Canadian peer-to-Peer clothing rental company Rax is expanding to the U.S. | TechCrunch

Marley Allesstartedout inaccounting.

She thought that her dream was to work at a big company. “And then once Igotthere, I was like ‘oh, that’s it,” she told TechCrunch.

Alles began fostering other passions and found herself curious about the world of startups. She would listen to every podcast and read each book, taking notes on topics that interested her.

Shedidn’tthink much of it until one summer when so many of her friends got married,thatshe found herself spending thousands of dollars on bridesmaid dressesandbachelorette looks.One day, someoneapproachedher andaskedto borrow one of her dresses. “I was like ‘yeah, for sure, take it,’” she recalled. “And then I thought, ‘how can this be done on a larger scale?’”

Alles had all these expensive dresses just sitting in her closet. Shedidn’twant to sellit,but she knew sheprobably wouldnever wear those gowns again. “That’s what led me,longstory short, to create Rax,” she said.

Alles launchedRax earlier this year as a peer-to-peer clothing rental company. It functions right now as a marketplace (it does not own any clothing inventory), where usersscrollthrough listings and connect with people who have clothing items they want to rent.

She’sbootstrappedthe companyso far, enough to fully code the app and officially launch it.The first few customers were her friends and family, and the rest came by word of mouth. Alles said she leaned into the idea of “building in public,” where she posted online about her adventures creating this product in hopes of amassing an engaged audience of potential customers.She has about 5,000 users on the app right now.

Rex is one of the first of itskindto be launched in Toronto.It’slikeRent-the-Runway, orNew York’s Pickle, or Europe’s ByRotation.The idea of renting clothes —similar tobuying secondhand —has been picking up steam as it is seen as a more environmentally sustainable way to consume fashion rather than buyingnew itemsfor each new season.

“It’s driving the circularity of fashion,” Alles said.

But what makes Rexdifferent from many others is that she offerslong-termrentals. “On our platform, you can rent up to six months,” she said. “On competitor platforms,it’sdaily rentals.Soit gets really expensive if you want to rent for a couple week vacation. Ormaybe youwant a winter jacket for the season.”

At TechCrunch Disrupt in October, Rex announced its first foray into the U.S. market. Alles said she had been a huge fan of TechCrunch and applied for the Battlefield competition, where she later won the top consumerpitchin thecompetition.

Alles said she was surprised to win. “There were so many companies that had like thousands or hundreds of thousands of users; raised[like]$20million in my category, and one [had] the lead actors from [the show] Silicon Valley,” she said.

Still, she found the experience “awesome.” Alles went up to every startup booth to introduce herself to otherfounders, andalso attended some sessions as well aspartook innetworking.Actually, thatwas one of the biggest lessonsshe’ssaid she’s learned as a founder — the importance of in-person interaction because it helps her connect with the community better.

Now that Disrupt has passed, Alles said the company hopes to continue its expansion across New York and startbuilding outa rental service platform to offer fashion designers and retailers looking to offer rental clothing to consumers.

“We have thetechnology,we have the audience,” she said, adding that brands are also looking at ways to become moresustainable, and companies like Rex let them do it.“I think things are getting better and people are becoming more aware of their impact.”