Jenn Hyman Steps Down as Rent the Runway’s CEO: ‘I’ve Left It All on the Field’

(SeaPRwire) –   Eighteen years ago, Jenn Hyman cofounded Rent the Runway. She was just 27 years old and had recently graduated from Harvard Business School. Her concept of renting high-end clothing and accessories gave birth to a new industry and helped popularize the idea of wearing pre-owned fashion. Since then, the company has navigated an initial public offering (IPO), survived a pandemic that threatened its survival, and undergone a full business transformation. Now, [publication name] reports that Hyman is stepping down as CEO.

This departure marks a clean break—Hyman will provide advisory support during the transition but does not intend to remain on Rent the Runway’s board of directors.

She describes the decision to step down as one of the most difficult she has ever made. Among her cohort of female founders from the late 2000s and early 2010s, Hyman is among the last remaining who still lead the companies they founded. Some, such as Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd, have returned to their ventures after prior departures. Hyman’s fellow Rent the Runway cofounder, Jenny Fleiss, left the company in 2017. In 2024, Hyman told [interview source] that she would continue as CEO as long as she believed in the business and remained engaged and enthusiastic about it.

Despite her departure, Hyman clearly still believes in Rent the Runway; she asserts that she is leaving the company at its strongest point ever. However, the stock price does not fully reflect this progress: as of Tuesday, Rent the Runway’s shares were trading at approximately $4.44, down slightly more than 3% over the past year and by nearly 98% since its IPO in 2021.

Nevertheless, Hyman points to several indicators of success: Rent the Runway facilitated $4.6 billion in gross merchandise value over the past twelve months, underscoring its influence on the fashion industry; the company reached a record number of active subscribers in the fourth quarter of last year; and it has implemented a revised inventory strategy in which 70% of inventory is managed through revenue-sharing agreements, moving away from the capital-intensive model that defined earlier years. The company generated nearly $330 million in revenue last year.

By creating a new market category, Rent the Runway now faces competition from other rental platforms, including Nuuly. Looking ahead, the future of Rent the Runway may include new services—such as peer-to-peer rentals, a model introduced by platform Pickle. For now, Teri Bariquit, a board member and former executive at Nordstrom, will serve as interim CEO while the board conducts a search for a permanent replacement.

Now 45, Hyman reflects on some of the most significant moments in Rent the Runway’s history. “There’s been a lot of critical commentary about our IPO,” she acknowledges, “but we were the first company in history to go public with a female CEO, COO, and CFO leading the business. I was the 30th woman ever to take a company public that she herself founded.” She finds these statistics “concerning.”

She offers advice to other founders considering when to step back: leave while you are still at your peak. Hyman notes that she could not have departed while Rent the Runway was struggling; during the pandemic, the company took on debt to survive, and she stayed on until that debt was restructured to avoid bankruptcy. In late 2025, the company refinanced its debt, resulting in majority control by a private equity group; investors from Story3 and Nexus now hold much of the board seats.

“It’s always best to leave at your happiest point, at the strongest moment for your business, and to step away knowing that what you’ve built will continue to thrive and write its next chapter without you,” she says.

Hyman is preparing for her next chapter; she plans to launch an as-yet-unspecified project aimed at “helping women feel and do all of the things they want to accomplish.”

Despite her excitement for this new phase, she becomes emotional when discussing her departure from Rent the Runway. “I’ve spent more time building Rent the Runway over the last 18 years than I’ve spent with my family, with my husband, or with my children,” she says. “It’s been, honestly, the most important part of my life. It’s my contribution to the world.”

In closing, she states, “I’ve left it all on the field.”