Hey! It’s Doone, your hype girl in business. I’m fresh off the plane from Vancouver after a great week with the Thinkific team, wrapping up an incredible partnership building this beauty of a course (now LIVE!): E-comm Fundamentals. I’m still pinching myself & I just know you’ll love it! To see more about the trip, come say hey on IG.

Today we’re covering 👇

• My two cents on the 5 guys building a club for women here

• The new year challenge you weren't expecting

• All the latest (inc. a BIG female-founded exit!)

• This startup competition is looking to invest up to $160K

• Dream-board worthy job ops in NYC & LA

New year, new ✨pre-mortem✨

This week, our first co-hosted episode back after the holidays! We talk through a tried and proven playbook for goal-setting and what we will be carrying with us into the new year (with a few handy tips to unplug & prevent burnout).

With this episode in mind, I came across a framework this week I thought absolutely ✨ideal✨ for getting back in the swing of things this January. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows but it’s the idea of doing a business ""pre-mortem”: looking at something you really want to see succeed, but imagining a world in which it failed 🥲

By doing this you come up with all the ways you could have prevented that failure from happening in the first place. I know it doesn’t sound all that positive, but this process could be just the thing to help provide clarity on exactly what you need to do next right now. So, how do we begin?

#1 Define Your Own Failure ✍️ take a minute and visualise your startup hitting rock bottom, not in the eyes of others, but in yours. The "pre-mortem" is your uncensored heart-to-heart with your ambitions. What could cause it to fail? And what can you do to prevent that? Write all the possibilities down.

#2 Get Comfy Being Uncomfy ☁️ here's a secret: you're not the reigning champ at everything. Embrace it. Get comfy with the squirm, and you'll be gearing up for risks. No Shying away from challenges here.

#3 Let it Go 🚮 at this point you very well might realise you’ve been focusing your energy in the wrong areas. If that’s a case it’s right time to make some changes and let some things go. Focus on those things moving the needle.

Something I’d love to leave you with: if you’re afraid to fail you just might miss out on the biggest opportunity of your life - let’s face it head on instead ✨

Listen to more tea on the podcast →

Fresh drama out the Group Chat 👀

• Early-stage investment 💸💸💸 is under serious threat in Aus as the government plans to raise the bar on exactly who can invest. This looks like still being able to put up to $10K in a crowdfunding campaign but want to put $1000 into an early-stage startup via an angel investment syndicate? No way. Three’s already a barrier for women when we look at the criteria for who can be considered a ‘sophisticated’ investor - and that barrier is about to get a whole lot higher. This change will have a bad effect on the angel investment landscape and hurt - you guessed it - female founders. Read more about the change.

• & 5 men are starting a ‘girls club’ in New York. With $6M USD in the bank to make it happen (remember that stat about 2% of funding going to women-led start-ups?). Read more as this story unfolds. And my two cents here.

• On a more positive note: Majic member brand Funky Chef has been busy getting more product on the road, while Sontse is gearing up to announce a new partnership over the next week ✊

Join the Majic WhatsApp group chat by signing up here →

• Guess which shark is angling for a piece of Fishwife?

• The Honeypot Co. gets acquired in a 9-figure deal

• Sustainable lifestyle brand Nuddy is for sale

• Is Kimmy K teasing a return to make-up and fragrance?

• Omena closes a €600K seed to battle menopause 

• Funding to Black founders is down for the third year in a row

• Hailey Bieber launches Rhode’s latest dreamy product

• If your shipping rates are on the rise here’s why

• Forbes’ annual 50 over 50 is back

• Your fast-track to sales is officially in action

This week's grant...

The T-Mobile T Challenge is here to make sure great ideas are seen and heard 👉 with between $25K - $160K in funding for a startup anywhere in the world showing us revolutionary ways to leverage AI for telecommunications.

This week's lineup...

This week's recommendations...

Ways I can help you this week…

NYC 🗽

• CURE, VC-backed premium hydration brand, is hiring a Director of Sales for their grocery strategy - you can apply directly here.

• People-first beauty company Glossier is looking for an inherently curious Content Strategist to own & elevate their socials. Apply here.

• Sexual wellness startup maude is on the hunt for an enthusiastic Brand Marketing Manager to join the team. Read more here.

LA ☀️

• High performance beauty brand Tower 28 Beauty has a couple of open positions such as Product Development Coordinator, Social Media Manager & E-comm Site Coordinator. Know someone?

That’s a wrap! If you’ve got an experience you want to share drop it on this post or inside our founders’ club ✨