Podcast appearances and mentions of Jennifer Hyman

On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff talk about some of the biggest fashion stories in the industry. This week, we talk about Prada's positive earnings, including the spectacular growth of Miu Miu and why so many other luxury brands are falling behind. We also talk about Nike being sued in a class action lawsuit over the shutdown of its NFT business, RTFKT — one of a number of lawsuits over the ill-fated technology. Later in the episode (21:15), Manoff speaks with Rent the Runway co-founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman about her turnaround plan for the company. As the OG in the fashion rental space, Rent the Runway has had to contend with new competitors like Nuuly, which have swept into the rental space.

Rent the Runway 2.0 - Redefining the Future of Fashion with Jennifer HymanJennifer Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, joins Ken Pilot to discuss the company's journey over the past 15 years. Jennifer Hyman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, a company that is disrupting the trillion-dollar fashion industry with the world's first and largest shared designer closet. She has led the company for 15 years through all stages of growth, from inception in 2009 to a scale of more than 3M lifetime customers. Jennifer took the company public in 2021, making her the first woman ever to IPO a company with an all-female executive suite and the 30th woman ever to IPO a company. She has been honored on the TIME Top 100 Most Influential People List and the CNBC Disruptor List for 5 out of 10 years. She also serves on the Board of Directors of The Estée Lauder Companies and Zalando. Rent the Runway's Origins and Growth Hyman pitched the concept to Diane von Furstenberg 48 hours after having the idea The company now rents about $5 billion worth of designer clothing annually Rent the Runway works with over 1,000 designers and has had 100% brand retention over 15 years Business Model and Profitability The company has focused on becoming capital-light, with revenue sharing agreements with brands. Rent the Runway has more than doubled its margins over the last few years. The goal is to reach free cash flow breakeven. Challenges and Resilience COVID-19 presented significant challenges for the business. Hyman emphasizes the importance of resilience and staying in the game. Marketing and Customer Acquisition The company is refocusing on top-of-funnel marketing activities. Rent the Runway is leveraging its community and introducing new initiatives like the "Icons" program. Physical Retail and Partnerships Hyman expresses interest in partnerships with retailers like Sephora, Ulta, or Zara. Previous partnerships with Neiman Marcus drove significant foot traffic. Industry Insights Hyman discusses the disruption in the fashion industry, particularly from companies like Shein and Amazon. She notes the changing perception of brand value among consumers. Technology and AI Rent the Runway is exploring AI applications in various areas, including photography, customer service, and search algorithms.Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Jennifer Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, joins Ken Pilot to discuss the company's journey over the past 15 years.Rent the Runway's Origins and GrowthHyman pitched the concept to Diane von Furstenberg 48 hours after having the ideaThe company now rents about $5 billion worth of designer clothing annuallyRent the Runway works with over 1,000 designers and has had 100% brand retention over 15 yearsBusiness Model and ProfitabilityThe company has focused on becoming capital-light, with revenue sharing agreements with brands.Rent the Runway has more than doubled its margins over the last few years.The goal is to reach free cash flow breakeven.Challenges and ResilienceCOVID-19 presented significant challenges for the business.Hyman emphasizes the importance of resilience and staying in the game.Marketing and Customer AcquisitionThe company is refocusing on top-of-funnel marketing activities.Rent the Runway is leveraging its community and introducing new initiatives like the "Icons" program.Physical Retail and PartnershipsHyman expresses interest in partnerships with retailers like Sephora, Ulta, or Zara.Previous partnerships with Neiman Marcus drove significant foot traffic.Industry InsightsHyman discusses the disruption in the fashion industry, particularly from companies like Shein and Amazon.She notes the changing perception of brand value among consumers.Technology and AIRent the Runway is exploring AI applications in various areas, including photography, customer service, and search algorithms.

Jennifer Hyman is the co-founder and CEO of Rent The Runway, a pioneering fashion technology company that has revolutionized the way women get dressed. Under her leadership, Rent The Runway has grown into a multi-million dollar business, offering clothing and accessory rentals from over 700 designer brands.Jennifer's vision for a more sustainable and accessible fashion industry has garnered her numerous accolades, including recognition on Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" list. With a background in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, she is a respected thought leader in entrepreneurship and innovation.***CHA-CHING! Customers are rushing to your store. Do you have a point-of-sale system you can trust or is it (ahem) a real P.O.S.? You need Shopify for retail.Shopify POS is your command center for your retail store. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify has EVERYTHING you need to sell in person. Get hardware that fits your business. Take payments by smartphone, transform your tablet into a point-of-sale system, or use Shopify's POS Go mobile device for a battle-tested solution.Plus, Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way.Do retail right with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at www.shopify.com/founderhour. Once again, go to www.shopify.com/founderhour to take your retail business to the next level today.***The Founder Hour is brought to you by Outer. Outer makes the world's most beautiful, comfortable, innovative, and high-quality outdoor furniture - ALL from sustainable materials - and is the ONLY outdoor furniture with a patented built-in cover to make protecting it effortless. From teak chairs to fire pit tables, everything Outer makes has the look and feel of what you'd expect at a 5-star resort, for less than you'd pay at a big box store for something that won't last.For a limited time, get 10% off at www.liveouter.com/thefounderhour. Terms and conditions apply. ***Follow The Founder Hour on:Instagram | www.instagram.com/thefounderhourTwitter/X | www.twitter.com/thefounderhourLinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/company/thefounderhourYouTube | www.youtube.com/@thefounderhour

Jennifer Hyman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, the world's first and largest shared designer closet. Under Jennifer's leadership, RTR has made history by being the first company to go public with a female founder/CEO, COO, and CFO. Jennifer serves on the Board of The Estée Lauder Companies and Zalando, and also is a Founding Member of the NYSE Board Advisory Council, a Member of the Women.nyc Advisory Board and a Member of the Launch with GS Advisory Council for Goldman Sachs. In Today's Episode with Jennifer Hyman We Discuss: 1. The 14-Year Overnight Success: Scaling Rent The Runway To IPO: What was the a-ha founding moment for Jennifer with RTR? What does Jenn know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning? Does Jenn believe that naivete is good or not when starting a business? 2. Building the Best Team: What have been Jenn's single biggest lessons when it comes to acquiring the best talent? What have been Jenn's biggest hiring mistakes over the years? How does Jenn approach the interview process? Why does Jenn not focus on their professional career and achievements? What questions does she ask? What does Jenn believe are the single biggest mistakes founders make when building their teams? 3. Building the Business for IPO and Beyond: Why does Jenn wish she had run RTR as a private company in the same way she does now as a public company? How does the way you run the company differ? What about the unit economics of RTR suggesting it is a fundamentally better business than apparel competitors? How have their margin profiles changed over time? Why does Wall St not love RTR? What is required for that to change? Why does Jenn believe the street is wrong on how they analyse RTR? 4. Boards 101: Leading and Learning from Estee Lauder: What are Jenn's biggest lessons to founders on how to manage boards successfully? What have been 1-2 of Jenn's biggest lessons from being on the Estee Lauder board? What do the best board members do? What do the worst board members do?

"Now also in that meeting, I asked her, 'Could you introduce me to a few of your friends? I'd love to meet with them and talk about this idea.' Because every meeting has to get you to three other meetings. Never leave a meeting with someone without asking them for that introduction." In this View From The Top interview, Rent the Runway founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman shares stories from her first meeting with fashion-giant Diane Von Furstenberg and how she's worked to foster and maintain relationships with more than 1,000 retail brands. "If you're an entrepreneur, effectively you are a salesperson. That's your number one skill that you need to have," Hyman says. Interviewed by Cyerra Holmes, MBA '23, Hyman talked about how growing up with a sibling with a disability helped her become relentlessly optimistic in the face of insurmountable odds. And, just twelve years after business school and those first meetings with fashion designers, Hyman took Rent The Runway public, becoming the 30th woman to complete an IPO in the history of U.S. markets.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's fast-paced and competitive marketplace, many consumer brands and digitally native DTC brands are fighting to stand out and chart a path to sustainable growth. To fully understand the dynamics shaping this area of the retail industry in particular, we sat down with Jenny Fleiss, Senior Advisor for Volition Capital, who is most known for starting Rent the Runway with her co-founder Jennifer Hyman. Now, Jenny works closely with CPG and DTC brands to help them understand new competitive pressures and find the best ways to refine their marketing and advertising strategies, their product sourcing and supply chains and even their revenue models. Tune in to this episode of Retail Remix to learn:  Her key lessons from building and scaling the Rent the Runway business;  How digital technology has become a driver of efficiency and personalization; What Jenny looks for in brands as an advisor for Volition Capital; and Jenny's take on trends to watch for in 2023. RELATED LINKS Learn more about Volition Capital Learn more about Jenny's background and her experiences in retail Learn more about Rent the Runway Follow Jenny on LinkedIn and Twitter

Rent the Runway CEO and co-founder Jennifer Hyman and Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman discuss the strategy behind the company's data-driven, online marketplace where people can rent or buy clothing. Rent the Runway launched in 2009 with the mission to democratize fashion. Over the years, the company has evolved significantly, keeping up with the many major shifts to the retail and e-commerce industries overall. From the rise of mobile and the increasingly outside influence of social media on shopping, to changes in consumer preferences from subscription models or in-person experiences, and, of course the multifaceted impact of the pandemic on shopping, Rent the Runway has continuously adapted. Rent the Runway went public in 2021 and today works with hundreds of designers. You can watch the video of this interview here: https://youtu.be/T06qHdl1sI0 You can read the transcript here: https://greylock.com/greymatter/designed-by-data/

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG  @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Julia Boorstin is CNBC's Senior Media & Tech Correspondent. She covers media with a special focus on the intersection of media and technology. In 2013, Julia created and launched the CNBC Disruptor 50, an annual list she oversees, highlighting the private companies transforming the economy and challenging companies in established industries. She's the author of a new book called, “When Women Lead - What they achieve, why they succeed, how we can learn from them." Julia's parents inspired her to pursue hard things and instilled in her a love of asking questions. As parents, we should do the same. Asking questions is a sign of respect and that you care. We should ask more questions than we answer both at work and at home. Approach people with curiosity. It's how we show that we care. Julia found a unique way to add value to her employer: Creating the Disruptor 50 list. It's important for us to find unique ways to add value to our company and do work that inspires us at the same time. It's evident that Julia loves it and because of that, both CNBC and Julia win. She has taken an entrepreneurial approach to her career at CNBC and has come up with and championed many ideas that have been impactful and built her career. She shares how you can do that too… Julia shares her preparation process for interviewing a powerful leader like Sheryl Sandberg or Bob Iger. "I didn't have a background in business. I had to over-prepare." How to become a talent magnet and attract effective leaders to want to work for you... She shares the biggest takeaway that you learned from interviewing thousands of CEOs and executives including Katrina Lake, Gwyneth Paltrow, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Jennifer Hyman, and more. Advice Julia got from her dad: "The road is always better than the inn." Enjoy the process. "The best way out is always through." Don't look for shortcuts. "I can't go on, I can't go on, I'll go on." Be persistent. How to build confidence? Get the reps... Do it a lot. Confidence is built through action. Commonalities of excellent leader: Humility Focus High adaptability quotient Communal leadership Empathy "Make your own characteristics a superpower." Life/Career advice: Be willing to fail It's a volume game Be prepared for brainstorming meetings. Have a portfolio of ideas. Julia's book writing process: She interviewed 120 leaders What can men do to be supportive? "Men need to understand the statistics. Diversity = more value." Be a talent magnet. Be honest about what you don't know.

