Formal dresses can be expensive and often don’t get used again. To help people save money, Briella Brown created Your Closet so you can rent designer clothes for a fraction of the retail price. Briella scored a deal with Naomi Simson and Janine Allis on Shark Tank Australia. As of 2023, Your Closet is worth an estimated $2 million.
About the Founder
Briella Brown is a young entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia and has a bachelor’s degree in Media from the University of New South Wales. While she was still a college student, Briella was a fashion contributor at Dalliance Magazine and UNSW Blitz Magazine. The Sydney student gained experience in fashion and marketing early in her career which paid dividends later.
Founding the Company
In 2012, Brown was invited to three formals in a year. It stressed her out, knowing that she would need to buy four dresses as using one for all occasions is not ideal.
She concluded it was a waste of money to buy a dress and only wear it once. This dilemma gave her the idea to start a rental service for luxury clothes. Brienna discovered these kinds of businesses were thriving in the US & UK but none existed in the Australian market.
To fund the business she took out an $82,000 personal loan and launched Your Closet in 2014. Even though she was operating the business from home, she reached $35,000 in monthly revenue when she appeared on Shark Tank. More than likely, she received a lot of financial support from parents to buy $200,000 worth of dresses.
Shark Tank Appearance
Your Closet was growing at a steady pace and Briella was re-investing all the profits back into the business. She was already doing an amazing job but needed help with scaling. In 2016, she appeared on season two of Shark Tank Australia, seeking $80,000 for a 20% equity stake.
Briella was 20 years old at the time and made the mistake of undervaluing the company, she could have asked for $150,000 for the same equity. Despite this, the savvy entrepreneur impressed the Sharks and handled the pitch very well.
Janine Allis first offered to team up with Steve Baxter to propose $80,000 for 30% but Steve didn’t want it. Naomi Simson then took his place and split $80,000 for 40% with Janine. After calling her dad for a second opinion, Briella took the deal. At least she also got the option to earn back equity in the future.
After Shark Tank
Your Closet’s website traffic hit 80,000 visitors on the night the show aired and crashed the website! The company was growing at 100% year-on-year for the first three years. As of June 2017 they had rented out $8 million worth of dresses and made around $1.6 million in revenue.
The publicity served them well as it helped the founder scale more quickly. YourCloset.com.au gets thousands of visitors every month and they now have numerous offices and a Sydney Showroom.
The service has a 3.9-star rating from 187 reviews on Trustpilot. No recent sales figures have been released but the business is still doing well. Your Closet was heavily impacted by the pandemic and went from shipping hundreds of dresses every week to zero. Thankfully, things are returning to normal.
Due to her success, more competitors have popped up which has impacted revenue. Currently, Your Closet is worth an estimated $2 million. In 2020, Briella co-founded Avant Studio, an ecommerce website that sells customized jewellery. She started the firm with a close friend and is now the Marketing Director.
