💃 Rent the Runway’s market debut

Badgley Mischka dress for the rehearsal dinner... Minus the $700 price tag. Designer clothing rental pioneer Rent the Runway made its Wall Street runway debut yesterday. Shares opened for trading 9% above their $21 IPO price, but closed the day down 8%. The 13-year-old company lets you rent chic clothes, bags, and accessories for a fraction of the sticker price. RTR handles the dry cleaning, so you don't quick-wash a $400 blouse.

• Subscription-first: Subs account for more than 80% of RTR's revenue. The "most loved" subscription plan lets you rent up to eight items a month for $135.
• "Closet in the cloud": RTR carries 700+ designers, and the average member rents $37K worth of clothes yearly. Members get special prices if they choose to buy.

"Need a gown for the gala"... But not mid-pandemic. Last year, RTR lost more than half its subscribers, and its loss widened to $171M (it's still not profitable). Even though 90% of its customers still WFH, proms and posh parties are coming back: In September, RTR subscribers rebounded to 112K — down from 134K pre-pandemic, but up 2X from September last year.

• Premium on experiences: RTR CEO Jennifer Hyman says the pandemic pushed consumers into “valuing experiences over ownership.”
• Sharing is trendy: The secondhand market is the fastest-growing portion of apparel, and RTR isn't the only one feeling the love.
• Publicly traded rivals like Poshmark, The RealReal, and ThredUp are riding the wave of sustainability trends with already-worn fashion.

Alert Elon… Elon Musk’s personal wealth rocketed past $250B this week, cementing his position as Earth’s richest person (insert Bezos side-eye). But this week a Democratic senator drew up the deets for a first-of-its-kind “billionaires tax,” proposed as part of Biden’s $2T spending package. This would be a tax on unrealized gains — aka investments that have risen in price but haven’t been sold. Quick refresher:

• People are taxed on income (think: wages, salary) — not on total net worth (think: cash + all unsold investments). Many stock holdings aren’t taxed unless they’re sold for profit, when they can become realized gains.
• That’s why many billionaires pay shockingly low taxes: Mark Zuckerberg’s base pay as Facebook CEO is $1 — his net worth is $120B+, thanks to all his FB shares.
• The proposed 24% tax rate on unrealized gains would apply to anyone with $1B+ in assets, or $100M in income for three straight years. The tax reportedly wouldn’t apply to real estate, but would apply to crypto.

Billionaires weren’t happy… Cue Elon’s disappointed tweet. Elon’s wealth surged $36B on Monday alone after Tesla’s stock spiked. Under the tax, he’d owe $7.8B if he ended the year with just those gains, even if he never sold his Tesla shares. America’s 732 billionaires — a quarter of the world’s total — would be the only people affected by the tax. It would reportedly generate $250B to fund the Democrats’ $2T agenda. But because of political opposition and a lack of legal precedent, the proposal has already been shot down.

• Pointed: Activist hedge fund Third Point, which owns a $500M stake in Shell, is urging the oil giant to break up as investors ditch fossil-fuel stocks.
• Sharing: Pharma giant Merck will license its Covid pill to a UN-backed nonprofit to help with outbreaks in low-income countries.
• Carpool: Hertz is partnering with Uber to make 50K Teslas available in the ride-hailing app, days after announcing a $4B order of 100K Model 3s.
• Cloudy: Shares of Twilio, which helps companies like Uber and DoorDash text customers, sank 13% after a weak earnings forecast.
• Chip: Ford’s and GM’s quarterly profits fell as the global chip shortage dented production and raised costs.
• IRL: eBay shares fell 5% after the OG ecomm platform lowered expectations for online holiday shopping as buyers head back to brick-and-mortar stores.

• Jobless claims
• Earnings expected from: Apple, Amazon, Sony, Mastercard, Shell, Shopify, Starbucks, Caterpillar, and Hershey

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Uber, Amazon, Apple, Ford, Twitter, Tesla, and GM

ID: 1896651