Bloomberg Intelligence E-Commerce Analyst Poonam Goyal hosts Rent the Runway Founder and CEO, Jennifer Hyman, to discuss how its closet in the cloud is disrupting the apparel industry.

When the pandemic hit, Rent the Runway, a company that rents designer clothing, saw half its customers pause or cancel their monthly subscriptions. Jennifer Hyman, the CEO, talks about how she retooled the business to survive the shock, and the challenges that still remain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking to Jennifer Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway. Rent the Runway is a a pretty simple idea: it's a clothing rental and subscription business for women which launched in 2008. The basic idea is pretty simple: you can rent clothes one by one, and Subscribers pay a certain monthly amount for a certain number of pieces that they can swap out anywhere from 1 to 4 times a month depending on the tier of their membership. Rent the Runway also lets customers buy secondhand clothing either after they rent it or just outright.  But Rent the Runway has had a pretty intense path from its founding in 2008 to going public in 2021: the onset of the pandemic in 2020 cratered the business as 60 percent of customers canceled or paused their subscriptions, and Jennifer was forced to make drastic cuts to survive. But she says that now things are swinging back, as more and more people are spending their dollars going out, traveling, and generally shifting their spending from things to experiences. There's a post Covid wedding boom going on: Rent the Runway is right there for people. Jen and I talked about that swing in the business, but we spent most of this conversation talking about running a company that basically does really high-risk logistics: sourcing clothes, sending them to people, getting them back, cleaning them, and sending them out again. Spotify and Netflix run subscription businesses where the products never wear out or get dirty; Jen has to deal with red win stains at scale. In fact, Rent the Runway runs one of the country's biggest dry cleaning operations, which I find to be completely fascinating: what does dry cleaning innovation actually look like, and how does it hit the bottom line? My favorite episodes of Decoder are the ones where simple ideas – renting clothes – turn out to be incredible complicated to execute. This is one of those. Links: Apple defends upcoming privacy changes as ‘standing up for our users' Rent the Runway, a secondhand fashion site, makes its trading debut. Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23041884 Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today's episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our anchors begin today's show with Plexo Capital Founding Managing Partner Lo Toney breaking down Twitter's decision to adopt a “poison pill” shareholder rights plan in the wake of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's bid to buy the social media giant. Then, Guggenheim Securities Senior Managing Director Eric Mandl weighs in on consolidation in the tech sector, and Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins joins after publishing a new article on Apple's transition to making chips in-house. Next, CNBC's Steve Kovach covers employees looking to unionize at Apple's Grand Central Terminal store in New York City, and CNBC's Dom Chu looks at how to play the 10-year yield hitting a three-year high. Later, Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman discusses the e-commerce platform's performance following its latest quarterly results, and our Carl Quintanilla recaps his interview with Blue Marble Pictures Founder and CEO Theresa Kang-Lowe on the global expansion of Korean cinema.

Balance is a hot topic for women because when we consider everything that is being asked or expected of us, we soon realize there are not enough hours in the day to do it all. That's why episode 29 of Female Founders Breaking Boundaries is about all this talk about balance is BS! Have you ever felt like your customers and your team just don't get what it is you're trying to do with your business? Download your free Company Persona Template that we use with clients to get them started with bringing everyone on to the same page. It's designed to get you and your team thinking about your purpose, your focus and your values; and documenting them so that you can get everybody on the same page.In this episode of Female Founders Breaking Boundaries, I'm sharing the importance of prioritizing tasks when you can and understanding when you cannot and actionable steps you can take right now to create balance in your business and in your life. Some of the things I cover in this episode are:Celebrating the amazing women-led leadership team of Rent The Runway; Jennifer Hyman, Jennifer Fleiss, Scarlett O'Sullivan, Anushka Salinas, and Inna Vartelsky as they take their company public. Understanding that while prioritizing is important, that there are some tasks that are going to be non-negotiable. Where the triskelion symbol originated and understanding the power of 3. Purpose/ Passion, Plan, and Profit are the 3 legs that keep your “stool” or business standing and how they rely on one another to operate.How She Suite Boutique incorporates your life into the strategic planning of your business. Deep thoughts on being authentically yourself in front of your kids, even if that means getting your nose pierced. More deep thoughts on “corporate trauma” negatively influencing the way you behave even after leaving Corporate America. You have to use your business to impact your life and vice versa. Thanks for listening! Be sure to tune in to all the episodes to receive tons of tools, advice, resources, support, and encouragement that resonates with the modern business woman and to hear even more about the points outlined above.If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to share and tag me!  And don't forget to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!Learn more about Female Founders Breaking Boundaries and Casey at https://she-suiteboutique.com/podcast/ CONNECT WITH CASEY GROMER:LinkedInCompany PersonaWork with Casey Gromer! LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Female Founders Breaking Boundaries: Take a Clarity Break, Not a CEO DayFemale Founders Breaking Boundaries: Passion is not a VisionThe Wheel of Life - Finding Balance in Your Life

Rolanda Evelyn was working in a role that many would consider a dream job: product marketing at YouTube in New York City. And while she was thriving professionally, Rolanda had always dreamt about working in fashion.In February 2020, Rolanda left Google to wholeheartedly pursue that fashion dream. Little did she know that a global pandemic was awaiting that would have a significant impact on the retail industry. After months of uncertainty, Rolanda finally landed her dream role: Product Marketing & Customer Strategy Manager at Rent the Runway - a true full-circle moment after she had served as an on-campus ambassador for the company while she was still in college and had always admired Co-Founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman.On this episode, we talk about how Rolanda's passion, tenacity, and convictions allowed her to manifest her dream of working in fashion. She shares some great advice on how you can increase your own odds of lading your dream job. We also chatted about how Rent the Runway pivoted amidst the global pandemic and about Rolanda's side venture "Other Cards", which produces greeting cards that are more inclusive towards minorities and help erase stigma around topics like menstruation, abortion, and sex. Check out Rolanda's blog "leave a little sparkle".Follow Rolanda on Instagram.For the Rent the Runway discount code, use the code RTRFAM55E4DF7 at checkout.

Rent the Runway chief executive Jennifer Hyman shares her strategy for making the fashion rental model work as retail, restaurants and workplaces slowly begin to re-open.   To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. The pandemic was a near-death experience for Rent the Runway, the business that introduced and popularised renting fashion on a wide scale in the United States. As consumers stopped heading to offices and events, chief executive Jennifer Hyman was left wondering: “Will my business still be relevant after Covid?” The executive had to make difficult decisions, fast, laying off and furloughing staff and cutting spending.” As a leader, that was for sure the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do,” Hyman told BoF’s Lauren Sherman at VOICES 2020, describing it as “the second founding moment of the company.” Now, as retail, restaurants and workplaces slowly begin to re-open, the company is betting on a post-pandemic shift in consumer values that couples a desire for more sustainable consumption with a “hedonistic” environment of “worldwide euphoria,” Hyman said.   Related Articles: The Return of Rental Inside the Closet of the Future The Pandemic Changed the Way People Live. How Can Fashion Adapt?   To subscribe to The BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Join BoF Professional for the analysis and advice you need. Get 30 days for just $1 or explore group subscriptions for your business. 

Charity Talks welcomes Jennifer Hyman to the podcast.  Jennifer is the Director of Communications for Living Goods, which provides critical healthcare solutions to women and children in Africa by deploying a network of community health workers.  Partnering with local governments, Living Goods ensures that quality healthcare is available to those who need it most, and is using technology and data to maximize the impact it is having in these underserved communities.  (0:21). Website:  www.livinggoods.orgFacebook: www.facebook.com/livinggoods.healthare.1Twitter:  www.twitter.com/Living_Goods 

Two stories to tell a lesson that has been learned time and time again - talk to your customers and validate your thesis before building. Masters of Scale podcast on Rent the Runway, then read Jennifer Hyman's own writeup. I especially recommend her analysis of the flash sale boom and bust of the 2010's (Groupon, Gilt). I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea, then read Hacker News responses The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick, with summary

I am so excited to share that my new collection, Love Whit, a collaboration with Rent the Runway is finally out!! The entire experience was so emotional for me. I am so happy to finally be designing again - doing what I know I was born to do. Rent the Runway has been an absolute dream partner. Today, I am talking to Jennifer Hyman, Co-Founder and CEO of Rent the Runway! Jennifer sets the strategic priorities and leads the company in growing all areas of the business, including marketing, technology, merchandising, supply chain and data science. She has been honored with recognitions like the “TIME 100” most influential people in the world, People magazine’s “Women Changing the World,”  Forbes’ “12 Most Disruptive Names in Business”, Fortune’s “Most Powerful Female Entrepreneurs”...to name a few! During our conversation, we discuss the story behind Rent the Runway and how her life has changed during quarantine.  To rent my new collection, Love, Whit, visit renttherunway.com! If you do not have an account, use promo code WHITNEY to get $100 off a 2 Month Trial of Rent The Runway’s 2 Swap Membership. For each time my code is used, we will donate $10 to @untilwedoitorg, a non-profit organization mobilizing to care for vulnerable populations that are typically overlooked in times of crisis, like now. Currently, they’re focused on distributing 50 million masks to communities most at-risk for COVID-19. Get your family the Crayola School Mask Pack today at SchoolMaskPack.com/withwhit. They will donate a portion of your purchase to a charity of your choice that supports kids who have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Produced by Dear Media

