Rntr. Founder Update

For my first founder update, and in an effort to remain fully transparent on how our business is progressing, I'd like to bring the Rntr. community up to date on the past challenges, successes and decisions we choose to make as we kick off 2022.

Rntr. was launched just as the unforeseen pandemic hit, which naturally had its challenges, but we truly believed in what we were creating and with time a few forward thinking brands were willing to work with us to start building a circular fashion ecosystem. And at about the same time David Jones, Selfridges, Burberry and others started offering their own rental service in partnership with similar platforms like Rntr. — things were starting to look up for fashion rental.

Despite all the positive moves, the heavy lockdowns in 2020 stalled movement, we started to measure our success on building meaningful relationships with future partners and customers that align with our vision. We have remained focused and with a very small team, we have managed to achieve more than ever.

In the last six months we have closed our first round of funding, formed partnerships with 6 new brands, on top of the initial 3, who believe in our vision and dare to pave the way into a better future and we have received increasing praise and interest from brands and customers every day. It seems that patience and whole-hearted belief in what we are doing is really starting to pay off.

What we have learned a lot in a very short amount of time and amongst many decisions, I have decided that everything we do in the coming months will be about genuine connections, upholding brand integrity and adapting to what the market (you guys) wants. I have never wanted to buy stock to rent, but to achieve the bigger vision of reducing waste, we had to listen to what our community wanted — especially it means they choose to rent over purchasing.

We operate from a studio in Alexandria, Sydney, we have not yet chosen to do traditional PR, we have paid 6 influencers who align with our vision, but going forward we have chosen to rely on user generated content and WOM. We do gift some loans (which are returned to keep the garments in use for others to love) and we have a consistent paid advertising strategy only to build awareness for a good cause - to keep garments in rotation.

I believe in being honest and transparent with our customers, communication is key. I have picked up the phone and talked to most of our customers. I love learning about who they are and how I can make Rntr. better their life. It's something I enjoy the most and if there are hiccups in the delivery time, I'm probably more disappointed than anyone else. Luckily this has only happened 3% of the time.

We have learned that discounts are not the biggest factor to most of our renters, so we have decided to limit how we discount our services and products. We work with brands that are designed to last and be loved by many so that we all can choose to wear better. These highly sought after brands are already available to you for a fraction of the retail price, so we do not believe it is necessary to cut down the price even more. Having said that, we are encouraging people to try rental for the first time, the welcome code will always be available for your first rental but reduced from 20% to 10% off - you can sign up to our newsletter to receive the code.

I have accepted that we live in an increasingly uncertain world which is why I have built a small team that thrives for the challenge. Rntr. will be experimenting new ideas regularly we may change our direction from time to time. You can expected to be surprised, I would love to be able to say that we are here to take things slow and grow gracefully but the reality is that we don't have that luxury, as our world continues to bear increasing amounts of waste and carbon. I'm here to make a change, it needs to happen quick or it won't happen. If you would like to help us get there, we encourage you to support us by renting, sharing into your community and offering us regular feedback.

Until next time,

Shanya x