Julie Wainwright
Founder and former chief executive of The RealReal
Julie Wainwright is the American entrepreneur who founded The RealReal, the online marketplace for authenticated luxury consignment, and led it from 2011 to June 2022. She took the company public in 2019 and helped establish luxury resale as a mainstream channel; she now leads the nutrition start-up Ahara.
| Role | Founder of The RealReal; CEO 2011 to June 2022 |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Ahara (founder, since 2023) |
| IPO | June 2019, Nasdaq |
| Memoir | Time to Get Real (2025) |
| Known for | Authenticated luxury resale |
Who is Julie Wainwright?
Julie Wainwright is the founder of The RealReal, a US company that sells pre-owned luxury fashion, jewellery and other goods on behalf of consignors, after authenticating, pricing and photographing them. Her company played a major role in making resale an accepted part of the luxury market.
Career
Wainwright studied at Purdue University and began her career at Clorox. She later ran technology and internet companies, including Berkeley Systems and Reel.com, and was chief executive of Pets.com, which listed and then shut down in 2000 during the dot-com crash.
She founded The RealReal in 2011. The company took on the full consignment process for sellers, including authentication, pricing, photography, listing, shipping and customer service. The RealReal listed on Nasdaq on 28 June 2019, raising 300 million US dollars, making Wainwright one of relatively few women to take a company public. She stepped down as chief executive in June 2022.
In 2023 she launched Ahara, a personalised nutrition company, which had raised around 10 million US dollars by early 2024. In 2025 she published a memoir, Time to Get Real, about leadership and building companies, and she has since launched a podcast for emerging founders, The Armchair Entrepreneurs.
Influence on the fashion business
The RealReal helped shift luxury resale from a fragmented, trust-sensitive market to a scaled online channel. Its model of professional authentication and managed consignment reassured buyers and made it easier for owners of luxury goods to sell. This contributed to wider industry interest in circularity, the resale value of products and brand partnerships with resale platforms.
- Managed consignment that removes effort for sellers.
- Professional authentication to build buyer trust.
- Large scale processing of pre-owned luxury goods.
Julie Wainwright and technology
Wainwright's career has run through technology and internet businesses since the 1990s. She led Berkeley Systems, Reel.com and Pets.com during the first internet boom, and she built The RealReal as an online first marketplace in which authentication, pricing, photography and listing are handled centrally so that very large numbers of unique items can be sold efficiently on the web.
Why it matters
Julie Wainwright turned luxury consignment into a listed business and a recognised retail channel. Her work is central to the story of how resale became part of mainstream luxury strategy and of the wider conversation about circular fashion.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Julie Wainwright?
Julie Wainwright is the founder of The RealReal, the online luxury consignment marketplace she started in 2011 and led until June 2022. She took the company public in 2019 and later founded the nutrition start-up Ahara.
What is Julie Wainwright doing now?
Since 2023 Julie Wainwright has led Ahara, a personalised nutrition company. She published the memoir Time to Get Real in 2025 and hosts a podcast for founders called The Armchair Entrepreneurs.