Some breaking news this morning: Two months after leaving Rent the Runway, Jenn Hyman has already decided her next move. The Rent the Runway founder will become the CEO of Babylist, the baby registry service founded by Natalie Gordon. Gordon will become executive chair.
I broke the news in Fortune this morning. And this transition stands out for a few reasons. First, it’s a rare example of a founder-to-founder CEO handoff—and of course it’s even more rare for that handoff to be between two female founders of separate businesses. Babylist could have hired a professional CEO type to lead the company into its next phase, but chose another founder instead.
Second, Hyman and Gordon—and their companies—are complementary in so many ways. Hyman built Rent the Runway for 18 years before she stepped aside in May (a clean break—she’s no longer on the clothing rental service’s board). Gordon has been building Babylist for 15 years. But the pair only met for the first time last fall, and Hyman joined the Babylist board in January.
Rent the Runway was a media darling that Hyman took public in 2021, making her the 30th woman to take a company public. Rent the Runway invented a category, but has struggled since the pandemic. Its share price is down about 80% since its IPO, and Hyman has spent the past few years playing defense, overhauling its originally capital-intensive business model and making the argument that Rent the Runway is in a better place today even though it’s never quite recaptured its former glory.
