RENT

Rent the Runway, Inc.

A fashion rental company that lets people borrow designer dresses, accessories, and everyday clothes for a monthly subscription instead of buying them, with a rotating "closet" of pieces to wear and swap. It grew out of a Thanksgiving 2008 lightbulb moment: co-founder Jennifer Hyman saw her sister Becky had bought an expensive dress for a wedding just to avoid being photographed in the same outfit twice. Hyman and fellow Harvard Business School student Jennifer Fleiss launched it in 2009, naming the company for the idea of renting the high-fashion runway looks most people never get to wear.