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Welcome back to The Startup Leap Newsletter #19 - #RealTalk #RealLessons From Founders Who Took The Startup Leap 🚀

💡 Meet Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder of By Rotation, the world’s first social fashion rental app that's turning wardrobes into sustainable businesses.

Growing up between India and Singapore, Eshita developed a love for creativity, community, and resourcefulness from a young age.

After a career in finance and an eye-opening honeymoon to Rajasthan (where she witnessed the harsh realities of textile waste) she took the leap to build By Rotation, starting with a scrappy beta, a spreadsheet, and her personal network.

Today, after expanding globally, raising just $3M, and keeping 70% ownership, Eshita is leading a quiet revolution in how we consume fashion - rooted in purpose, community, and smart profitability.

In this episode, we break down:

• Why Eshita decided to stay solo as a founder (and how she built a powerhouse team without co-founders) (00:08:00),
  

• The hidden impact of fast fashion and how renting your wardrobe can fund life goals (00:29:00),
  

• How By Rotation expanded to the US while staying lean and profitable with just $3M in funding (00:36:00),
  

• Why protecting your equity early on matters and how Eshita kept 70% ownership (00:17:00),

….and so much more!

Key takeaways:

TL;DR:

• Start Before You’re Ready: You don’t need a perfect product to launch - solve a real problem and let users help shape it.
  

• Protect Your Cap Table: Raising less and picking the right investors early means more control and ownership later.
  

• Community is the Ultimate Moat: When revenue stalls, doubling down on community builds brand loyalty that money can’t buy.
  

• Grow Globally, Scrappily: You don’t need a huge marketing budget to expand -prove early traction through grassroots efforts and let word-of-mouth drive momentum.

• 💡 From Honeymoon Idea to Global Business: Building By Rotation (00:00:06)

  
  Eshita’s spark for By Rotation came during her honeymoon in Rajasthan, where she saw the devastating impact of textile waste firsthand.
  
  She realised fashion’s environmental cost went far beyond what most consumers recognised - 90% of clothing donations in the UK end up in landfills across Africa and Asia.
  
  Determined to build a scalable solution, she mapped out a fashion rental marketplace (starting with a spreadsheet comparing global competitors) and launched By Rotation just five and a half months later.
  
  Key takeaway? Your business idea doesn’t need to be fully polished to start - focus on solving a real, urgent problem and let the iteration happen alongside your early users.
  
  

• 🚀 Protecting Ownership and Raising Smart Capital (00:17:00)

  
  Despite pressure to follow the typical consumer startup route (giving up 20–25% equity early on) Eshita was disciplined.
  
  She raised less than £3M total, retained over 70% ownership, and carefully handpicked investors across family offices, fashion insiders, and VCs to maximise value, not just capital.
  
  Her finance background helped her set valuations on her terms, even turning down Y Combinator because it didn’t align with By Rotation’s vision.
  
  Choose investors who truly believe in you and your mission, and don't sell cheap equity just to look credible early.
  
  

• 🎯 Building a Community Moat During COVID (00:13:00)
  
  When COVID hit, rentals plummeted - Eshita focused on strengthening By Rotation’s community.
  
  She doubled down on education, encouraging people stuck at home to list items they no longer wore, laying the groundwork for a supply surge once lockdowns lifted.
  
  By Rotation evolved into more than a marketplace - it became a social network for fashion sharing, embedding community engagement directly into the product.
  
  In hard times, strengthen your foundations.
  
  Focus on community and brand affinity when transactional metrics dip.
  
  

• 🌎 Scaling Internationally - Without Burning Capital (00:36:00)
  
  By Rotation’s US expansion was scrappy but strategic.
  
  Instead of huge marketing spend, Eshita built organic momentum by collecting email signups, hosting small grassroots events, and leveraging the brand’s strong SEO footprint.
  
  In just 18 months, the US became a profitable market, with an Average Order Value (AOV) 1.5x higher than the UK - without altering the core community-first DNA.
  
  Key takeaway? Global expansion doesn’t have to be VC-burn fuelled.
  
  If your model is community-driven and your early adopters love you, word-of-mouth can power international growth.

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Let’s keep the conversation going!

Resources to help you take the Leap📚

🎯Techstars Accelerator Programme: Applications Opened

🚀Breaking Down the Top Traits of Successful Founders

📚Women In Tech Global Conference (May 20th-22nd)

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