After spending the early 2000s consulting Fortune 500 companies on building high-performance workplace cultures, Cynthia Morrow decided it was time for a second act: creating an innovative business.
She first caught the entrepreneurial bug shortly after college when she worked for the now-defunct People Express, a low-cost airline. Morrow felt it again while taking an entrepreneurship class with former Haas lecturer Steve Blank. She was tasked with writing a business plan for a clothing brand.
“You just get bitten by that bug, having an idea and wanting to see it to fruition,” Morrow says.
Never losing sight of her aspiration, Morrow is now getting into the fractional ownership space with More Luxury Club, a circular fashion marketplace.
Unlike the rental market, where consumers often lease items once and never convert to repeat customers, fractional ownership allows people to buy shares in luxury goods. Clients who join More Luxury become co-owners of a designer handbag for 20% of the retail price. They can then reserve and use their handbag for up to 10 weeks a year, one to four weeks at a time.
“Our circular business model is environmentally sustainable and constantly gives shoppers that hit of newness, that dopamine rush that they love,” she says.
As the global secondhand market grows and is expected to reach $350 billion by 2028, according to ThredUp’s 2024 Resale Report, More offers a solution for those looking for a savvy way to own luxury.
“I want to make this experience joyful for people and save them 80% of what they’re spending on high-end goods,” Morrow says.