Away’s Prudent Rise to Become the World’s Hippest Luggage Brand
Photo Credit: Jen Rubio (left), co-founder and chief creative officer of Away, speaking at Skift Global Forum on September 18, 2019, in New York. Skift / Matt Mateiescu
Skift Take
Away may have created a suitcase that quickly attained cult status — but the customer insights and sensibility that drive the company are refreshingly cautious.
A few years ago, right around the time she co-founded cult luggage company Away, Jen Rubio mused to a friend about what her end-game might be: Sell a million suitcases, she predicted, and then sell the company for somewhere in the range of $100 million.
Just six months later, her company was valued at that sum, and found herself in need of a new goal. "I'm very bad at predicting the future," she said at Skift Global Forum 2019 in New York on Wednesday to laughs from the audience.
In May, Rubio and her co-founder Steph Korey raised $100 million for the direct to consumer company, bringing its valuation to $1.4 billion. After finding undeniable success in the "very crowded,
