After a few months off, I’m back with a brand new instalment of Clothes & The Rest! This week’s episode features Victoria Prew, co-founder of wardrobe rental site Hurr Collective.
Victoria and her co-founder Matthew Gelet spent years prepping and preening the business before its launch in earlier this year. As a result, Hurr entered the market with a flurry of press coverage and now has a growing waiting list.
Here, with Hurr’s launch success in mind, Victoria shares the lessons she learnt when she made the leap from person-with-good-idea to entrepreneur.
“For me, an idea is just an idea. It’s important to prove your concept. Don’t jump ship, don’t leave your job, don’t raise money, don’t do anything until you have proof of concept.
I think that’s what most people shy away from. Saying “I’d love to rent on Hurr,” is very different to actually transacting on Hurr, so until you can prove that people are going to use your product, you don’t have a business. For me, and for the companies I mentor, that’s the most important thing.
Before we started building anything, we spent around eight weeks doing research. In that time, we did some serious focus groups and tested the product in a very un-glamorous, un-sexy way. We were really asking “do people want to rent clothes?” and “how are we going to do it?”. Testing your concept in real life is key.
For us, mentorship has been really helpful. Our mentors and advisors are absolutely crucial to where we are today and, hopefully, our future growth. I have mentees too, and I always think: if I can give someone one piece of advice that changes their path into something more successful, I’ve done my job!
Clothes & The Rest 