From the course: Leading with Innovation in the Age of AI

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The lean startup process

The lean startup process

In early 2009, Jenny Hyman and Jenny Fleiss co-founded Rent the Runway, a rental service for young women's high end dresses. Their premise? On certain occasions, like a prom or wedding, a graduation. Women would love to wear designer dresses, but they often don't have the money to buy them. Even if she could buy one, it would just hang in the closet much of the time. What if they created a mail order rental service similar to what Netflix had done with DVDs. While the basic idea seemed promising, Hyman and Fleiss knew they must find answers to dozens of questions before they could be somewhat confident of success. How large is the market for such a service? What kinds of dresses? What rental price? Also, what about operations and logistics? Should they add other individuals to their two person team? If so, who, when should they seek external funding? And many others. Questions like these represent sources of uncertainty, not just for every startup, but also for every innovative idea…

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