Interview with HURR Collective: The Growing Pains of a Fashion Rental Platform

In our mission to match businesses to offices, we meet some of London’s most exciting startups. In this series, Growing Pains, we interview the founders and CEOs of businesses that are starting out or scaling up.

Prew opens up about the highs and lows of building HURR Collective from the ground up.

What made you create HURR Collective?

I've always been fascinated by the sharing economy. I’d watched the rise of sharing economy platforms like Airbnb and Uber and believed that fashion was the next industry to be disrupted. 

There’s a whole generation – generation rent – of people who want to access things without owning them. The more research we did into fashion, the more we believed there was a better way to enjoy fashion without having to own it.

Fashion rental is still a fairly new concept in the UK. In the US, Rent The Runway has been operating for over ten years, and is now valued at over $1 billion.

As sustainability enters the mainstream, the fashion rental market is booming and HURR is well positioned to lead the market. 

Why do you think that is?

The UK market has been slower to embrace innovation and until now, there hasn’t been a go-to rental platform that balances accessibility and a curated brand mix.

We’ve always focused on making HURR look and feel just like e-commerce, but without the cost to the planet of purchasing new clothes.

Describe the HURR Collective journey so far.

We're just over two years into our startup journey. We've been fortunate to time our launch with the increased interest in the circular economy, and have been able to scale incredibly quickly.

Very excitingly, we opened our pop-up in Selfridges earlier this year, as the department store trials fashion rental for the first time in its history.

What’s been the biggest challenge?

There aren’t enough hours in the day and getting any work-life balance is incredibly difficult. My 2020 resolution was to restore some form of balance – running a company is a marathon, not a sprint!

What boundaries are you implementing to achieve a work-life balance?

In the early days, you’re responsible for absolutely everything and it’s tough. We now have an incredible team who believe in the HURR vision, which makes it easier and means I can focus on the higher-level strategy and leading the business forward.

Do you think entrepreneurship is lonely?

It definitely can be! Before starting HURR, I connected with as many startup CEOs as possible. Having connections outside of your friendship group who ‘get’ the highs and the lows of starting a business has proved to be invaluable.

What’s been your biggest success with HURR Collective so far?

Recently we were named by RWRC as one of the top 50 retail tech startups in the world, which was quite a moment.

It’s also great to see someone rent for the first time and realising it’s a no brainer. The shift in consumer behaviour over the past two years has been incredible to watch.

What are the other benefits of wardrobe renting?

Extending the lifespan of your clothes is one of the best things you can do to reduce the environmental impact of your wardrobe.

As a peer-to-peer marketplace, HURR allows you to monetise your wardrobe by renting out your pieces and join a community of forward-thinking women who believe renting makes both economic and environmental sense.

What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders?

Never take no for an answer and always trust your instinct.

If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?

Michelle Obama. She's fearless.

What book has changed you the most?

It must be the book I've read most recently, Helena Morrissey’s, A Good Time to Be a Girl. It's all about how you shouldn’t lean in, you should try to change the system.