The Catalyze podcast returns with Season Four, headlining with Niki Shamdasani ’15, the co-founder and CEO of Sani Designs.People told Niki and her sister, Ritika, that they were “delusional” for aspiring to break into the fashion world with South Asian formalwear. But in the past two years, the sisters have proved the naysayers wrong in big ways.Sani recently launched a partnership with Rent the Runway, a fashion subscription service for luxury items, to increase access to Indian occasion wear for women across the globe. In between business trips, Niki stopped by the Foundation in Chapel Hill to share the news and what’s next for the startup.Niki graduated with a political science major and business administration minor from Carolina.You can learn more about the company on their website or Instagram, and you can shop Sani’s styles on Rent the Runway. The Sani Fashion Show, previously scheduled for April 5 as a benefit event for UNC Children’s Hospital, has been postponed to this fall due to the expanding COVID-19 pandemic.The music for this episode is by scholar Scott Hallyburton ’22, guitarist of the band South of the Soul. On your mobile device, you can listen and subscribe to Catalyze on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For any other podcast app, you can find the show using our RSS feed.Catalyze is hosted and produced by Sarah O’Carroll for the Morehead-Cain Foundation, home of the first merit scholarship program in the United States and located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can let us know what you thought of the episode by finding us on Twitter or Instagram at @moreheadcain or you can email us at communications@moreheadcain.org.This past month has been unlike any that Carolina—that the world—has ever experienced. We know that many of you have had your lives upended by the impact of the coronavirus. We want our scholars, from the incoming class to our graduating seniors, our alumni, and everyone else in the Morehead-Cain community, to know that we are here for you.

"O orgulho da posse está morto, e o orgulho do acesso é o novo luxo.” segundo Jennifer Hyman, cofundadora e presidente da empresa digital de aluguel de roupas Rent the Runway, durante o evento The Year Ahead: Luxury, organizad pela Bloomberg em Manhattan recentemente. A H&M acaba de anunciar que vai abrir sua primeira loja dedicada ao aluguel de roupas na Suécia. A partir desses fatos e do crescente interesse do consumidor por experiência em detrimento do consumo de roupas Augusto Mariotti e Camila Yahn conversam sobre essa novidades e seu impacto sócio-ambiental e se realmente esse será o futuro da moda. Nomes citados neste podcast: Fundação Ellen Mac Arthur Rent The Runway Armário Coletivo

Rent The Runway is in the news this week for a logistics snafu that has left the company unable to accept new customers. As we watch the situation, we bring back this interview from last year featuring the company’s CEO and co-founder, Jennifer Hyman. Hear Jenn as she talks about what it’s like to run a company that combines logistics and fashion, as well as what goes into creating a diverse and equitable workplace.

