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S9 Ep22: PICKLE: Julia O’Mara, co-founder of Pickle, a peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace - on building the sharing economy for fashion, working with influencers, and raising $12M.

Pre-Loved Podcast with Emily Stochl

Release Date: 06/23/2025

S9 Ep23 ESTATE SALES.NET: General Manager, Marika Clemow - on the technology innovating estate sales for the modern day secondhand buyers and shoppers. show art S9 Ep23 ESTATE SALES.NET: General Manager, Marika Clemow - on the technology innovating estate sales for the modern day secondhand buyers and shoppers.

Pre-Loved Podcast with Emily Stochl

On today’s show, we’re chatting with Marika, the general manager of – she’s a global expert in the secondhand market, her career spanning career spanning from auction houses in Sydney and London to making the estate sale space more technologically-innovative for the modern day secondhand buyers and shoppers.  Now, listeners of this show will probably be familiar with – the place to find estate sales online. On today’s episode you’re going to hear about some of the new ideas – like virtual line management and hybrid auction sales – that are making estate sales more...

info_outline S9 Ep22: PICKLE: Julia O’Mara, co-founder of Pickle, a peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace - on building the sharing economy for fashion, working with influencers, and raising $12M. show art S9 Ep22: PICKLE: Julia O’Mara, co-founder of Pickle, a peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace - on building the sharing economy for fashion, working with influencers, and raising $12M.

Pre-Loved Podcast with Emily Stochl

On today's show, we're chatting with Julia O'Mara, the co-founder of Pickle, the peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace. Pickle's goal is making it easier and more affordable to rent high-quality clothing within communities – on today's episode, Julia will tell you about how she was working in business and product engineering when she had this idea: a gap in the fashion market. And it led her to build Pickle, a first-of-its kind platform, which – in less than a year – has boomed onto the scene, recirculating 100,000 items, top lenders paying their NYC rent with their Pickle earnings!...

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Pre-Loved Podcast with Emily Stochl

This episode is brought to you by Classic Coco, thank you for making Pre-Loved Podcast possible!   This is the space where we  talk about all things vintage, secondhand and pre-loved across the fashion space! And for new listeners, or longtime pals, to follow along with all things thrift, vintage, rad, retro, and sustainable, you can find me Emily Stochl, across the internet as @emilymstochl. Come hang out I’d love to chat with you!  On today’s show, we’re chatting with Brie, the founder of Very Breezy, a luxury vintage fashion studio in New York. Brie is a lifelong...

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This episode is brought to you by Classic Coco, thank you for making Pre-Loved Podcast possible!     This is the space where we  talk about all things vintage, secondhand and pre-loved across the fashion space! And for new listeners, or longtime pals, to follow along with all things thrift, vintage, rad, retro, and sustainable, you can find me Emily Stochl, across the internet as @emilymstochl. Come hang out I’d love to chat with you!  On today’s show, we’re chatting with Monique of LA Retro Girl! You might know her from being a regular vintage dealer at Pickwick...

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This episode is brought to you by Classic Coco, thank you for making Pre-Loved Podcast possible!   This is the space where we  talk about all things vintage, secondhand and pre-loved across the fashion space! And for new listeners, or longtime pals, to follow along with all things thrift, vintage, rad, retro, and sustainable, you can find me Emily Stochl, across the internet as @emilymstochl. Come hang out I’d love to chat with you!  On today’s show, we’re chatting with Lale Boz, the founder of Normal NYC and the Not-A-Normal Show – which, if you’re listening to this...

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On today's show, we're chatting with Julia O'Mara, the co-founder of Pickle, the peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace. Pickle's goal is making it easier and more affordable to rent high-quality clothing within communities – on today's episode, Julia will tell you about how she was working in business and product engineering when she had this idea: a gap in the fashion market.

And it led her to build Pickle, a first-of-its kind platform, which – in less than a year – has boomed onto the scene, recirculating 100,000 items, top lenders paying their NYC rent with their Pickle earnings! – and the company raising over 12 million in Series A funding. In Manhattan alone, 1 in 4 females aged 18-35 have used Pickle.

But Pickle had scrappy beginnings, Julia literally ran around NYC doing photoshoots with micro-influencers to get the first closets uploaded.

And, in this episode, you'll hear about the entrepreneurial hustle of this fashion tech founder to watch, and the cultural impact Pickle is having on how young women think about clothing consumption. I think you're gonna love it, so – let's dive right in!

DISCUSSED IN THE EPISODE:

  • [3:24] The idea for Pickle started out as a completely different app – a social polling app.
  • [10:39] When Julia knew it was the right time for her career to go the entrepreneurial route.
  • [12:47] The insight that led to Pickle’s biggest pivot, in spring 2022.
  • [14:42] Pickle’s big differentiator is that it’s a peer-to-peer rental marketplace, similar to Uber and AirBnb within the sharing economy.
  • [17:44] When you’re building this kind of marketplace, you have to figure out how to attract both lenders and renters. 
  • [25:24] How Pickle works as a side hustle for your closet.
  • [35:11] Insights from Pickle’s Series A fundraising round, where they raised $12 million and were called the AirBnb of fashion.
  • [41:11] Opening a brick-and-mortar store for closet rental in NYC.
  • [47:33] Future innovations in the circular fashion space, and what’s next for Pickle.

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