Julie Wainwright

American businesswoman

Julie Wainwright

Nationality| American
Alma mater| Purdue University (BS)

Julie L. Wainwright[1] is an e-commerce entrepreneur. She is the founder and the former CEO of The RealReal, an online marketplace for authenticated luxury consignment.

## Career

[edit]

### Clorox

[edit]

Early in her career Wainwright began working for The Clorox Company in brand management and computer software.[2]

### Berkeley Systems

[edit]

By 1996,[3] she had replaced Wes Boyd as CEO of Berkeley Systems[4][5] where she was instrumental in changing the company's strategy by making it a leading interactive entertainment entity.[6] As president and CEO of the company, she reduced a two-year decline in productivity.[7] She was among one third[8] of the employees that were laid off from Berkeley[9] when the company was sold to CUC in late 1996.[10][11]

### Reel.com

[edit]

In March 1998, Wainwright became president and CEO of Reel.com,[12][13][14][15] replacing founder Stuart Skorman. Four months later, Hollywood Video purchased Reel.com "in a deal valued at $100 million."[16][17][18]

### Pets.com

[edit]

Wainwright was approached by John Hummer of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners to run Pets.com, and was CEO of Pets.com when it ceased operations 268 days after its initial stock offering ⁠— ⁠"one of the shortest-lived public companies on record" according to Kirk Cheyfitz, author of Thinking Inside the Box: The 12 Timeless Rules for Managing a Successful Business.[19] After shutting Pets.com in November 2000, her husband sought a divorce.[20] Wainwright said that this was a very difficult time in her life: "I had two major life crises in the same week, one public and one private, that sent me on a journey of self-discovery and healing I couldn’t have anticipated."[21]

### The RealReal

[edit]

Wainwright founded The RealReal in 2011, and the company shipped its first orders in June of that year. In a 2015 article, Forbes gave The RealReal a FORBES-estimated valuation of $300 million saying “the startup is in a much better place than Pets.com ever was.”[22] By December 2017, The RealReal employed 950 people.[23] The company's focus on sustainability led to its becoming the first luxury member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's CE100 USA.[24][25]

In early 2019 The RealReal announced it would be adding an additional half-million square feet of e-commerce center space in Perth Amboy, New Jersey to its existing e-commerce centers in Secaucus, New Jersey and Brisbane, California. Wainwright was mentioned on CNBC in a report about the company's authentication process.[26] In early 2020, TheRealReal was sued by investors in a class action lawsuit in connection with alleged securities laws violations stemming from TheRealReal's initial public offering.[27][28]

On June 22, 2022, The RealReal announced that its founder and CEO Julie Wainwright had stepped down.

### Advisory Roles

[edit]

Wainwright is an advisor to Springboard Enterprises’ New York Fashion Tech Lab and Purdue University's Krannert School of Management. She has been a board member of the Headlands Center for the Arts, Magic Theatre and San Francisco Art Institute.

## Recognition

[edit]

In 2019, Wainwright received the Parsons Table Award.[29][30] In 2018 Wainwright was included in Inc.’s Female Founders 100 list, Entrepreneur’s 50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs and Fast Company’s Most Creative People In Business.[31][32][33] In 2017, The RealReal received the award for Best-Performing Company in the small-cap category from WWD.[34] She has been included in the Business of Fashion’s BoF500 for both 2016 and 2017,[35] Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list 2017, and Forbes 40 over 40.[36] In 2016, Wainwright accepted the Fashion Group International’s award for Innovation in Retail e-Commerce on behalf of The RealReal[37] and won Springboard Enterprises’ Northstar Award.[38] The San Francisco Business Times recognized Wainwright as one of the most-admired CEOs of the year in 2014, and again in 2017 as one of the most influential women of the year.[39]

Wainwright was selected for the inaugural 2021 Forbes 50 Over 50; made up of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and creators who are over the age of 50.[40]

## See also

[edit]