EP189 - Code Commerce and Grocery Shop This episode was recorded right after Jason & Scot received their iPhone 11 Pro Max's.  Jason mentioned a new iOS feature to take full page screenshots.  Here is how to take full page screenshots in iOS 13. Event Recaps: Code Commerce - Sept 9 and 10 in New York City Groceryshop - Sept 15-18 In Las Vegas Amazon News Amazon orders 100,000 electric vans from Rivian Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products Other News BDO reports more than 7k stores already closed in 2019, which is already more than any other year Some contreversy over store closure numbers. IHL disagreed with Coresight methodology and findings.  Coresight store closure tracker IHL score closure study Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 189 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Sunday, September 22nd, 2019. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode 189 being recorded on Sunday September 22nd, 2019 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners. Jason it was we got a lot to cover tonight we'll see what get a couple trip reports before we jump into that I'm dying to know did you get your iPhone 11 on new iPhone day was September 20th. Jason: [0:58] I did I was traveling during the week that it was an out so I was like at code Commerce secretly listening to the announcement. In the audience and then that Friday I was still in New York so I super convenient for my Apple they made it 5:30 a.m. 8:30 a.m. East Coast time so I got to pre-order. That that Friday and I my phone arrived this is Sunday my phone arrived on Friday. Scot: [1:30] Look at it all moved over and everything's rocking. Jason: [1:33] I did I think. Scot: [1:35] Pictures senior pictures. Jason: [1:36] So I suspect we got similar if not exactly the same models I got the 11 Pro Max screen. Scot: [1:46] I got the same thing yes you have impeccable taste sir. Jason: [1:50] Yes twinsies and I would say the upgrade experience continues to get smoother and less glitch free so, in general it was super easy one wrinkle I was using a unpopular feature of the 10 which is dual Sims. And so the way in the the US they don't have two SIM ports so one of your Sims is virtual and one of them is a physical Sim so I had to a work phone account in a personal phone account and in the upgrade Apple convert your former esim to a physical Sim so now I have two physical Sims and I can't fit them both in my phone so I'll have to go back to an AT&T store and get a new esim. For all those people that want to have have a new definition for first world problem. Scot: [2:47] Watches get two phones. Jason: [2:50] Yeah not a fan I've carried a lot around a lot of phones and it's much easier to have to I mean I have one in the to send feature actually works quite well. Articulated there different carrier. Scot: [3:01] How to upgrade. Jason: [3:03] Except for this week I mean I'm still fine I'll I'll still be able to travel with the with the once a mint I can swing by and AT&T store last time I did this no one in the AT&T store never heard of any ECM but I have a feeling they've got it all I'll Donald in by this time. And so I don't think we need to cover a lot like it's you know mostly well-known, new features like you know why she related to camera but there is one secret e-commerce TV feature that I'm I'm kind of happy about 4 maybe only be relevant to his nerves of the show. Scot: [3:40] I'm trying to block what is it. Jason: [3:43] So in the the Safari screen capture so when you you do the combination of buttons to take a picture of your screen. You can now and now gives you the option to grab not just the visible part of the screen but the entire webpage all the way to the bottom. Scot: [4:05] Nice so you can get your lung checkouts. Jason: [4:09] Yeah yeah and so when you're taking pictures of mobile experience is to illustrate two teams or clients or things like that which is something we do a lot in the old days what you had to do is take a bunch of pictures and Stitch them together. And so now this is super seamless in it actually works in Safari and male and a couple other programs that weren't as relevant but they're for web pages that's a handy little feature. Scot: [4:33] If I'd call that an e-commerce feature as much as it Chief digital strategy retail officer feature. Jason: [4:39] Fair enough fair enough a ux, u.s. benefit I guess and on the flip side I feel like the last three years I've been waiting for the stupid true vision camera to go in the back so that we can finally get our shoe size right but I'll have to wait at least another year for that was. Scot: [4:55] Did to get the little pixels and also that we can. Jason: [4:59] So that front camera that does your your face recognition has it's an advanced measurement device that measures in 3D in it in the few retailers that are they use that for clever e-commerce experiences like Warby Parker will measure your face and recommend frame specifically for your face and it it it's like millimeter accurate so we're there to be a camera like that on the back of the phone you could imagine measuring a space to make sure that the refrigerator would fit the opening in your kitchen or the sofa would fit in your living room or exactly what size shoes you should order from a particular vendor Nike watch that feature without the fancy camera but it would be much better with this this hyper accurate camera. Scot: [5:47] Yeah he agreed and while you were traveling will you get a pretty cool recognition. Jason: [5:52] We did we did that must have been you because I was busy not focusing on the podcast. Scot: [5:57] It was snot me I think it was it was so it was just people someone out there likes our content. Jason: [6:05] Are the Luminous body of work. Scot: [6:07] What is a if you know how many hours that people have to listen to us. Jason: [6:11] We we yeah we're about 200 hours. Scot: [6:16] That's a it's a lot of us out there in the universe. Jason: [6:21] Yes yes so if you ever have The Misfortune of hearing me speak in person I usually open up by saying in the highly unlikely event you don't get enough of me in the next 30 minutes there's 200 more hours of me on the interweb. Scot: [6:31] Google I got a lot to cover let's jump into it first when I get a trip report from recode decode that was held in beautiful New York City September 10th how's the show. Jason: [6:46] Yeah it was awesome so we waited to that in the last segment but this is code recode the the publication which is now owned by box them a very fancy show that I went too early in the year that they call code conference and Jason Del Rey there has been enough that show a couple times is the Commerce correspondent for them and he is started the series of events called code Commerce so used to be, like an evening event on top of other shows where he would have like three speakers and now for the, third year in a row he's had his own Standalone two day event in New York city so this is the third annual code Commerce, and I like it it's a conference more than a trade show so there there's a few exhibitors but. [7:38] It mostly is a single agenda of speakers everybody sits in the room with since to the same speakers, there are no presentations that are all interviews with journalist mostly Vox journalist interviewing the the gas so it's a pretty dynamic. Dialogue and you know sometimes people you know that stuff out that maybe they didn't plan to, the audience is allowed to ask questions and so I got a little fired up at some point and ask some some questions and some of the speakers, and so I just really like it they get a really good collection of speakers. And I feel like the format lends itself to getting really useful stuff it's small and intimate so the networking was great I got to meet and talk to a lot of. Listeners on the show I got to meet a couple of guests that we've had on the show that week we did not have in person so. That was fun so all-in-all a good thing that one other thing I should say is in addition to that, that's her speaker format they also have a half-day of off sites where you pick one and let you choose your own adventure of these I ate different offsides and they take you behind the scenes of a of a retail or e-commerce business. And know that those can be cool to I had a complex so I didn't get to do that this year but in. [8:57] Let's see what's hot in 90 seconds or less there's probably 18 speakers at the event so there, there's a guy Kim Downing used to be the chief creative officer at Neiman Marcus he moved to a mall of group in the New Jersey called triple five and they're they're famous for having taken over this mall development in New Jersey called The American Dream It's At Nigam all owned by the same folks that own Mall of America I've been trying to open it for 20 plus years it's supposed to open next month don't hold your breath based on their past track record openings and not doing it and I have to be honest like like these guys seemed totally disconnected from reality like there just talking about what a great experience it is and how everyone in Manhattan is going to want to go to New Jersey to escape Manhattan and you know go shop for other necessities at this this giant mega mall and it's you know it's the anchor tenant in the mall is Barney's who's already bankrupt you know all the other tenants are tenants that have eight other stores in Manhattan and it just it just seems like, yeah he came up there pitching a small development like half an hour after Scott Galloway did 45 minutes on why malls were dead. [10:14] So not super exciting. They we had Jason Drogi who's the vice president of uber everything so that's all the services at Uber besides the car-sharing so he does all the restaurant delivery that you know food is a particularly interesting area for me it was an interesting interview at the end I got up and asked him if his service was good for the the restaurants because I like, there's a lot of evidence that. That all these delivery services are disaster for the restaurants cuz the margins are super low the customers are super opportunistic and the restaurants can't sell liquor in most cases which is where they make most of their profit so I had a premise that. That these services are a disaster for the restaurant and the services are not 20% of all restaurant consumption so that's a pretty big. Inflection points and Jason did not have a kid a very good satisfying answer for why he was he was good for the restaurant business. Scot: [11:15] Do you lease disagree with you. Jason: [11:17] Like she did not make a strong argument we were talking about that after the fact he kind of like pivot away from the question. And talked about you know what like you know how they could be good for restaurants but not like the underlying economics of it being tough. Scott Galloway did a couple things he recorded a podcast the final episode of Land of the Giants with Jason Del Rey and he did a 45 minute presentation I most enjoyed it I've sometimes been critical I think Scott is super funny and has a lot of insightful things to say, but he has a tendency to be highly repetitive so if you seen him once and then you see him a bunch of other times. [12:01] It's a lot of the same content which is maybe something all I'll public speakers struggle with but I would actually say most of the content in this show. Mabon thoughts I'd heard of his before from Twitter or what. That was the first time you put them together in a presentation so I thought that was good and interesting and he was. You know he's been super negative on the wework IPO and you know so we spent a lot of time talking about those guys. He's eating a kind of a bullish on breaking up Amazon so he shared his POV on. And that whole thing and you know just. Had some sort of interesting controversial povs which is what he's he's usually known for he also pointed out. That light from his perspective the mall business is just totally dead and the specialty apparel business is next to go after that. That voted poorly than for the American dream project which is a mall full specialty apparel. [13:04] So next up Jennifer Hyman from Rent the Runway so that's, awesome story she's one of the three really well-known female entrepreneurs in our space and that was an interesting conversation talking a lot less about the the original model and more of their. Their monthly rental model and and you know some of that the new competition that's emerged in the rental space so that was an interesting conversation. David Kahn the CEO of Birkenstocks Scott you'd be familiar with him because he's he's had he's been one of those outspoken controversial positions on Amazon they were selling a ton of shoes on Amazon. Century pulled off the platform completely because they felt like they couldn't protect their intellectual property. Now they're they're back on Amazon in a very conservative mild way they've authorized a few resellers to sell an Amazon but they don't sell Direct. And David was prominently featured in the episode of Land of the Giants that focused on. Why Amazon could be bad for companies and potential should be broken up so is interesting to hear from David and I was joking with you before the show. You know what brand like Birkenstocks you you kind of expect that hippie would like long hair and Birkenstocks to walk on stage and he can't you know he's like a witch I could bank or in a in a like custom suit so it's kind of funny. [14:25] So then we had your favorite brand on a BofA Steph Korey and Jen Rubio from away until they talked a lot about their. There a growth strategy and and you know some of the success they've had in their retail strategy moving forward and that was all. [14:45] Someone interesting Max Webb Gin who's the founder of a firm which is an interesting payment model that a lot of e-commerce sites use their. Sort of an interesting financial model they're there like a no fees lending system so you get charged no late fees. There's some really interesting novel things about it and he he was sharing that we had Marie. Myrna Levine who's the VP of global Partnerships at Facebook and so she was mostly talking about Instagram and in Instagram checkout which is. Something near and dear to do e-commerce smokes and a little bit about the Facebook Marketplace. And again you know she painted a pretty Rosy picture I got a chance to get up and ask her a couple questions I asked her you know if. I said hey there's a bunch of from my perspective yqx problems with Instagram check out that make a not very appealing to Brands like most notably you can only sell one product at a time. And ask if they plan with all of that and she she said that yeah they still consider Instagram check out a real early beta and that they would expect it to evolve a lot before General release, and I said you know bigger picture you talked about how important it is for consumers to have stored payment information to make things like this work. [16:08] You know is it realistic that customers are going to ever trust Facebook with their payment information by giving your your track record and she totally dodged that question and talked about like all the great security features they were using for payment. Which was not the point right like obviously I'm sure Facebook is using the best. Encryption technology in tokenization but it's at the point is there there a damaged brand when it comes to trust in. It's going to be really interesting with it I can get a bunch of consumers to give him payment information and give her a chance to answer that and she she was not a very compelling enter answer. [16:45] And then wrap it up probably the big Marquee interview was Mark Lori who's the president of digital at Walmart Jason did written, that's somewhat negative article that was like super popular a few months before so. How to take props to mark 4 for coming into the lions den and facing him. And I not shockingly well polished Walmart exec did not break a bunch of news in the interview. But it was interesting to see him there and you know there are few questions where would say like. He did not seem as enthusiastic as you would expect someone to be that was, I'm super fired up about the role like I think Jason you know like tried to grill them on whether he was going to leave Walmart at the end of five years and you know Marge answer is it like absolutely I live like committed to be there and she seems like wait are you staying because you love it or because you made a commitment. [17:44] So that that was really interesting generators one of the co-founders of Harry's that's a great idea to see story Julie rain Wainwright is the CEO of Rio Rio was. One of the most colorful interviews of the show so that was cool and then Tara walpert who's the VP of agencies that use Google who's mainly focus on YouTube and so she talked a lot about like how how there, they're expanding influencer marketing and expanding Commerce features on YouTube so pretty rich robust lineup that had a in a bunch of different stuff for different people and I thought it was well worth the time. Scot: [18:27] Code to seems like Lori had bet a lot on grocery kind of going to show with the pickup and then also all those Acquisitions they did on digitally native brands for loose stool kind of your gear just harder or had the blue kind of come off that Rose. Jason: [18:44] I think the answer is yes or no so I think they're Walmart is Super Bowl champs grocery part of Jason's article was Mark tends to get a lot of credit for digital Grocery and apparently that's creating some conflict because most of the digital grocery work actually happens in the stores and you know Mark was like hey it like that's totally fair like this the stores are killing it on digital Grocery and yeah we probably do get disproportionate amount of the credit totally understandable that digital groceries going awesome so he like I would say he had a good answer and double down on digital grocery digital native Brands if it was a little bit like yeah I originally we bought some Brands and that's no longer the strategy that were much more bullish on incubating brands from scratch in house then we are buying Brands and he confirmed the rumor that Jason Delray had heard that. One of the Acquisitions ModCloth that they're there might even be discussions going on to sell it back to someone else. [19:42] So I think Mark like with Express that he was still bullish on the space, but that's why you know they had to learn at Walmart that like buying a brand and integrating it was was probably a challenge so he pointed out he pointed till I come all is well home which is a de jure need a brand that they incubated in house and then there was kind of a third category that they were talking a lot of a little bit about and you may have seen some news sort of you know turning up the the focus on the marketplace which is probably near and dear to your heart and I think they've announced the pilot of fulfillment by Walmart which for the first time there duet they're not that helpful products for some of the third parties and that they have an interest in dramatically improving their tool set and you're improving the experience for third-party sellers so. Scot: [20:33] Seems like a one theme with Rent the Runway and maybe a way would be diepio Market to that come up because diepio Market's been somewhat open with Chewie getting out and, real real and a couple of other folks and those guys are kind of both could be on in the pipeline the Jason drone to a month. Jason: [20:54] He did yeah yeah so there was in the pre-ipo companies were mostly pretty koi which You is kind of what you would expect the date you know they're open to it in aren't you know I'm close but that they don't need to go public and that's not that you know they didn't start the pump the company to necessarily go public Julie Wainwright you know who's at the real real and they they finish their offering already right am I. Scot: [21:20] Yeah they been out for all the done really well. Jason: [21:23] Yeah and so she you know she had a lot more sort of insight about what either the the pros and cons have been on the other side and. And you know how there was some interesting conversation about. [21:40] The impact of competitors and their successful IPO you know bringing more people out of the woodwork she also has a totally fair an interesting POV about being a, female entrepreneur and some of the challenges raising money and she's like you know she talked a lot about how like. Should have been a lot of time convincing every male investor why, that the business use case was even appealing to women and she's like you don't know nobody that we work at Uber ever had to explain to an investor, that white small businesses need office space or people need a ride right but but she often would have to convince someone that that. You know that women would benefit from buying these used luxury goods and that often authentication was a super important thing in so she she told some funny stories and, I felt was a sort of appropriately cocky she talked about 1 BC that like. So I didn't get the pitch and like felt like all the money they were investing in in selling authentic products was was a waste of time and now that they've had the successful IPO that VC has funded a new competitor and is like publish blog post talking about the importance of authenticity, and I think she's like whatever dude we were here before you and will be here after your death which is kind of nice in both. Scot: [23:07] Yeah I've heard the Rent the Runway and the Stitch fix lady's house somewhere story where a bunch of mail DC's wouldn't invest because they didn't understand the concept or they would say I don't know if I don't think my wife would use this. Jason: [23:18] Yeah and I think that sounds like the common Trend right is that everybody's market research as they go ask their wife and that you know that's pretty small sample size. Scot: [23:26] Yeah cost of the new zip from there had a mini Starbucks and went to Vegas for grocery shopper. Jason: [23:33] I did I would load it up on Starbucks order my phone and Jen it out to grocery shop which is in Las Vegas so is reminder this is the second year of grocery shop grocery shop is a a show by the folks Miss founded, shoptalk that's focused primarily on grocery in cpg and so. Drew really fast it was maybe 1,500 people last year was 3,000 people this year that it was at the Venetian and felt a lot like shop Taco Shop talk and grocery Shopper moving to Mandalay Bay next year for people that care about their Las Vegas venues there Starbucks at both so it's kind of neutral to me. [24:17] The end it was also a good show I'd say it in a different way so most of the the Keynotes at this show were Marquee brands, but the content was less interesting to me because for the most part their brands aren't allowed to come up and just give a commercial for their, their business and that you know there weren't like critical questions or necessarily new content so well. You might have been interested in a lot of the companies in the Keynotes there are folks like Target and, beyond meat and honesty and ortado in Procter & Gamble that were giving key notes Coca-Cola Sam's Club. [25:04] Either wasn't a ton of like interesting new useful takeaways in that contents but the the 3,000 + people that attended the show where all industry insiders there a lot of the breakout panels that were where super interesting and they were just that I just had a ton of useful conversations, at the cocktail parties and you know at the Starbucks between sessions and just felt like that the networking was super valuable for me so. Kind of the opposite of a recode it was less about content and more about networking. [25:43] I did host a couple of panels so I was the MC for two panels I