587: She Built a $1 Billion Brand Selling Other Peoples Clothes | Julie Wainwright

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Julie Wainwright, founder of The RealReal, reveals how she built a billion-dollar resale marketplace that transformed luxury fashion. In this exclusive Foundr Podcast interview, Julie shares how she scaled The RealReal to over $1B in revenue, reached 38 million members, and took the company public on the Nasdaq. From her early lessons at Pets.com to reinventing resale as “cool” and breaking into the luxury market, Julie unpacks the strategies, risks, and mindset shifts that fuelled her success. Whether you’re building an eCommerce brand, launching a marketplace, or navigating setbacks as a founder, this interview delivers invaluable lessons on execution, resilience, and scaling big ideas. What you’ll learn from this interview: • How Julie identified an opportunity Amazon couldn’t replicate and turned it into The RealReal • The strategies she used to seed supply and build a two-sided marketplace • Why values-driven hiring and culture were critical to scaling past $1B in revenue • Lessons from shutting down Pets.com and how it shaped her next venture • How she navigated taking The RealReal public and the realities of IPO wealth • The impact of COVID on The RealReal and what it taught her about resilience • Why values alignment and integrity are the most important traits in your team and board By the end of this interview, you’ll walk away with proven insights from one of the most experienced entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley—so you can build, scale, and sustain your own eCommerce or marketplace business with clarity and confidence. SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to ⁠https://your.omnisend.com/foundr⁠ to get started. HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+ Start your $1 trial → ⁠https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial⁠ PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING? → Starting from scratch? Apply here → ⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application⁠ → Already have a store? Apply here → ⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application⁠ CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/⁠ CONNECT WITH JULIE WAINWRIGHT Website → https://www.therealreal.com/ Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/realrealjulie/ FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES YouTube → ⁠https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt⁠ Website → ⁠https://www.foundr.com⁠ Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/foundr/⁠ Facebook → ⁠https://www.facebook.com/foundr⁠ Twitter → ⁠https://www.twitter.com/foundr⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/⁠ Podcast → ⁠https://www.foundr.com/podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Founder Fam, I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omniscend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce founders. We've been recommending OmnisCent to Founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling the seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results.
0:24.0	Did you know on average, Omnysend customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment.
0:32.6	And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code Founder 50.
0:39.3	Just head to Omnysend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started.
0:45.0	All right, now let's jump back into the show.
0:48.9	Welcome back to the founder podcast.
0:51.5	So I want you to imagine building a billion dollar business
0:54.3	by tackling an industry Amazon could never dominate.
0:57.7	And that's exactly what today's guest did with The Real Real.
1:00.7	Julie Wainwright transformed luxury resale
1:03.4	into a mainstream movement,
1:05.2	scaling a company to over a billion in revenue
1:08.4	with 38 million members.
1:10.0	But her story isn't just about wins. She's also
1:12.6	navigated the most infamous dot-com bus with Pets.com and she's brutally honest about the lessons
1:18.9	that she carried forward. So in this conversation, she's going to explain how you can spot
1:23.6	opportunities that others overlook, the scrappy tactics you can use to build supply from
1:28.6	day one, what it really takes to scale from your kitchen table to millions of products a month,
1:33.9	and by building on values and culture, is critical if you want your company to last.
1:39.4	Hear the stories. Learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship.
1:46.0	Welcome to the founder podcast with Nathan Chan.
1:50.0	All right, so Julie, welcome to the founder podcast.
	...

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