* Recommerce
* Sukhinder Singh Cassidy
* Tradesy

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Fitzgerald, Michael. "Woof! Pets.com goes to the dogs". ZDNet. Retrieved 2018-09-30.
2. ^ "SmartNow". Archived from the original on April 15, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2009.(accessed April 25, 2009)
3. ^ "Reference at www.bizjournals.com".
4. ^ Skorman, Stuart; Guthrie, Catherine S. (February 9, 2007). Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur. John Wiley and Sons. p. 128. ISBN 978-0787987329.
5. ^ Ginsberg, Steve. "Milken's Knowledge expands with Discovery Centers buy". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
6. ^ "Business Week". Archived from the original on August 16, 2000. (accessed April 25, 2009) Archived March 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
7. ^ Ginsberg, Steve. "Berkeley Systems wagers $10M on Internet games". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
8. ^ "Berkeley Buy-Out Brings Layoffs". Wired. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
9. ^ "Who's next? CUC nibbles at Spectrum Holobyte". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
10. ^ Ginsberg, Steve. "Oracle lays out framework for headquarters growth". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
11. ^ MILLER, GREG (10 April 1997). "CUC Agrees to Acquire Berkeley Systems Inc". Retrieved 18 October 2018 – via LA Times.
12. ^ "Now Reel.com Is Really Real". wired.com. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
13. ^ "REEL BUMMER - Movie Web business collapses after a run-in with dot-com reality". sfgate.com. 23 June 2000. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
14. ^ "Hollywood 2.0". Wired. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
15. ^ "E-Commerce". www.7inone.com. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
16. ^ "Hollywood Entertainment to Buy Reel.Com". Retrieved 2018-10-01.
17. ^ Pelline, Jeff (July 31, 1998). "Reel.com goes Hollywood". CNET News. Archived from the original on 2000-01-21.
18. ^ "10 Tech Pioneers: Where Are They Now?". PCWorld. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
19. ^ Cheyfitz, Kirk (2003). Thinking Inside the Box: The 12 Timeless Rules for Managing a Successful Business. Simon & Schuster. pp. 30–32\. ISBN 978-0-7432-3575-4. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
20. ^ Ustinova, Anastasia (June 21, 2008). "Julie Wainwright is so over the dot-com bust". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
21. ^ Miller, Claire Cain (August 1, 2008). "Chief of Pets.com Is Back, Minus the Sock Puppet". The New York Times. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
22. ^ Mac, Ryan. "From Doghouse To Penthouse: The Remarkable Recovery Of The RealReal's Julie Wainwright". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
23. ^ "A look at 42 women in tech who crushed it in 2017". TechCrunch. December 22, 2017. Archived from the original on January 14, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
24. ^ "CE100 USA". Retrieved 2017-09-11.
25. ^ "The Real Real". ellenmacarthurfoundation.org. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
26. ^ Zamost, Scott (2019-11-05). "CNBC: The RealReal's shares plunge as poor training and tough quotas cast doubt on 'no fakes' pledge". CNBC. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
27. ^ Inc., Shareholders Foundation (2020-03-10). "NASDAQ: REAL Shareholder Notice: Lawsuit against the RealReal, Inc. announced by Shareholders Foundation". NASDAQ. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-28. `{{cite news}}`: `|last=` has generic name (help)
28. ^ Jacobs, Alexandra (2019-01-23). "Tycoon of the Pre-Owned". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
29. ^ Petrarca, Emilia (2019-05-21). "Pharrell Is Feeling the 'Design Theta Waves'". The Cut. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
30. ^ "Parsons Benefit 2019 | The New School News Releases". www.newschool.edu. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
31. ^ "100 Women Making Money, Creating Jobs, and Changing the World". Inc.com. 2018-10-04. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
32. ^ Staff, Entrepreneur (2018-10-23). "The 50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs in 2018". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
33. ^ "Most Creative People in Business 2018". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
34. ^ Clark, Evan (2017-09-11). "Rihanna to Speak at the WWD Apparel + Retail Summit". WWD. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
35. ^ "Julie Wainwright is One of the 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry in 2017". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
36. ^ Johnson, Whitney. "40 Women To Watch Over 40 Celebrates Possibilities Ahead For Women". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
37. ^ "The Fashion Group International's Night of Stars". Beauty Fashion Fragrance. 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
38. ^ "Springboard Enterprises 2016 Winners Circle".
39. ^ "Meet 2017's Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
40. ^ Gross, Elana Lyn; Voytko, Lisette; McGrath, Maggie (2021-06-02). "The New Golden Age". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-06-02.

## External links

[edit]

* Wainwright's book on Amazon.com
* The RealReal

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