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Jennifer Hyman    

Award-Winning Co-Founder & CEO of Rent the Runway, Gender Equality Advocate

Jennifer Hyman is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rent the Runway, a company that is disrupting the trillion-dollar fashion industry and changing the way women get dressed through the Closet in the Cloud, the world’s first and largest shared designer closet. Hyman co-founded Rent the Runway in 2009 and its mission has been the same ever since: to power women to feel their best every day. The brand offers women the ability to subscribe, rent items a-la-carte, and shop resale from hundreds of designer partners, driven by a two-sided discovery engine that connects deeply engaged customers and differentiated brand partners on a powerful platform built around its brand, data, logistics, and technology. Under Hyman’s leadership, RTR made history as the first company to go public with a female founder/CEO, COO, and CFO.

Hyman is one of the most accomplished startup leaders in the U.S., having raised over $525M from top venture capitalists and honored with recognitions like the TIME "100 Most Influential People in the World," Forbes "12 Most Disruptive Names in Business," Fortune's "Most Powerful Female Entrepreneurs," "Trailblazers," "40 under 40," and Fast Company's "Most Creative People in Business." She leads a team of 1800 people that is 93% female and non-white, honored as a top company to launch one's career, and identified as one of "The Best Places to Work" in New York.

Hyman serves on the Board of Directors of The Estée Lauder Companies and Zalando and also is a Founding Member of the NYSE Board Advisory Council, and a Member of the Women.nyc Advisory Board and a Member of the Launch with GS Advisory Council for Goldman Sachs. She received her BA from Harvard University cum laude and MBA from Harvard Business School and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughters Aurora and Selene.

Speech Topics


Using AI to Deepen Your Competitive Moat--and Your Customer Relationships

E-commerce is poised to benefit from the rapid rise of AI technologies by helping to narrow the “endless aisle” problem of shopping in the 21st century. By focusing on the unique customer data advantage and fashion curation capabilities of Rent the Runway, Jennifer Hyman is unlocking an even greater opportunity to leverage AI in her business. Hyman will discuss how businesses can effectively harness emerging technologies like AI to deepen the competitive moats of their business, enhance customer satisfaction, and ultimately improve business outcomes.

To Hell and Back: Leading with Resilience

In February 2020, Rent the Runway had just come off their biggest sales year ever. Not only was it a $1 billion business—it was a valuation fewer than 20 women-owned companies in the U.S. have ever reached.

Suddenly, COVID hit the U.S., and people sheltered at home. With no need to get dressed for work, special events, or anything for that matter, nearly 70% of RTR customers paused their subscriptions overnight.

From the stage, Jennifer shares the story of how she saved her company, positioning the business strategically, financially, and culturally for a post-COVID world. She went on to successfully take Rent the Runway public just a year later, in the first-ever IPO led by a female CEO, COO, and CFO.

Jennifer managed to keep her team together and united with deep resilience and passion for the business, fighting against macro factors outside of their control. Her story is loaded with leadership lessons that can help any team overcome even the most difficult times.

How to Grow in Recessionary Times

The companies that win during difficult macroeconomic climates have an extreme focus on the customer experience. This speech will dig into how to create a customer experience mindset across every division of your company.

High Stakes Decision Making

Every executive is faced with countless decisions to which there are no good answers, and often, the business lies in the balance. As a founder and CEO, Jennifer Hyman will share her insights and will review some of the biggest decisions she had to make as a leader, how she made them, and the lessons she learned in the process. Through anecdotes and clear-cut takeaways, she gears this conversation towards anyone thinking deeply about how to be a better leader.

How to Have a Big Career AND a Big Life

There are countless debates about work-life balance and whether it is possible as an executive. We’ve recently seen more women leave the workforce than at any point in recent memory. As a founder of a high-growth company, CEO of a public company, and Board member of three public companies, Jennifer Hyman will discuss how she managed to do this while also getting married, having two kids, raising a family, and building a community.

News


Rent the Runway opens its first store with outpost in Henri Bendel ...
“Shopping offline is often tedious,” says Rent the Runway CEO and co-founder Jennifer Hyman. “For a busy woman with a packed life, she needs a reason to ...
Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, Co-founders of Rent the Runway
Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, co-founders of Rent the Runway, tell us how to stand out of the crowd and be a style trendsetter.

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