did. A panel called preparing for grocery Commerce that was kind of targeted at people grocer that are just getting into e-commerce and I had three panelist on that session I had to, a Stephen Raymond who's the VP of e-commerce at Hain Celestial which is a house of brands most notable for their Celestial teas, I had Wayne Dewayne who's been on this podcast he's the VP of e-commerce at constellation brands. Which is a bunch of alcohol and Spirits brands, so we actually drink some Coronas on stage while we were chatting so that was a big hit. And then I had to Dan Bracken who's the VP of consumer Insight at Church & Dwight which is a. A big cpg so they each kind of gave their their learnings and best advice for new people entering the e-commerce grocery space I got good feedback that that was useful. [26:38] And then on the second day I did a more advanced panel on connecting customer data points so far this one we had kind of to Keynote panelist. We have to bring in a retailer so the retailer is a Steve Henning who's the VP of digital. For Wakefern Food Group which is a big Co-op of of Grocers. And talked about where they are and in data and what their customer data strategy is and got an all the bits and bytes of, add emps and. All those sorts of things and then for the brand perspective we had Doug stranton who's the chief digital Commerce officer at the Hershey Company so got got his perspective and Doug has a bonus that was also the chief digital officer at Unilever for number of years so so it was kind of their in a lot of their formative so a lot of interesting insights from both of those guys you know when you're getting into the hardcore management of data and activating that data for customer experiences. Scot: [27:43] The so. What's kind of the meta Topic at grocery is it still curb versus home or is it Amazon jump the shark with Whole Foods or more. Almost feels like maybe Brands going direct his kind of. Jason: [28:03] So this show like so it is. Like there's a lot of groceries at the show but there's a lot of cpgs at the show so one big thing is the whole disruption of cpgs right that the there's a lot of digital native brands that have lines that are like competing with income in cpg, and you know I'd say a year ago the dialogue was like this is a huge disruption in this year like there's more evidence that those brands are, you can achieve a certain level of success but then are really sort of plateauing, the the incumbency Bee Gees have not successfully launched a new a lot of new products and so there's a lot of dialogue, about how those companies are doing things to get more customer intimacy and get better connected to the customer and watch products that are more relevant to customers and then they're there was an awful lot of talk about the sort of third approach in this whole thing which is retailers launching brands, and how those those retail brands have been successful and how they've evolved a lot from the original, start a private label and in fact one of the the Keynotes Stephanie winquest use the EVP of food at Target. You know they launched a major new grocery brand for Target but basically at the show so. [29:24] So her keynote was a lot about this new food brand in that. The that the Retailer's sort of competing with the the incumbent and Challenger cpgs is was a big conversation at the show. Scot: [29:37] Yeah and then I'm watching your Twitter feed it seems like there is some interesting Target kind of talking going on there with what did we learn from Target. Jason: [29:46] Well I talk about that you like so Target is maybe the poster child for being the most successful at that strategy so they want to strike 5 brands. Now sell over 2 billion dollars but one place where they haven't been big as in grocery and so in fact, like grocery was a newish strategy for target maybe we'll call it seven or eight years ago and well a lot of categories at Target or any kind of known for surprising and delighting customers and having these. You know premium products that that the customer wouldn't expect. Grocery was always sort of the me to category for Target like like if you needed something that they may have had it but it wasn't something. [30:24] You were excited about acquiring. Inside out you know a lot of this conversation was about Target doubling down on Grocery and you know trying to get to the point where they're surprised is. And Delight for grocery in the same way that they they are four other categories and they said they launched a new owned brand for food called good and gather they kind of retired a lot of their older brands. And you know this is a a focus on. Simpler products fewer ingredients non-GMO mostly Organics in so it's not so much a knock off of a of a national brand but you know what a set of products that they think I'm particularly targeted at the. Target guest and they're forecasting this will be the the biggest. I'm on brand that Target has which is pretty big because you know some of that apparel brand cell cell 2 billion dollars each a year so. [31:27] So if they hit that forecasts that that will be somewhat impressive so that was a lot of the the target conversation I would also say you like shipt. You know there is a lot of conversation about curbside pickup & Home Delivery Target owns the company in that spaceship. And there's a lot of talk about how successful that's been for Target but ship still is in the business of providing the services for other party so shipped had a big. Presence on the trade show flooring was a big sponsor and said there's there's a lot of talk about Last Mile in the Bears pros and cons of the different meth. Scot: [32:00] Code for their highlights from grocery. Jason: [32:06] For me those were a bunch of big takeaways I got to sit sit down with a couple bucks and record a couple podcast that will get out of here in the weeks to come so I mentioned Doug Stratton who's the chief digital officer at Hershey you and I are both chocolate Advocates so like we wouldn't miss the chance, to get a podcast with him and then I also got to sit down with a zebra car while who's the VP of Shopper marketing at the Coca-Cola Company in, can I talk about how coke is thinking about digital and what what they're doing in in digital which is interesting you know it is interesting like we are now. Grocery is a very low margin business, the average sale price for a lot of these products or the Brand's is super low and so historically these have not been very digital categories you you don't think of. A big digital investment to sell dollar candy bars or cans of soda, but you know now these guys are you know front-and-center focusing on digital because it's really starting to impact their business. Scot: [33:09] Wrinkle in the other Megatron to uncover before we jump into some news. Jason: [33:13] Nope nope I think that's a ton but if you're in that space I would definitely think about putting that on your on your wrist for next year and come visit us at Mandalay Bay. Scot: [33:22] I forgot to ask when you're in New York did you get to see the new Apple store or did you miss me. Jason: [33:28] I didn't sit at the Apple Store at you open this Friday so I've done some video walkthroughs you and I are going to be back in New York Knicks next month together so maybe if schedules permit would be super fun we should go visit the store together. Scot: [33:43] Awesome I look forward to that Coldwell wanting to lose last couple minutes to talk about some news and it wouldn't be a Jason Scott show without some Amazon news. Jason: [34:00] Amazon news new your margin is there opportunity. Scot: [34:10] To a lot of news out there on Amazon some of it I was going to put into the political bucket before we talk about that though you're one of the things that kind of hid in my world it was interesting was they made a big investment and Order of electric vehicles Tesla has competitor called rivian, and ribbons coming out with trucks with electric platforms so Amazon announced not only they invest an undisclosed amount that they were part of a $700 round and they were listed first which kind of flies are the largest but they ordered a hundred thousand electric delivery vehicles from Caribbean and they're saying they should have prototypes in 20/20 start volume out in 2021 and have them all on the road by 2024 this is kind of interesting because Amazon has not really said much about a green lot of Amazon employees have been. [35:09] Rallying internally Jason Del Rey has written about this so it was kind of a pretty big vote for our insert limit their carbon footprint as a company and then it's also interesting because they are propping up a big rival to two, Tesla in the form of rivian and you know Elon and Jeff are going at it as latest Rockets So Alive people kind of said this is kind of another way for Bezos to really kind of get under a Elon Musk in by supporting a competitor. Jason: [35:41] Interesting so we might see some Amazon high speed trains in the near future to them. Scot: [35:49] Whatever the Rival to boring could be. Jason: [35:55] Exactly the thing that toy strike me about this which seems like Amazon's exact Playbook is I want to say they made this huge announcement the day before there was a big scheduled like green demonstration and a bunch of Amazon employees were planning on walking out to Tess art of advocate for Amazon embracing adrenal footprint and so do I get Amazon has historically been very good at these like proactive PR moves and it seems like this was they were totally able to leverage that this time. Scot: [36:29] Yeah yeah. They have a picture of the Prototype van will link to it and show notes it looks really good so it's going to be interesting that the big question is really the range on these things so, you know the I don't know how much it typical Prime band drives a day but I see him on the road constantly so be interesting to see if they have to come up with some clever way of rapidly charging these things are or they're going to ship them in a different way or something. Jason: [36:54] They each do half a day's delivery so that's why they had to get so many. Scot: [36:57] Yes it could be it could be part of it so I don't I don't know the ranges. Jason: [37:00] Quick clarification question for me so like obviously Tesla makes a bunch of electric vehicles and I know they've talked about business vehicles and trucks but as far as I know they don't they don't have a, like a van form-factor I feel like Amazon's about Sprinter vans in the past which is the big, Mercedes V8 like is it obvious that this is a trivium's a direct competitor with like is this worse news for Tesla or is it worse news for Mercedes. Scot: [37:26] I think it's probably worse news for Mercedes Elon if this is a tweet or live interview I've seen him talk about how he really likes the Mercedes Sprinter and they should work together on the electric one he always has little twinkle in his eye and you can't tell if he's just basically crazy or if there's something going on there I think Mercedes a Tesla have crossed licensed a lot of technology to I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't Force something go on there between Tesla and Mercedes to get the Sprinter platform Electric. Jason: [37:59] Got you and I assumed that like the Des customer will then be FedEx. Scot: [38:05] What FedEx use it so UPS actually has a big electric thing going already and I don't know who they are platform is on that it's, maybe I don't know I don't know what UPS uses but I've seen them them talk a lot about getting to carbon-neutral pretty quickly and they have some electric fans out there. Jason: [38:30] That's going to be an interesting space to watch if only to a podcast about that kind of stuff. Scot: [38:34] We will will keep track of it here and then also on the vehicle to podcast where it's been even more time talking about that Scot vehicle Trends going on how about on the political side there's been a lot of negative stuff out there on Amazon and so I'll turn to you for this the highlights on that. Jason: [38:51] Yes I know. Scott loves talking about the political stuff it's his favorite thing to do so it's a big big, generosity on his part time to pass it over to me. [39:05] So you know there continues to be a bunch of Niger negative sentiment you got all these Democratic candidates talking about breaking up Amazon without. [39:16] Necessarily obvious reason why the last couple weeks there were some actual that government announcements about like looking into antitrust issues in the one that affect an Amazon was that the FTC was talking about probing some of the 3p practices and in the one that comes with the most is, Amazon, disadvantaging third-party sellers in favor of their own practices so essentially like the The Narrative goes you can't both play in the game and be the referee it's not fair, that you're selling products in competition with your Marketplace Sellers and you, control things like whose product shows up in Search and how visible every product is and so, that's a big narrative like the counter narrative is like this is in a remotely new idea retards have been selling their own products for over a hundred years they always put their own products and favorable positions and they charge brands in order to have have good positioning in the store said that like there's, there's nothing particularly new that Amazon's doing that Walmart and Woolworths before then, didn't do but it is getting a lot of visibility and one of the the big articles that came up there was kind of interesting is Wall Street Journal. [40:46] Actually like ran an article where they they talk to some Amazon Engineers that like, confidential confidential admitted that Amazon had changed their search engine to intentionally by us their own products and so again debatable whether that's, illegal or immoral in any way and I'll leave that to others to decide but one way it's interesting is Jeff has always talked about being the most customer-centric company in the world and wanting to have the best experience for customers and it's super controversial if you search for Energizer batteries like pretty obvious what your intent is and you would imagine the best experience would be too quickly get you to Energizer batteries but when amazonbasics batteries have higher visibility on that search term then Energizer batteries, like arguably like you're trying to boost your own profits at the expense of being customer-centric and so it's kind of a. [41:49] A pretty tangible example of of where Amazon might be drifting from their their idealistic morals, and so that that's been a little interesting to follow that, that exact issue is one of the episodes of Land of the Giants and a former guest on the show Charlie Cole who's the the chief digital officer at to me and Samsung by cheat he very explicitly said it is like look, I don't mind competing with Amazon that's totally fair they can make products to compete with me that's totally fair but when people search for my product on Amazon and they intentionally put their products in front of them that's not a good customer experience and just don't lie and say you're trying to be customer-centric when you're doing stuff like that was gonna as blunt as Charlie put it so an interesting space. Scot: [42:39] Yeah I guess cleaners and go to watch them navigate through this stuff and you have the counter argument would be well retailers for doing it for years and. Old Roy, dog food in a Walmart is in front of the Purina dog food that kind of thinks sometimes you know these the physical arguments don't really translate to to the digital where you know it customer is clearly expressed a brand new you should get them their quickie soap to be a lineman. Jason: [43:08] Yeah yeah like a little less controversial but like you know there's some labels like Amazon choice and and some new labels that they're testing and people are like is Amazon gaming nose and I I may have made a smart a tweet at some point where I showed like staff picks from Trader Joe's and I'm like oh my god do you think some of these might not actually be stabbed pics. Scot: [43:29] Go in any other needs any other Amazon usually cover. Jason: [43:36] I think those those were the big things I know we're running short on time so let's let's get to our last genre. Scot: [43:46] We haven't talked to her about Mulligan lately but I was reading some reports that a we've already had over 7,000 store closures heading 7300 as of September 1st I think that's more than we've ever had in any previous year and we still got three to four months ago, another world retail you kind of if you can make it through October you you're probably not going to close for December that thing's going to be pretty pretty bad if you're going to close for those two months so I think it will slow down but I think we have a chance of hitting 8 or 9 K hear some of the this is based on data from video so some of the top store closures are Payless with 2,300 stores Gymboree with 750 Charlotte Russe. And then on the watchlist they have several companies that are our kind of they look at this kind of load of ducks to assets and then also are they losing money making money in kind of protective time when there may be a chapter 11 events Forever 21 is on there a JCPenney at send a Pier One in Francesca's chokes, I'm surprised this didn't include more mattress worse cuz around me you know we still have like eight thousand mattress stores just in Raleigh-Durham and they're pretty much all closed all the sudden I wonder if this is under-reporting a little bit and I was kind of surprised that mattress stores weren't one of the big contributors. Jason: [45:15] We'll see that's a great point because it's something funny came out about all this so I think the macro points are totally true like that we are seeing more store closures in a single year than we ever seen before there are actually like we'll see if they come to play or not but like that on that watch was the one that they're like strong rumors are really preparing for a a bankruptcy which would be somewhat surprising at this point is Forever 21 because prove your point like. You know you really wouldn't want to go in a bankruptcy right right before the holiday season and there are there rumors that, if they did that the malls might be a potentially bail them out as they have, I've done for at least one of their apparel retailer in the past Aeropostale so that's kind of interesting but I I see the inside baseball I found an interesting study also, so this instead of you just said it is from video and they did a bunch of their own research so most of their store closure information came from, public disclosures so it's public companies that said in a 10K or an investor call that they're planning to close X number of stores. [46:28] And so that's that was their data source for the store closings and like I'm sure all the stores are closing video also cited the source that we see most commonly for tracking these store closing closings and openings which is core site which is a research firm that does this really useful can a weekly tracker on how many stores are closing and how many stars are opening a bunch of stores have open this year not enough to offset the closings and that that would also be a first so while there been a lot of closing in the last couple years that I've actually been more openings than clothes XO, this could be the first year we had a net negative and course I may have had a net negative last year even that now that I think about it but. Here's what's interesting about that so all of these companies are arbitrarily picking a list of well-known retailers in tracking. [47:20] The opening and closing and said there's another market research firm out there IHL that does a bunch of retail research. And they conducted a lot more comprehensive study and they said hey we are going to look at every retailer that operates 50 or more stores in North America and track how many they've opened and closed. And we're going to estimate where they don't have public disclosures or we're going to call them and ask and we're going to use real estate records and so instead of just kind of. Tracking press releases we're going to really do the math on all this and, they not surprisingly they found more store closures then then video or. [48:02] Coresite but they found way more store openings than either of these companies so pretty this IHL research that came out, there are still more stores opening then closing it just interesting to think about like I, I think our macro points are totally true that retails not going away that were way over stored in the US that we we do need to be closing stores in our closing stores in there that's a a necessary adjustment but it is interesting I feel like in the Echo chamber of our space like this coresight research gets its reported and recited and blended into other people's research on the time and was kind of funny to see this I shall study come out and explicitly point out that. Coresight research is not particularly rigorous and somewhat random so it was like a little inside baseball research fight. Scot: [48:56] Yeah and I wish square footage is what really matters right because you know Closing one JCPenney is is like I don't know. Jason: [49:04] Yeah you have to open off a lot of the way stores to make up for a JCPenney. Scot: [49:07] Yeah yes that's what really matters and I've never seen anyone really be able to track that very well unfortunately. Jason: [49:12] No no and I unfortunately like we've all seen the summaries of the IHL I'll confess it's inexpensive study to buy so I haven't actually. Bought the research but I don't think they have the the net square footage in there but just anecdotally if you look at the list of stores that are open and closing you're absolutely right like in general there's there's more bigger stores closing in smaller stores open. Scot: [49:37] One one last thing to make sure you put on your your calendar the Disney plus subscriptions it opened up so you can go ahead and pre buy that so on November 12th, and they have exciting new Star Wars TV live action show called The Mandalorian that off and up is pretty excited about to make sure you sign up for that Jason. Star Wars fan listeners. Jason: [50:02] And before any listeners Panic Scott and I promise to pre-record a podcast so that we don't have to skip a week while Scott is binging the Mandalorian. Scot: [50:12] Yes sadly I don't think they're going to do a bench so I think they're going to do it's hard for traditional TV people to get their heads around it but they're going to have kind of really someone a week or something so I have time to podcast. Jason: [50:25] Good news good news in like slightly related there is this interesting thing Target in Disney have announced that they're opening these permanent shopping shops and so you're going to see a bunch of unique Disney merchandise at Target I think that is potentially going to be beneficial to you Scott but I seen speculation that the Disney plus service could be one of the things that's heavily merchandised in that. In that assortment. Scot: [50:55] Cool hopefully I'll have more Star Wars Target exclusives those are those are the good ones. Jason: [51:00] Exactly what was in that is a great place to wrap up this new show cuz we've come out perfectly use the a lot of time as always if if I wasn't Earth have a question or comment feel free to hit us up on our Facebook page or on Twitter as always if you have time we sure would appreciate if you go to iTunes and finally give us that five star review that we've desperately been begging for but we have a we sure appreciate your time today and we have a bunch of great shows in the pipeline so appreciate you keep listening. Until next time happy commercing.

