Julie Wainwright is an American e-commerce entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of Ahara, a precision nutrition company. She is best known for founding the luxury resale marketplace The RealReal in 2011, which she led to an initial public offering in 2019.

Details

Nationality: American
Residence: San Francisco, California
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Known For: Founding and leading The RealReal to an IPO; pioneering the luxury resale market; and serving as the CEO of Pets.com.
Accolades: Wainwright has received extensive recognition, including being named to the Los Angeles Business Journal's LA500 list in 2026 and the inaugural Forbes 50 Over 50 list in 2021. She was honored with the Parsons Table Award in 2019 and the Silicon Valley Visionary Award in 2020. Her other distinctions include Entrepreneur's 50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs (2018), Inc. Female Founders 100 (2018), Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business (2018), and the NRF Foundation's People Shaping Retail's Future (2022). She also received the Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurship Award from Purdue University in 2017.
Education: Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Purdue University (1979).
Website: https://www.juliewainwright.com/

Julie Wainwright

Julie Wainwright is a prominent e-commerce entrepreneur and the chief executive officer of Ahara. [6][7][8][22] She co-founded the personalized nutrition company in 2023 to translate clinical science into precise dietary recommendations. Wainwright is widely recognized for founding The RealReal in 2011. [2] She served as its chief executive officer for over a decade and led the company to an initial public offering in 2019. [1][2][3][6] Her leadership transformed the luxury resale market by establishing a digital marketplace for authenticated high-end goods. [3] Beyond her corporate ventures, she serves as the president of the board of trustees for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles for the 2025-2026 term. She is also an investor in the Bay Football Club and a member of The RealReal Foundation board. In 2025, she published her memoir titled Time to Get Real. [7][8][9][10] Her career is frequently cited as a model of professional resilience and innovation in the technology sector.

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