Every business starts small. This one started pretty much at my
kitchen table. But think of in 2011, something
starting in a house, 2019, heading toward a billion
dollars in revenue, and that is The RealReal.
Julie Wainwright.
Very few women at this point who founded and then led to a successful public
offering.
An amazing entrepreneur.
You’re one of the most successful women in tech, full stop.
I was offered the job as the CEO of Pets.com.
I knew we couldn’t get financing, and I had to shut the company down.
It was going to be a pretty harrowing day, and my husband
decided that that was a good day to tell me he wanted a divorce.
I’d met with a recruiter who told me I was washed up.
I got tired of letting other people define me, and I made a decision, I’m going to
start my own company, and that really was the genesis
of me creating The RealReal. I knew I wanted to go back into
e-commerce. So the first thing I did was map out what Amazon was good at
and what they will have a really hard time winning, and one of the
categories was luxury. I knew that was
the business. I’d gotten the company to over $10
million in sales before I went out to raise capital.
It was pretty undeniable that there was something here.
It also meant a lot to me that I was breaking ground for other
women. Sometimes all you need to see is one person do it for you to think you
can do it.
