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Julie Wainwright has taken two companies public, a pretty incredible feat by any standard. Yet in her new memoir, Time to Get Real<\/em>, she offers readers something even more valuable: a blunt look at the messy realities of leadership. Wainwright shares the kinds of tough truths that many high-achieving CEOs can relate to but rarely discuss publicly, including the aftermath of what many would consider her first major setback, which was shutting down Pets.com during the 2000 market crash.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re of a certain age, you definitely remember it. The online pet supplies startup had become instantly recognizable thanks to its memorable sock puppet mascot<\/a> and catchy slogan, \u201cBecause pets can\u2019t drive.\u201d But what seemed like just a fleeting moment in the dot-com bubble\u2019s burst would cast a shadow over Wainwright\u2019s career for nearly a decade. \u201cWhen I would talk to recruiters, it was like, \u2018No one\u2019s going to hire you anymore,\u2019\u201d Wainwright said in an interview with this editor earlier this week.<\/p>\n It came as a shock, given that Wainwright\u2019s career trajectory initially seemed unstoppable. After cutting her teeth at Clorox, she rose through tech companies in the \u201890s when female leadership in the sector was exceedingly rare. As CEO of Berkeley Systems and later the online video store Reel.com, she worked \u201ctons of hours\u201d but was happy and, by her telling, succeeding, including growing Reel.com\u2019s revenue from $3 million to $25 million \u2014 a time during which the company was sold<\/a> to Hollywood Video. \u201cI just operated better without a boss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Then came the collapse that would have permanently derailed many careers. In 2000, Wainwright took Pets.com public, only to shut it down later that same year during the dot-com bubble burst. The professional blow was exacerbated by a personal one: she says that on the very same day she informed employees of the company\u2019s closure, her husband asked for a divorce.<\/p>\n \u201cMy work is gone, I\u2019m getting a divorce, and I don\u2019t have children,\u201d Wainwright, then 42, recalls thinking as she faced what felt like total life collapse. Making matters worse, the media coverage was \u201cincredibly negative and intrusive,\u201d to the point that she says days after the company\u2019s closure, reporters showed up at her doorstep. <\/p>\n Wainwright describes what followed as a kind of long winter, where she was only offered roles leading turnaround efforts at failing companies. But that crossroads led to a remarkable second act. In 2010, she founded The RealReal<\/a>, helping in the process to pioneer the luxury consignment market online. Like a lot of founders, Wainwright first set up the company out of her own home, but it soon outgrew her living room, and today, it processes many hundreds of thousands of different luxury items each month that it aims to sell within 90 days out of its more than 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space. It\u2019s also publicly traded; in her second trip to Wall Street, in 2019, Wainwright took the outfit through the traditional IPO process.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this comeback has its own harsh chapter. In 2022, Wainwright was abruptly pushed out of The RealReal by board members she had recommended \u2013 another twist she doesn\u2019t shy away from sharing. Instead, she names names in the book, and earlier this week, she described the move as a \u201cpower play\u201d by an investor who \u201cdidn\u2019t get his money out of the company and thought he could run the company better.\u201d<\/p>\n Wainwright \u2014 who fully supports the company\u2019s current CEO<\/a> (she was the company\u2019s first hire) \u2014 is still miffed. She noted in conversation that \u201cno founder is ever going to say they need to be shot and removed,\u201d and it\u2019s that honestly that makes the book \u2013 and Wainwright herself \u2014 so refreshing. In the corporate world, where people often spin narratives to make themselves look bulletproof, Wainwright is a straight shooter. If she doesn\u2019t like something, she isn\u2019t going to hold her punches. If someone spins the story differently than she sees it, she\u2019ll call it out. Where she messes up, she says so.<\/p>\n Even better about this memoir \u2014 in this reader\u2019s opinion \u2014 is Wainwright\u2019s ability to offer not just personal revelations but practical wisdom. She walks readers through her decision to bonus her sales staff a certain way, and shares her learnings about a leadership-evaluation quadrant she gleaned from McKinsey executives, including the realization she had hired one of the worst types: a \u201cdumb aggressive,\u201d meaning, in her words, someone whose \u201cneed to bully and coerce and to be on top supersede their abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s also an interesting new chapter unfolding. Wainwright is continuing her entrepreneurial journey with Ahara<\/a>, a nutrition company that\u2019s developing personalized dietary recommendations based on genetics and individual needs.<\/p>\n You can find our full conversation here<\/a>, via TechCrunch\u2019s StrictlyVC Download podcast. In the meantime, if you\u2019re interested in a read that\u2019s almost equal parts memoir and manual, offering founders something much more worthwhile than idealized success stories, you can pick up the book here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Said Wainwright when we spoke, \u201cI personally wrote it for entrepreneurs to give them a realistic view and hopefully inspire them and, you know, maybe they\u2019ll think twice and not make the mistakes I made.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n