A decade since founding Rent the Runway, Jennifer Hyman presides over a company valued at $1 billion. One of the few female-founded, female-led companies ever to reach this milestone, Rent the Runway has 11 million customers and employs more than 1,800 people, 93 percent of whom are female and/or non-white. Rent the Runway’s CEO, COO, CRO and CFO are all women. Hyman’s innovation—allowing women to pay a monthly fee for access to high-end fashion pieces—has spurred imitators, but she continues to evolve the offerings, including a recent expansion to include athleisure and ski wear. For the holidays, Rent the Runway created a mother-daughter fashion partnership with two other female-founded brands, DVF and Rockets of Awesome, and included a social media campaign spotlighting strong female leaders with their daughters. Hyman serves on the board of directors of the Estée Lauder Companies and cofounded the Rent the Runway Foundation to help other female entrepreneurs build scalable, high-growth companies.
