Have a special occasion coming up with that special someone? Pining to wear that $xxxx designer dress for the occasion, but wary of spending all that hard earned money on a single dress that you would probably wear only a couple of times? Enter RentTheRunway to the rescue.

RentTheRunway is a website co-founded by Jenn Hyman and Jenny Fleiss, who attended Harvard Business School together earlier, which allows members to rent the latest designer dresses from well known designers at a fraction of the cost of the retail price.  Though their idea was met with skepticism, the two of them persisted, after a lot of interaction with designers and other women and lots of  trials and mock-ups, they launched the website in 2008.

What started as a personal idea of the duo has grown to a community of more than 2 million members. Their members range from teens and college students to women over 40. Jenn Hyman was kind enough to talk to us about the meteoric rise of the website's popularity. Checkout the interview below:

What is the concept behind Rent the Runway? What inspired you to develop this concept?

The concept for Rent the Runway originally started when I was home during Thanksgiving break and my sister had a “closet full of clothes but nothing to wear moment” and I thought “there needs to be a solution for this.” Jennifer Fleiss, my co-founder and President of Rent the Runway and I created this company so that women everywhere can live the life they dream today by having access to designer brands that otherwise would have been unattainable. We aspired to make high-end fashions as accessible as renting a movie from Netflix and let women know that they truly can have it all.





















What were some of the difficulties that you faced from the stage that you conceived this idea to having Rent the Runway fully up and running.

There was definitely some skepticism when we were initially approaching designers, but we were committed to building a business that introduces the next generation of women to designer brands. Jenny and I also had to familiarize ourselves with the tech side of business since neither of us come from technology backgrounds.


How is Rent the Runway different from other similar services like girlmeetsdress.com? What are the key differentiators?

There are a couple key differentiators:

Free Membership:
Rent the Runway is a free membership service. All members have to do is sign up and start shopping!

Fit Guaranteed:
Since fit is the number one concern for all members, offer a FREE second size with ever dress rental to ensure the perfect fit. If none of the dresses in a member’s order fits, we allow a return within 24 hours for a full merchandise credit. For an additional $25 any member can rent completely different dress as a back-up.

RTR Moments:
We recently launched RTR Moments, a section that allows our members to view images of other women in the dresses. Women inherently feel more comfortable renting after seeing other women with their same body type, height, weight, etc.

Overnight Shipping/Same Day Delivery:
We ship overnight anywhere in the United States and offer same day messenger delivery via courier in New York City for all last minute needs!













































What happens when a client does not like the dress that you ship to her or accidently damages the rented product? How do you handle such situations?

When a customer orders a dress, she pays a $5 insurance fee that covers anything from stains to beads coming off a dress. If a customer orders a dress that doesn’t fit her correctly, she can send it back within 24 hours and we credit her back for the rental. We encourage all customers to call, chat or email our stylists if they have a question about how a dress fits.


While starting Rent the Runway did you think that it would be such a successful venture within this short period of time? What according to you contributed to your success?

We knew we had a great idea on our hands, but the growth rate has been unbelievable. Our fantastic team has definitely contributed to Rent the Runway’s success – We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for their hard work and dedication!


Can you explain to us the rationale of charging approximately 10% and 20% of the cost of a dress for a 4 days and 8 days rental respectively? How did you arrive upon this figure?

It makes it possible for all women to wear dresses they thought would be otherwise unattainable.


How many members do you have and what is the median age group of your clients? What is the most popular item (across all categories) that you rent out?

Currently we have over 2 million members ranging from teens and college students to women over 40. Women of all ages are renting for their special occasions on Rent the Runway. Our most popular dresses are contemporary designers including Nicole Miller and Badgley Mischka.














































What is the biggest compliment that you have received from your clients?

It never gets old hearing that we made a woman feel more beautiful and more confident when she was in RTR.


What is the biggest piece of advice that you would offer for online sellers?

My advice would be to not hesitate in taking risks and testing out a concept that you are passionate about. So many people think of great ideas but don’t move forward in executing them.


Thank you for taking the time for this interview, we wish you and RentYourRunway the very best for the future.



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