¡Muy buenos días! Espero que hoy te encuentres excelente. Hoy hablaremos sobre el éxito de nuestras amigas Jennifer Hyman y Jennifer Fleiss. Creadoras de Rent the Runway y analizamos su éxito en el mundo de la moda. Hablamos sobre la innovación en el mundo empresarial y que tan importante es. ¡No te pierdas este episodio! Si quieres contactarme lo puedes hacer vía: freellionaires@gmail.com. No olvides suscribirte al Podcast y dejar tu comentario desde la plataforma la cual me escuches. Sígueme y déjame tu feedback Instagram: @freellionaires freellionaires@gmail.com

Jenny Fleiss created Rent the Runway, a company now valued at $1 billion, in the wake of the most severe economic recession the United States has seen since the Great Depression. When everyone else was panicking in 2008 and 2009, Jenny and co founder Jennifer Hyman saw an opportunity. The problem they were trying to solve was simple enough: Looking into your closet and realizing you don’t have anything to wear to an important event, like a wedding, but don’t have the budget to buy something new. So they innovated, and created an entirely NEW way to shop by allowing women to rent designer clothing, online, for a fraction of what it actually costs.  Today, the rental, or sharing economy is booming – companies like WeWork, REI, and Zipcar make it possible for us to experience something, without the cost of ownership. But to put this in perspective, nothing like this existed at the time.  Jenny shares how she and her co founder got Rent the Runway up and running – and how they grew the business to where it is today. You’ll also hear Jenny’s philosophy on how she approaches hiring talent at JetBlack, a personal shopping service she co founded after leaving Rent the Runway, which is not only critical when you’re starting a business, but also when scaling it.  The interviewer for this episode is Scott Harris, a coach, mentor and a speaker at many of Tony’s events, including his business event, Business Mastery. 

