Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Tracy DiNunzio on Resilience, Raising Money, and Guest Hosting the Pod
Mon, 02 Dec 2024
Tracy DiNunzio is an entrepreneur and investor, and founder of luxury resale marketplace Tradesy. She’s sold billions of dollars of pre-owned fashion, raised $150M in venture capital, and taught herself everything from marketing to coding to get there. But according to Tracy, being an entrepreneur has always been her second job; her first is managing a lifelong health condition. Living with Spina Bifida while building her career, Tracy felt like she couldn’t tell the world about her disability. But when she finally opened up about it, the reaction wasn’t at all what she expected. Today, Tracy shares with Nicole the surprising way that she found strength in vulnerability and learned to be a better leader. She also shares fundraising tips and tricks for anyone trying to raise money for their company, and previews the week ahead as she takes Nicole’s seat to guest host an exciting week of Money Rehab.
Chapter 1: How did Tracy DiNunzio become a successful entrepreneur?
I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. Ah, Tracy DiNunzio. Nicole Lappin. Welcome back to Money Rehab. This makes my heart so happy because you and I talk for... Hours a day. I don't even know how we find that time because I usually have no time, but we're on the phone and I see it like two hours or.
We're at each other's houses and we talk for so many hours about things.
Sometimes when I put you on hold, I'm taking a quick shower. I just thought you should know. Headphones and all.
I didn't know that. I didn't know. I definitely have gone to the bathroom when we've been on the phone.
That's how you know you're really good friends.
We are really good friends. Yeah. It's true. People do say this. Oh, they're my sister or they're like my bestie. And it's kind of hyperbole, but this is not hyperbole. You're my person. I married you. You officiated my wedding. Yes. And you encouraged this large lunch that I'm holding.
Yes. Currently in my belly. Yes, I did encourage it by getting a little too drunk at your birthday dinner and telling you and the mister to get to it. And I didn't think you would listen to me. And here we are.
And here we are. And we have an announcement. But we have several announcements. But first, I want our listeners to get to know you in a way that I know you. And during our many hours of discussions, we talk about everything. Boys, bowel movements...
Oh, OK.
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Chapter 2: What challenges did Tracy face with Spina Bifida?
And it was only then that I realized that most people don't make it out of childhood with spina.
Yeah, the prognosis isn't, well, it's getting better. So before I was born, historically, most people born with spina bifida did not live into adulthood. And if they did, they were often institutionalized, lived limited lives, not necessarily because of their limitations, also because society didn't really make accommodations for people with disabilities back then. So it was a pretty, you know,
tough thing to be born with. Around the time that I was born, there were some surgeries developed and interventions developed that would help people live into adulthood and maybe get some mobility. And since then, there have been a lot of advances. So today, a lot fewer babies are born with it.
Those who are have a lot of options for surgery in utero, interventions and surgeries all through childhood that are much better than when I was young. But for me and the other people of my
generation who have spina bifida were medical mysteries in a way because nobody ever did research on adults with spina bifida so every doctor I go to has never seen an adult with spina bifida so I have to be my own doctor and I always was like even when I was a kid eight or nine years old I used to go to the public library after school and read medical journals on microfiche and
try to understand what my doctors were saying and what the decisions were because it was all like a mystery. So yeah, it's serious. And I mostly think I've just been lucky. But I have also worked really hard to train myself to walk and to try to keep a really positive mental outlook because that's a big part of dealing with it too.
But you're in this group or several groups where you talk to, there's not that many adults with spina bifida right now. You're in some of these chat rooms and you guys talk about symptoms ongoing. Yes. Not walking, not being able to go to the bathroom. These are serious issues.
Yeah, I'm involved with a few different groups trying to get research done, trying to create community for people who have spina bifida. And even now I'm getting involved in things beyond spina bifida, just understanding that there are so many under-researched medical conditions where people are living with difficulty that can maybe be solved with technology.
And that's just like the entrepreneur in me. I want to use AI and understand what little data exists to help improve life. Life for everybody. I have gotten involved in the community.
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Chapter 3: What personal experiences shaped Tracy's leadership style?
When you were going through the building of the business, you and I talk about this a lot as you are now angel investing, you're a board member, you're a consultant extraordinaire. Anyone who does business with you is the luckiest. We talk about fundraising a lot and I find it to be so helpful that you break this crazy world that can be a black box down into us speak.
Of course. It's really fun, I think, to demystify. One of the things that I noticed when I came into the world of building big companies, building venture-backed startups, was that there was so much lingo. And I initially felt like such an outsider.
And then I learned that people were just using big words for simple concepts, which might be a way that business schools get to charge tuition or something. But it's really not that complicated. I think anyone can Pretty easily understand business fundamentals and build a great business if they have drive and vision and work really hard.
And so I love making it simple because it actually is simple.
So when you were going out to fundraise in the beginning, what did you need to learn?
The biggest thing you need to fundraise is confidence. And if you don't have confidence, you need to have the ability to fake confidence, which was what I had because I felt very unsure and very insecure and very out of my depth when I first started meeting investors for all kinds of reasons. And it just wasn't my world initially, but I was good at faking it, at putting on a bit of a
mask and putting out big CAC energy. I can tell you a bunch of other things that are helpful for fundraising, but those are all things you can Google, right? You can look up like the standard 10 slide deck that you should have and all of that. But investors are just human beings.
And as a human being, when you feel like someone is holding on to a magical secret and they're on a magic carpet ride, you just want to be part of it. And I think your energy when you go in to pitch an investor is so much more important. You have to have your T's crossed and your I's dotted. Your numbers have to fit. Your plan has to make sense. You have to know your business.
You have to understand your category. But you also have to walk in like you know the future. And it's so good that you can't even believe you might share a piece of it with these guys. And that's contagious. And that's actually what gets them to fund it. Did you instinctively know that or did you go in timid to start? I wrestled with getting my mask on straight.
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Chapter 4: How did Tracy raise $150M in venture capital?
She's the smartest and she knows all the things that also are a good compliment to the skill set and the knowledge that I have. And I learn from you all the time. Maybe sometimes every once in a while you learn from me. I doubt it. All the time.
All the time. I can bring all of the sort of business and starting a business and getting your ambition for money in order and how to chase that. And you really without you, I would not know how to manage my money at all.
That is maybe true. No, I'm just kidding. That is definitely not true. But you do have too much money in cash. So just FYI. Okay, I know. Which is high class problems. And I'm so proud of you.
I'll diversify.
I promise I'll diversify. But I would love if you could impart some of this wisdom and knowledge to our listeners while I am doing a baby thing. I would love for you to...
take this seat if you don't mind and I can't wait bring on all the fabulous people and who've been investors in you or I know you're even doing an interview with your biggest competitor in the space you alluded to the fact that you didn't win Yeah, bullshit. You did. But there's your major competitor, The RealReal.
Totally. So I'm bringing Julie Wainwright, who was the founder and CEO of The RealReal. She's a phenomenal entrepreneur. I feel like she doesn't get enough press for how successful she's been. one of the only women who's been the CEO of multiple public companies. She's extraordinary.
But also your biggest rival.
We were direct competitors for years. And we like luxury fashion resale. Like we had the two, I think, biggest companies in the category. And we viciously competed. And for the first half of that year, We're neck and neck. And then the real, real took off and started growing a lot faster than we did.
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