Having a good idea wasn't enough to win those colleagues over, she said — she needed to be likable. The lesson proved valuable when Hyman came up with the idea for Rent the Runway six years later in 2008, she said. The pair cold-emailed Diane von Furstenberg, and by luck, landed a meeting. As Hyman recounted, von Furstenberg worried that allowing her clothes to be rented for cheap would "cannibalize" her consumer base. In other words, they could help von Furstenberg grow her consumer base.

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Persons: Jennifer Hyman, —, Hyman, wasn't, didn't, Jennifer Fleiss, Diane von Furstenberg, Von Furstenberg, Hyman wasn't fazed, von Furstenberg, Warren Buffett Organizations: Stanford Graduate School of, Starwood Hotels, Resorts, Harvard University, Social Psychology