服装租赁网站Rent the Runway的梦幻成名路

    Rent the Runway把这两种趋势结合在了一起。它不仅顺应共享经济的大潮，而且充分利用了许多年轻女性对奢侈服饰的渴慕之情。没过多久，海曼和弗雷斯就开始接洽时装界人士，但许多人起初并不认同这种先购买再外租的方式。与一些时装品牌的洽谈是她们最难跨越的障碍。海曼说：“许多设计师直接拒绝了我们的购买请求，看到那副宁死不屈的架势，我们当时非常沮丧。”为了说服设计师与她们合作，这对搭档必须理解时装品牌想要的东西（在大多数情况下，时装公司希望自身品牌受到保护，同时确保自己的服饰不会因这项租赁业务而丧失真实的销售机会），还要向他们展示，Rent the Runway有望成为各大时装品牌获得新客户、触及新受众群体的主要渠道。

    甚至在海曼和弗雷斯向设计师和风投公司兜售经营理念的时候，她们两人也没有做好全身心投入这项事业的准备。两人其实已经联系好了其他工作机会。但就在距离弗雷斯大婚之日不到两周的时候，她们获得了贝恩资本(Bain Capital Ventures)175万美元的首轮投资。2010年，Rent the Runway收到了高原资本(Highland Partners)提供的150万美元投资，2011年,凯鹏华盈(Kleiner Perkins)投入了150万美元。至2013年3月份，它又筹集了2,440万美元资金。这家服装租赁网站现在拥有超过300万会员，用户数量和收入的年均增幅均接近100%（它不愿透露具体的营收额）。

    尽管“服装版奈飞公司”这一绰号包含赞美之意，但海曼并不是特别喜欢这个类比。她说：“奈飞公司经营的业务非常理性，而我们所做的一切，其实是在提供一种情感体验。”

    每当出席电视节目或接受采访时，这两位创始人总是喜欢说，Rent the Runway希望为女性提供一种“灰姑娘般的体验”。但它其实并没有这么浪漫。这是一家旨在解决问题的公司。它无疑将帮助许多女性解决一个大问题：不用花大价钱就可以盛装出席新年前夜派对（新年前夜和舞会高峰期，其实也是这家公司生意最兴隆的时刻）。这并不是说女性永远也不会购买奢华礼服了。但现在，她们没必要非得这样做。这，就是高明的企业家精神。（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒   

    Rent the Runway married the two trends. It harnesses the shareable economy and takes advantage of the aspirations to luxury that many young women harbor today. Hyman and Fleiss soon approached people at fashion labels, but many were initially hesitant to let Rent the Runway buy and rent out their products. Their talks with some of the labels were the most memorably difficult hurdles they faced. "Designers basically told us that over their dead body would they ever let us buy inventory from them," says Hyman, "so that was pretty discouraging." To persuade designers to partner with them, the duo had to understand what the labels wanted (which in most cases was brand protection and the certainty that they weren't going to lose real purchases by making their products available for rent) and show them that Rent the Runway could be a major channel for them to get new customers and reach new demographics.

    Even as they were pitching their concept to designers and VC firms, neither woman was ready to fully commit. Both had lined up other jobs for when they graduated. But less than two weeks before Fleiss's wedding, they got an initial round of $1.75 million from Bain Capital Ventures. In 2010, Rent the Runway received another $15 million in funding from Highland Partners, and in 2011 $15 million from Kleiner Perkins. By March 2013 it had raised another $24.4 million. The site has more than 3 million members and the business is growing at nearly 100% year over year in users and revenues (it won't disclose the latter).

    While the moniker "Netflix for dresses" is meant admiringly, Hyman doesn't particularly like that analogy. "Netflix is a very rational business, and everything that we are doing is about delivering an emotional experience," she says.

    Indeed, both co-founders, when they appear on television or do interviews, like to say that Rent the Runway gives women a "Cinderella experience." But it's less romantic than that. It's a company that solves a problem. It'll certainly solve one for women seeking a New Year's Eve party outfit at low cost. (And indeed, their biggest business comes at New Year's Eve and prom season.) That's not to say women are never going to buy dresses anymore. But now they don't necessarily have to. That's clever entrepreneurship.