Experience This Episode 26: Outsourcing your Life Series (Part 2) - Your Virtual Closet ________________________________________________________________ All the way back in 2001, Jennifer Hyman had started to notice a change in her friends' behavior compared to that of her parent's generation. They had started to value experiences and time over goods and services. This culminated in her starting the first ever wedding registry for Starwood, as her friends no longer wanted pots and pans for their wedding gifts, they wanted excursions to locations and activities. In 2009, Jenn alongside her friend Jenny Fleiss set up Rent The Runway. The company was built on the idea that although clothing was extremely important to women, owning it was not. Instead, they valued renting curated high fashion outfits on a subscription basis. Today, the company is bringing in $100m in annual revenues, with a valuation of close to $1bn. Kiran and Tom spoke with a Rent The Runway superuser Sharon Bajwa who has been renting clothing for many years, to get a sense on how this service works, and why she values it so much. Her comments really sum up the value of the experience economy - 'It's saved me a lot of money, and it's saved me a lot of closet space for sure'. We also insights from Jennifer Hyman (CEO, Rent The Runway) on how an innovative approach to business models allowed them to solve new problems and capitalize on the experience economy to create a new market. ________________________________________________________________ Leave some feedback: • What should we talk about next? Please let us know on Twitter - twitter.com/rumjog or in the comments below. • Enjoyed this episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and please be sure to subscribe. ⚡️ Subscribe to Podcast: Google Play: bit.ly/2F2FAB4 iTunes: apple.co/2F2qpHV Spotify: spoti.fi/2CnC0Rt Stitcher: bit.ly/2W1rHtJ SoundCloud: bit.ly/2O7fOQ5

Fourth Marketing Pillar - DIFFERENTIATION We're starting to turn the corner now as we come to the fourth episode in a 5-show arc. We've been breaking down the Five Pillars of Marketing as a way of giving ourselves a strong foundation to work upon. Because before we can begin building a true marketing strategy for your business, we first have to understand the business we're in. What's our product and who is it for? Today we're discussing the Fourth Marketing Pillar which is DIFFERENTIATION. This is all about finding ways to separate ourselves from the competition, being able to articulate exactly how we're different from the rest of the competition. It is the key to success for any business. As always this episode ends with a short assignment. If you want to download the Marketing Pillars Workbook you can do that by CLICKING HERE. Gramercy Tavern Gramercy Tavern Website - https://www.gramercytavern.com 1994 NY Times Review by Ruth Reichl - https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/14/arts/restaurants-527327.html 2007 NY Times Review by Frank Bruni - https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/dining/reviews/06rest.html 2016 NY Times Review by Pete Wells - https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/dining/gramercy-tavern-review.html CONTINUING EDUCATION: This week I'm linking to an episode of the podcast HOW I BUILT THIS, where Guy Raz sits down with Jennifer Hyman (founder of Rent the Runway). There are some key insights they stumble upon here, apropos to the conversation we're having this week about identifying your audience, figuring out who else is trying to serve that audience, and then finding ways to separate yourself from the competition. LISTEN HERE

Fourth Marketing Pillar - DIFFERENTIATION We're starting to turn the corner now as we come to the fourth episode in a 5-show arc. We've been breaking down the Five Pillars of Marketing as a way of giving ourselves a strong foundation to work upon. Because before we can begin building a true marketing strategy for your business, we first have to understand the business we're in. What's our product and who is it for? Today we're discussing the Fourth Marketing Pillar which is DIFFERENTIATION. This is all about finding ways to separate ourselves from the competition, being able to articulate exactly how we're different from the rest of the competition. It is the key to success for any business. As always this episode ends with a short assignment. If you want to download the Marketing Pillars Workbook you can do that by CLICKING HERE. Gramercy Tavern Gramercy Tavern Website - https://www.gramercytavern.com 1994 NY Times Review by Ruth Reichl - https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/14/arts/restaurants-527327.html 2007 NY Times Review by Frank Bruni - https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/dining/reviews/06rest.html 2016 NY Times Review by Pete Wells - https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/dining/gramercy-tavern-review.html CONTINUING EDUCATION: This week I'm linking to an episode of the podcast HOW I BUILT THIS, where Guy Raz sits down with Jennifer Hyman (founder of Rent the Runway). There are some key insights they stumble upon here, apropos to the conversation we're having this week about identifying your audience, figuring out who else is trying to serve that audience, and then finding ways to separate yourself from the competition. LISTEN HERE

A little late to the game but happy belated International Women's Day to all the badass beautiful women out there! What better way to celebrate the occasion than by showcasing a powerhouse female founded business?Rent the Runway has revolutionized the way people shop - or rather, don't. Founded by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss in 2009, the company has been growing rapidly, making the subscription model in fashion pretty indispensable. Behind the brand is a creative vision and a person executing it. Angie Hellman is that person for Rent the Runway. After graduating from Penn in 2008, she launched her marketing career, which led her to the founding team of Capsule as Head of Marketing and now, ultimately, VP of Brand & Product Marketing at RTR. Hear her story and celebrate women today and everyday! ENJOY. RATE. REVIEW. SUBSCRIBE. FOLLOW ON INSTA @MYALMAMATTERS.Music: Purple Planet

In episode seven of BoF’s podcast series Drive, delivered by DHL, Rent the Runway co-founder Jennifer Hyman tells BoF how she executed her radical idea and attracted 10 million members to her platform. To sign up to the Daily Digest newsletter click the link here: http://bit.ly/BoFnews  For a limited time only we are offering our podcast listeners an exclusive 25% discount on an annual BoF Professional Member. To get 25% off your first year of an annual membership click the link here: http://bit.ly/2KoRRBH, select the annual package and then enter the invitation code PODCASTPRO at checkout.  To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com. For all sponsorship enquiries, please e-mail advertising@businessoffashion.com. 

In episode seven of BoF’s podcast series Drive, delivered by DHL, Rent the Runway co-founder Jennifer Hyman tells BoF how she executed her radical idea and attracted 10 million members to her platform. To sign up to the Daily Digest newsletter click the link here: http://bit.ly/BoFnews  For a limited time only we are offering our podcast listeners an exclusive 25% discount on an annual BoF Professional Member. To get 25% off your first year of an annual membership click the link here: http://bit.ly/2KoRRBH, select the annual package and then enter the invitation code PODCASTPRO at checkout.  To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com. For all sponsorship enquiries, please e-mail advertising@businessoffashion.com. 

In episode seven of BoF's podcast series Drive, delivered by DHL, Rent the Runway co-founder Jennifer Hyman tells BoF how she executed her radical idea and attracted 10 million members to her platform. To sign up to the Daily Digest newsletter click the link here: http://bit.ly/BoFnews  For a limited time only we are offering our podcast listeners an exclusive 25% discount on an annual BoF Professional Member. To get 25% off your first year of an annual membership click the link here: http://bit.ly/2KoRRBH, select the annual package and then enter the invitation code PODCASTPRO at checkout.  To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com. For all sponsorship enquiries, please e-mail advertising@businessoffashion.com. 

In this episode, Rent the Runway co-founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman discusses the company's disruptive impact on the fashion industry, her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and how she's leading by example to advocate for workplace equality. The conversation is moderated by Goldman Sachs' David Solomon. Date: October 23, 2018 This podcast should not be copied, distributed, published or reproduced, in whole or in part, or disclosed by any recipient to any other person. The information contained in this podcast does not constitute a recommendation from any Goldman Sachs entity to the recipient. Neither Goldman Sachs nor any of its affiliates makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or any information contained in this podcast and any liability therefore (including in respect of direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage) is expressly disclaimed. The views expressed in this podcast are not necessarily those of Goldman Sachs, and Goldman Sachs is not providing any financial, economic, legal, accounting or tax advice or recommendations in this podcast. In addition, the receipt of this podcast by any recipient is not to be taken as constituting the giving of investment advice by Goldman Sachs to that recipient, nor to constitute such person a client of any Goldman Sachs entity. Copyright 2018 Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC. All rights reserved.

