The team
Fashion and tech veterans, Rachel Sterling and Nancy Rhodes first met in 2021 while completing the Ellen McArthur Foundation From Linear to Circular certificate program. Thanks to a chance trip to Rome for Nancy the same week Rachel moved there, the two connected over spritzes and their shared desire to support the fashion industry’s circular transition, starting with alterations and repairs.
The two founders stayed in touch, developing their own businesses and skills, eventually coming back together to co-found Alternew in 2023.
Today, Alternew supports national fashion brands with all aspects of digitally transforming and launching an alterations and repairs offering. The company’s success in no small part is thanks to a team that reflects their users. With fashion veterans and tailors working directly alongside tech experts to develop the tech platform and business, Alternew is uniquely positioned to build the operating system that accelerates fashion's circular future.
Nancy Rhodes
Nancy Rhodes is a circular economy expert and experienced designer, having worked for everyone from Beyoncé’s Dereon to Kenneth Cole, where her team drove over 40% of the business. She’s built products for Costco, Target, Marshalls, and other large retail chains, quadrupling revenue for one brand to over $40M in 3 years.
Starting from a retail background and building her career in production and design, Nancy has traveled extensively across China, Europe, and beyond, working across the entire value chain.
Her deep industry experience led her to earn her master's in sustainability at GCNYC, writing her thesis on "Democratizing Fashion Customization." She founded a mobile tailoring business, growing it to $50K ARR before partnering with Rachel to build Alternew.
Rachel Sterling
Rachel Sterling is an innovation development expert and trained engineer. Starting as a strategy consultant at Accenture, she designed the innovation roadmaps and set up the first advanced customer data science and AI programs for Fortune 500 companies.
She earned her MBA at SDA Bocconi in luxury business management and joined Valentino to integrate data analytics into their CRM and retail strategy, increasing sales across all 50 European storefronts.
At Bulgari, her team set up the first Innovation Hub, partnering with LVMH's accelerator to launch new consumer services and retail innovations. Most recently, she led the data engineering and analytics team at a Series B startup, pairing mom and pop housekeeping companies to property management companies. She supported its growth to 17 markets and 1 million apartments before partnering with Nancy to build Alternew.