Rent the Runway used a series of MVPs to improve their product and validate key business model assumptions.
For their first MVP tests, RTR’s founders borrowed dresses and invited female undergraduates to two events—“trunk shows”—where they could rent the dresses. At the first trunk show, about one-third of attendees rented dresses. From this test, the founders learned that women would rent previously worn dresses and would return them on time and undamaged. They also collected information about which brands, sizes, styles, colors and price points were popular with early adopters.
However, the first test had not addressed a key uncertainty: would women rent dresses without being able to try them on, a requirement with online rental? At their second campus trunk show, women could view but not try on the dresses. About three-quarters rented in this trial, which offered more of the styles that had been popular in the first test.
While their first two MVP tests had validated several important hypotheses, they had done so by putting women in a social setting. They hadn’t tested a home setting which is what their users would be in when renting online. To address this concern, they devised a third MVP test to validate demand under more realistic conditions. They emailed PDFs of dresses to a sample of women who had asked to be notified of their launch by registering on the site’s landing page. This PDF trial garnered a 5% rental rate (of 1,000 women) —far lower than earlier tests, but above the threshold for a viable business model.
Read More: http://www.thegaragegroup.com/iteration-inspiration-from-startup-rent-the-runway/
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