Earlier this week, I caught up with Jenn Hyman, the cofounder and CEO of Rent the Runway. We’ve spoken many times over the years, but this time was different: Hyman was about to announce her departure as CEO of the company she cofounded 18 years ago. I broke the news on Wednesday.
Eighteen years is a long time to run a company! And when you look around at the female-founded startups of Rent the Runway’s generation, few still have their original founders at the helm (the exception is Bumble, which saw founder Whitney Wolfe Herd leave and then boomerang back).
“I’ve spent more time building Rent the Runway over the last 18 years than I’ve spent with my family, than I’ve spent with my husband, than I’ve spent with my kids,” Hyman told me, tearing up a little. “It’s been, honestly, the most important part of my life. It’s my contribution to the world.”
Over almost two decades, Rent the Runway has been through it. There were the early days, when the company invented the clothing rental category. Then there was the rise of competitors like Nuuly and the near-complete devastation of the pandemic. In between, Hyman took the company public in 2021—and then saw its stock fall 98% from its IPO price. She’s spent the past few years overhauling the underlying business model.
In her last weeks in the CEO seat, Hyman is able to reflect on those highs and lows. She’s making a clean break—she won’t keep a seat on Rent the Runway’s board. “There’s a lot that has been written critically about our IPO,” she acknowledges, “but we were the first IPO in history where a female CEO, COO, and CFO were leading their business. I was the 30th woman ever to take a company public that she founded.” Yet she finds those stats “alarming.”
You can read my full piece for more—including what Hyman says is the right time for any founder to step away.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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PARTING WORDS
"I want to prove that I'm the best."
— WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson, on the cover of Vanity Fair
