Realreal founder Julie Wainwright has a scary new memoir

Julie Wainwright took two companies publicly, quite an incredible feat of any standard. And yet in your new memoir, It’s time to become realIt offers readers even more prized: a dumb look at the scattered realities of leadership. Wainrait shares the types of difficult truths that many CEOs can relate to, but rarely discuss publicly, including that many would consider their first major failure, which had excluded Pets.com during the market collapse in 2000.

If you are an age, you definitely remember it. Starting online pets was immediately recognizable thanks to the memorable Mascot And a catchy slogan, “Because pets can’t drive.” But what looked only like a fleeting moment in Dot-Com’s bursting, it would cast a shadow over Wainrait’s career for nearly a decade. “When I was going to talk to the recruiter, it was like” No one would hire you anymore, “Wainwright said in an interview with this editor earlier this week.

This came as a shock, given that Wainrait’s career trajectory initially looked irresistible. After cutting her teeth at Clorox, she rose through technology companies in the 90, when women’s leadership in the sector was extremely rare. As CEO of Berkeley Systems and later online video store Reel.com, she worked “Tons of Hours”, but she was happy and, as she told, succeeded, including the growing revenue of Reel.com from $ 3 million to $ 25 million – time the company was the company during which the company was sold to Hollywood video. “I just operated better without a boss,” she said.

Then came the collapse, which would derail many careers permanently. In 2000, Wainrait took Pets.com publicly, just to close it later that year during the Dot-Com bubble burst. The professional blow was exacerbated by personal: she says that on the same day she informed the employees of the closure of the company, her husband asked for a divorce.

“I have no work, I’m divorcing and I have no children,” then it’s 42 -year -old Wainwright, she remembers that she was confronted with what she felt like a total life to collapse. Rising things, the media covered was “incredibly negative and intrusive”, to the extent that she says that days after the company was closed, reporters appeared on her doorstep.

Wainraith describes what followed as a long winter, where she was offered only roles, leading efforts of a reversal of failing companies. But this crossroads led to a remarkable second act. In 2010, she founded RealrealHelp in the pioneer process in the Luxury Shipment Market Online. Like many founders, Wainrait for the first time created the company from its own home, but soon overtakes its living room, and today it processes many thousands of different luxury items every month, which aims to sell within 90 days of its more than 1.2 million square meters of space and the operating centers of the warehouse. This is also a publicly traded company; In her second trip to Wall Street, in 2019, Wainrait took the outfit through the traditional IPO process.

Unfortunately, this triumphant return has its raw head. In 2022, Wainrait was sharply pushed by Realreal by board members she recommended – another twist that did not deviate from sharing. Instead, she names names in the book, and earlier this week she described this move as a “play of power” by an investor who “did not take its money from the company and thought she could manage the company better.”

Wainwright – which fully supports the company CEO (She was the first rental of the company) – she is still angry. In a conversation, she noted that “no founder will never say that they need to be shot and removed” and it is honest for the book – and Wainrait herself – so refreshing. In the corporate world, where people often spin stories to look hassle -free, Wainrait is a straight shooter; If she doesn’t like something, she won’t hold her blows. If someone turns the story differently than she sees it, she will call it. Where she confuses, she says so.

Even better in this memoir – according to this reader – is Wainrait’s ability to offer not only personal discoveries but also practical wisdom. She goes to readers through her decision to bonus her sales employees in a certain way and shares her knowledge of a quadrant assessment of leadership she gathered from McKinsey leaders, including the realization that he has hired one of the worst species: “Dumb”, which means that he is “words.”

Meanwhile, a happy story is developing. Wainrait continues his entrepreneurial trip with HieraA food company that develops personalized dietary recommendations based on genetics and individual needs.

You can find our full conversation herethrough the podcast strictlyvc download. Meanwhile, if you are interested in convincing reading, it is both a memoir and a guide, offering the founders of something much more a price than idealized stories of success, you can pick up the book hereS

Wainwright said when we said, “I personally wrote it about entrepreneurs to give them a realistic look and hope to inspire them and, you know, maybe they will think twice and will not make the mistakes I have made.”