Julie Wainwright

American businesswoman

Julie L. Wainwright is an e-commerce entrepreneur. She is the founder and the former CEO of The RealReal, an online marketplace for authenticated luxury consignment.²

From Wikipedia’s article on Julie Wainwright (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Companies

Inspirato IncBoard member Sep 30, 2024 to now⁷
The RealRealFounder⁸
TheRealReal, Inc.Chief executive officer Jun 27, 2019 to May 24, 2022⁹
TheRealReal, Inc.Chair Jun 27, 2019 to Oct 9, 2020⁹
TheRealReal, Inc.President Jun 27, 2019 to Oct 9, 2020⁹

Holdings

Stock this person has reported owning, from the forms officers and directors file with the SEC. See the biggest insider stakes.

Shares held

TheRealReal, Inc. REAL2,611,820 shares¹⁰$26.9M at $10.31May 20, 2022
Inspirato Inc5,000 shares¹¹Nov 19, 2024

As of each latest filing. The line shows shares held over time.

Recent filings

Nov 19, 2024Granted 5,000 shares of Inspirato Inc¹¹
May 20, 2022Sold 4,456 shares at $3.06 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁰
May 20, 2022Sold 5,175 shares at $3.06 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁰
May 20, 2022Sold 7,239 shares at $3.06 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁰
Apr 22, 2022Sold 2,223 shares at $6.01 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹²
Feb 20, 2022Sold 7,506 shares at $7.57 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹³
Feb 20, 2022Sold 4,469 shares at $7.57 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹³
Feb 14, 2022Granted 223,524 shares of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁴
Jan 22, 2022Returned to company 2,689 shares at $8.86 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁵
Jan 3, 2022Sold 30,000 shares at $11.95 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁶
Dec 23, 2021Gift 35,000 shares of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁷
Dec 1, 2021Sold 200 shares at $16.16 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁸
Dec 1, 2021Sold 27,511 shares at $15.48 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁸
Dec 1, 2021Sold 17,654 shares at $14.56 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁸
Nov 20, 2021Sold 9,786 shares at $15.29 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁹
Nov 20, 2021Sold 6,023 shares at $15.29 of TheRealReal, Inc.¹⁹
Nov 10, 2021Sold 7,489 shares at $16.20 of TheRealReal, Inc.²⁰
Nov 10, 2021Sold 142,511 shares at $15.70 of TheRealReal, Inc.²⁰
Oct 22, 2021Sold 3,121 shares at $12.57 of TheRealReal, Inc.²¹
Oct 1, 2021Sold 30,000 shares at $12.95 of TheRealReal, Inc.²²

Early life and education

Date not recordedPurdue University³

Career

Occupation: business executive.⁵

Date not recordedFounded The RealReal⁴

Clorox

Early in her career Wainwright began working for The Clorox Company in brand management and computer software.

Berkeley Systems

By 1996, she had replaced Wes Boyd as CEO of Berkeley Systems where she was instrumental in changing the company's strategy by making it a leading interactive entertainment entity. As president and CEO of the company, she reduced a two-year decline in productivity. She was among one third of the employees that were laid off from Berkeley when the company was sold to CUC in late 1996.

Reel.com

In March 1998, Wainwright became president and CEO of Reel.com, replacing founder Stuart Skorman. Four months later, Hollywood Video purchased Reel.com "in a deal valued at $100 million." Reel.com was closed in 2000.

Pets.com

Wainwright was approached by John Hummer of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners to run Pets.com, and was CEO of Pets.com when it ceased operations 268 days after its initial stock offering ⁠— ⁠"one of the shortest-lived public companies on record" according to Kirk Cheyfitz, author of Thinking Inside the Box: The 12 Timeless Rules for Managing a Successful Business. After shutting Pets.com in November 2000, her husband sought a divorce. Wainwright said that this was a very difficult time in her life: "I had two major life crises in the same week, one public and one private, that sent me on a journey of self-discovery and healing I couldn’t have anticipated."

The RealReal

Wainwright founded The RealReal in 2011, and the company shipped its first orders in June of that year. In a 2015 article, Forbes gave The RealReal a FORBES-estimated valuation of $300 million saying “the startup is in a much better place than Pets.com ever was.” By December 2017, The RealReal employed 950 people. The company's focus on sustainability led to its becoming the first luxury member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's CE100 USA.

In early 2019 The RealReal announced it would be adding an additional half-million square feet of e-commerce center space in Perth Amboy, New Jersey to its existing e-commerce centers in Secaucus, New Jersey and Brisbane, California. Wainwright was mentioned on CNBC in a report about the company's authentication process. In early 2020, TheRealReal was sued by investors in a class action lawsuit in connection with alleged securities laws violations stemming from TheRealReal's initial public offering.

On June 22, 2022, The RealReal announced that its founder and CEO Julie Wainwright had stepped down.

Advisory Roles

Wainwright is an advisor to Springboard Enterprises’ New York Fashion Tech Lab and Purdue University's Krannert School of Management. She has been a board member of the Headlands Center for the Arts, Magic Theatre and San Francisco Art Institute.