Julie Wainwright (Founder, The RealReal) on Facing the Competition and Taking Companies Public
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Who is Julie Wainwright and what is her background?
Her amazing career included stints at Clorox, Real.com, and a rollercoaster ride as the CEO of Pets.com during the dot-com crash. After that, she started The RealReal, a luxury resale marketplace where you probably buy discounted Louis Vuitton and hopefully also sell things from your closet. And you're probably thinking, wow, that's an impressive resume. I'd hate to have to be the guy who goes up against her. And well, I was that guy. My company, Tradesy, was in the exact same category and was a competitor to The RealReal. So today, Julie and I have some real talk about what it was like competing in a high growth category. We give advice for entrepreneurs starting companies and building in a competitive space.
What was it like competing in the luxury resale market?
Julie talks about the pros and cons of taking a company public and the future of fashion. And we get a very special guest appearance from Nicole at the very end, making sure that money rehabbers get all their questions answered. So you'll hear that at the end, but let's start at the beginning. Julie Wainwright, welcome to Money Rehab.
Oh, hi, Tracy. It's good to see you.
It's fun being here. So, Julie, you've had an incredible career with many acts, and we're going to talk about all of them, including your latest business, Ahara Med. But I want to start by saying you're one of the most successful women in tech. Full stop.
I don't know if that's true. I think so. It depends on how you measure it. But yes, I've had success.
You have had a lot of success. You've run multiple public companies. You've been a founder, not just a CEO, but a founder. What do you think makes a great entrepreneur great?
I could ask you the same thing, but I honestly think it's first of all, you have to propensity to take risks. You have to be able to operate in gray areas. You have to come in with a very strong point of view and execute and then right away iterate if it's not going to work. So you have to come in strong and hot and then say, okay, I was wrong moving over this way.
What are the pros and cons of taking a company public?
I think you have to recognize what talent is in other people because no one does it by themselves. You have to have the ability to raise capital if you're in the venture capital world. And certainly that's the world I know, which means taking a lot of rejections and not taking it personally and learning from the interactions. Even if you learn, I never want to be that person who you just talked to. You have to have a lot of energy. Yes. You also have to decide that's what you want to do. And what I mean by that is there is no work life balance when you're an entrepreneur. If you're doing it, you're doing it. You have to be in. You have to be committed. And you have to see it through. And what I find fascinating, because I'm just talking to entrepreneurs all the time, if they bring up, I want to work-life balance, I'm just like, why would I give you my money to make your life better? I'm going to give you my money to make more money. So you also have to recognize if you take money, you have an obligation to the investors. Right.
Yeah, I think you're right. And as much as we would all love work-life balance, I think we both know from experience, you start a company, you owe it to your employees, your investors, and your customers to do everything in your power to make the company better all the time. So you don't really get balance during those years. What do you think it was about your life or your personality that made you feel like that kind of life without balance with, you know, What made you suited to it?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Julie Wainwright and what is her background?
0:41–1:31
2
What was it like competing in the luxury resale market?
1:31–2:55
3
What are the pros and cons of taking a company public?
2:55–7:30
4
How did The RealReal differentiate itself from competitors?
7:30–16:34
5
What challenges did The RealReal face during COVID-19?
16:34–20:24
6
What important lessons did Julie learn as an entrepreneur?
20:24–23:22
7
What is Julie's new venture, Ahara?
23:22–29:10
8
What can we expect from Julie's upcoming book?
29:10–1:09:08
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