Show Notes: (3:20) Saurabh recalled his college experience. (4:25) Saurabh talked about his first role out of school as a software engineer specializing in database at CA Technologies. (8:06) Saurabh landed database consulting roles with different companies. (9:14) Saurabh gave insights on the differences between database systems now and a decade ago. (11:05) Saurabh shared his experience landing a senior data scientist job with Barnes & Noble. (13:15) Saurabh explained major challenges in hiring good data scientists. (16:10) Saurabh discussed his decision to go work for Rent The Runway. (17:57) Saurabh gave insights on the data problems he had worked with at Rent The Runway. (19:43) In reference to his blog post on scaling machine learning at RTR, Saurabh shared knowledge on structuring a data science team. (21:36) Saurabh gave advice for data scientists to incorporate feedback loops into their workflow. (26:00) Saurabh talked about how to give better pitches to business stakeholders. (29:03) Saurabh showed great appreciation for Rent The Runway’s CEO and Founder, Jennifer Hyman. (30:39) In his post Human in AI loop, Saurabh shared the details of building Deep Dress AI, which can show the Instagram photos on Rent The Runway’s product pages and help the customers find fashion inspiration through these high-quality shots. (34:10) Saurabh talked about unique challenges of doing data science in the retail space. (36:18) Saurabh gave a brief glimpse about his stealth-mode startup Virevol. (36:58) Saurabh gave advice for data scientists who want to pursue the entrepreneurial route and start their own ventures. (38:36) In a fun blog post, Saurabh used Generative Adversarial Network to generate dresses photos and use them as training data for the model. He discussed the potential usage of GAN models for fashion. (41:02) Closing segments. His Contact Info: Website Twitter LinkedIn His recommended resources: Salesforce AI Elucd Nate Silver's "The Signal and The Noise" Deep Learning Textbook by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio and Aaron Courville

Show Notes: (3:20) Saurabh recalled his college experience. (4:25) Saurabh talked about his first role out of school as a software engineer specializing in database at CA Technologies. (8:06) Saurabh landed database consulting roles with different companies. (9:14) Saurabh gave insights on the differences between database systems now and a decade ago. (11:05) Saurabh shared his experience landing a senior data scientist job with Barnes & Noble. (13:15) Saurabh explained major challenges in hiring good data scientists. (16:10) Saurabh discussed his decision to go work for Rent The Runway. (17:57) Saurabh gave insights on the data problems he had worked with at Rent The Runway. (19:43) In reference to his blog post on scaling machine learning at RTR, Saurabh shared knowledge on structuring a data science team. (21:36) Saurabh gave advice for data scientists to incorporate feedback loops into their workflow. (26:00) Saurabh talked about how to give better pitches to business stakeholders. (29:03) Saurabh showed great appreciation for Rent The Runway’s CEO and Founder, Jennifer Hyman. (30:39) In his post Human in AI loop, Saurabh shared the details of building Deep Dress AI, which can show the Instagram photos on Rent The Runway’s product pages and help the customers find fashion inspiration through these high-quality shots. (34:10) Saurabh talked about unique challenges of doing data science in the retail space. (36:18) Saurabh gave a brief glimpse about his stealth-mode startup Virevol. (36:58) Saurabh gave advice for data scientists who want to pursue the entrepreneurial route and start their own ventures. (38:36) In a fun blog post, Saurabh used Generative Adversarial Network to generate dresses photos and use them as training data for the model. He discussed the potential usage of GAN models for fashion. (41:02) Closing segments. His Contact Info: Website Twitter LinkedIn His recommended resources: Salesforce AI Elucd Nate Silver's "The Signal and The Noise" Deep Learning Textbook by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio and Aaron Courville

Recode's Kara Swisher and Jason Del Rey talk with Jennifer Hyman, the CEO and co-founder of Rent the Runway, at An Evening With Code Commerce 2018 in Las Vegas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Jennifer Hyman, cofounder and CEO of Rent The Runway (RTR) set out to figure out how to rent “occasion” outfits and dresses to women, she knew she had a great idea. Next question, how to execute? Hyman quickly determined she had a logistics and tech company on her hands. On this episode of “The Forbes Interview” hear how RTR made the choice to expand into Unlimited, a platform that rents everyday clothes and items, her take on deep investor bias and the piece of data that RTR relies on that no one else in the retail industry receives.

Jennifer Hyman - the CEO and co-founder of Rent the runway - is a true champion of female entrepreneurs. Listen to her story, from going to Harvard (twice) to creating Starwood's first wedding registry program to founding RTR. Receive business advice like no other episode before - I myself was truly inspired by listening to this boss babe.

If the average woman only wears about 20% of her closet, what happens to the other 80%? You might not need it anymore. CEO and Co-founder of Rent the Runway Jennifer Hyman says closets might become a thing of the past. Hyman's idea for Rent the Runway began while she was still a student at Harvard Business School and one of her first meetings involved pitching Diane von Furstenberg. On this episode, Hyman opens up about her belief in experience over ownership, offers tips on seeking venture funding as an entrepreneur, and her view of the future of retail. Congratulations to our No Limits Entrepreneur of the Week: Abby Wallach, Executive Producer and Co-Founder, ScentInvent Technologies. Find out more: http://www.lingerfragranceprimer.com/ Want to be a featured NLEOTW? Know someone who should? Send your nominations to NoLimitswithRJPodcast@Gmail.com

Clothing is a form of self-expression. Jennifer Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, wants to provide every woman the opportunity to express themselves—from the boardroom to the concert venue—without draining their wallets. In this interview with SUCCESS.com’s Shelby Skrhak, Hyman opens up about confidence, female camaraderie and her plan to give back to female entrepreneurs.

People feel good when they look good—it doesn't take a fashion expert to tell you that. But that feeling compounds when you make it easy for people to access clothing that's unique, fits well and suits the occasion. That's the Rent the Runway approach. The company launched in 2009 with a mission to help women feel their best by renting them designer clothing and accessories through an innovative subscription model. The service has been a huge hit, allowing the company to earn more than 6 million members and more than $190 million in venture capital. In this episode, Rent the Runway's CEO and Cofounder Jennifer Hyman discusses the company's disruptive business model and how it built a loyal following in one of the most fickle industries out there.

The average woman buys 64 items of clothing every year, then wears each one just three times or less. Jennifer Hyman, founder and CEO of Rent The Runway, says social media has completely changed the way we shop for clothes. She shares her secrets and philosophies. In Mailbag, budget-tracking apps, refinancing student loans, and Roth IRAs.

Kathryn Minshew. She’s the CEO of founder of TheMuse.com, a career platform that is used by over 50M folks to find jobs, learn professional skills or advance in their careers. This platform is also used by hundreds of companies looking to grow their employer brand and to hire. Kathryn is a Harvard and Wall Street Journal contributor and she’s spoken at MIT in Harvard along with the Today’s Show. She’s been named The Smart CEO’s Future 50, INC’s 35 under 35 and a Duke alum. Kathryn worked at Rwanda and Health Access Initiative and before founding The Muse, she was previously at McKinsey. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things and Traction What CEO do you follow? –  Jennifer Hyman, Elon Musk and Jeremy Johnson Favorite online tool? — Boomerang and Pocket How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Kathryn wished she knew it was okay to be different and everything that is worth doing is hard   Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:42 – Nathan introduces Kathryn to the show 01:35 – The Muse was founded to be the most trusted and beloved place for people to navigate their career 01:42 – The Muse is a marketplace with over 50M people who uses the site annually 02:00 – The Muse has over 600 companies which they help in hiring and employment 02:25 – “If you want really great people, you have to compete for them” 03:00 – The companies can reach more candidates through The Muse 03:19 – The Muse is a SaaS-enabled marketplace 03:31 – The Muse somehow competes with LinkedIn Recruit and Glassdoor 04:05 – Most companies in The Muse sign up for an annual subscription 04:24 – Average pricing is $20-30K but enterprise is higher than the mid-market businesses 04:54 – The Muse works with every business size in every industry 05:04 – The businesses are categorized by team size 05:25 – Companies that are subscribed have access to different tools on the website 06:11 – The marketplace on TheMuse.com is where companies can post their profiles and job listings 06:21 – The Muse has also developed more products 06:41 – One of The Muse’s client has 50K to 150K employees 07:29 – The Muse also assists their Fortune 100 companies on their existing channels 08:12 – The Muse started targeting individual users 08:24 – The Muse was launched in 2011 having career related tools and content for individuals 08:31 – The Muse rolled out their first company profile after hitting 100K website visits per month 08:41 – The Muse have never had advertising on the website 08:58 – The Muse had their first 100K users in 6 months 09:05 – The initial cash for The Muse came from Kathryn’s savings 09:39 – When Kathryn left McKinsey, she had $25K in savings 09:50 – Then Kathryn got an offer to work at Rwanda 10:28 – Kathryn was 25 at the time 10:56 – Kathryn has always thought that savings equate to freedom 11:34 – When Kathryn came back from Rwanda, she started a business similar to The Muse 13:02 – Kathryn spent $20K on her first company 13:23 – With only $5K left in savings, Kathryn together with her co-founder started The Muse 13:45 – Kathryn tried to keep her expenses low 14:24 – Kathryn started The Muse because she had all the questions and wanted answers 14:29 – The community then gave Kathryn the answers 15:02 – The Muse initially had 50 articles giving career advice and providing resources 15:10 – The first job listing was posted after a month as a test 15:29 – The Muse used to get paid for the job listing but it doesn’t work that way now 16:17 – Kathryn shares how the conversation happened between her and the co-founders 17:11 – They wanted to work and make it happen 17:25 – The equity between them is almost even 17:54 – The Muse raised a round for $100K in 2012 and got into Y-combinator 18:41 – The Muse raised $10M in a series A in 2015, and $16M in a Series B: Q1 of 2017 19:12 – The Muse is closed to breaking even 19:31 – There are different ways in building a business and there’s no one perfect path 19:53 – The Muse has 600 active businesses 20:10 – Some companies just closed or got acquired 21:35 – Average revenue 23:05 – The Famous Five 23:32 – Kathryn’s book The New Rules of Work   3 Key Points: You can start a business with minimal means and still grow it into a profitable one. There is no one perfect path to building a business. If a task or venture is hard, that’s a good sign it’s worth it.   Resources Mentioned: The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Rent the Runway CEO and co-founder Jennifer Hyman talks with Recode's Kara Swisher and Jason Del Rey about her 50-year vision for changing consumer fashion habits. Now more than seven years old, Rent the Runway has six million female customers who rent designer clothes a la carte or three at a time via a $139 monthly subscription. Hyman also discusses the challenges she has faced as a female tech CEO, the most formidable of which emerged while building the company's culture. She says men and women alike are not taught to think of women's voices as inspirational, which makes everything from funding to laying people off more difficult. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It may surprise some to learn that Land O'Lakes, a massive company widely known for producing butter, is not only a farmer-owned cooperative, but also has an international division that works in developing countries to help create sustainable farming practices among people who have extremely limited resources for making a living. We talk with Jennifer Hyman today who travels around the world meeting and assisting farmers to find out what they need to survive and thrive and through contracts with USAID, provides it. How is international development tied to corporate growth? What exactly is yak butter? Grab a cup of coffee and join us today to find out these answers and more. As the Director of Communications for Land O’Lakes International Development, Jennifer Hymanleads internal and external communications for the organization’s international agriculture and enterprise development programs, is in charge of related advocacy efforts, and manages the group’s office in Washington, DC. She has more than 20 years of experience focused on humanitarian and international development communications, is a prolific published journalist, and has worked and traveled in more than 45 countries.