also a shift away from the idea that you’re only worth what you own, and into a new understanding that we can all have more if we share.? But there’s a difference between having an idea and actually turning it into a reality. You need to commit to the belief that your idea has the power to make people’s lives better. And you need to build a team that shares your vision, your drive, and your resilience to see that idea become a real, true force that shapes reality.?

Team RTR is the sole reason that we have reached this moment today — for 12+ years, the team believed in this idea, fought beside me every day, celebrated the highs and thrived through the lows. They made RTR a reality, and continue to amaze me everyday with more vision, more energy, and more drive than I could ever have alone — especially during the pandemic.?

Over the past 18 months, I saw our employees step up with grit and love for Rent the Runway. It was one of the most meaningful and humbling experiences of my life. Together, we transformed our business.?

This time period has been transformative personally, too. I’ve been able to share so much more of my day with my incredible daughters, who are growing up in a world that they think is run by women. To them, it’s normal that their mom is the CEO of a company built for women, run by women. They see me on Zoom every day with nearly all women, they come to an office filled with women. This is their world.?

When I asked my 4-year old daughter Aurora what Rent the Runway does, she said “it’s girls...who run the world.”She thinks the same thing I did as a girl — that there’s no disadvantage, no limitation to being a woman in the world. And that’s why I have to keep fighting. Because I never want to have to tell her that it’s not yet true.?

Today is a step in the right direction: Rent the Runway becomes the first company to go public with a female founder/CEO, COO, and CFO —?a distinction that I am so immensely proud of. But it also shows us how far we have to go until this is normal. Until both my daughters live in a world where women-led companies aren’t a headline in themselves.

As women-led success becomes more and more ‘normal,’ I hope Rent the Runway will be a part of those moments powering women to show up on their own biggest days, looking bold, strong, and feeling like they can take on the world — because in reality, they will have to.?

In these 12+ years, the main thing I’ve learned is to keep moving. If you have a dream, an idea, you have to go for it. Make the choice to be positive, get out there, and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Your drive and your optimism is your most precious resource. You have to protect it, own it — but to make it truly powerful, share it.