Hi! I’m Doone, your hype girl in business. This is your weekly source of inspiration & information on all things in the e-commerce and CPG space, read by like-minded Entrepreneurs - that happen to be women - like you. If you find value in this content please like & share above, or forward it to someone in your network. I love it when you do that!

If someone forwarded you this email you can subscribe here:

Bulletin 📌

The hottest collab of the year 🌶️

Fishwife (co-founded by Becca Millstein) and Fly by Jing (founded by Jing Gao) team up for a new spicy snack we all need: Smoked Salmon with Sichuan Chilli Crisp. Yum.

Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞

Chief surges to unicorn status, at $1.1B valuation. Female founders need money, not more mentoring. On that note, meet to top-funded female entrepreneurs in 2022. Clearco providing €100m to Irish ecommerce firms. Wells Fargo’s grant to How Women Lead will seed a $1 billion fund.

🔑 Insights From This Week’s Episodes on the Female Startup Club Podcast

Directly from the women building the world’s most exciting businesses in the e-commerce and CPG space. This week, a deep dive into the beauty space.

1. Avoid this mistake 😬

EP309: Learning from Aisha Fatima Dozie, she’s the Founder of Bossy Cosmetics, and boy oh boy has she been on the journey! She shares all in this tell-all episode.

Imagine having a certain Mr BOSS knock on your door with a cease and desist, and it not being the first time a company is going after you…

Aisha fell in love with the name of her future company whilst on an afternoon stroll, and just couldn’t get it out of her head. Bossy. She’d always been called Bossy as a child, and was confused why it then held such a negative connotation. Emma Watson’s UN speech on gender equality come to mind, anyone? 💪

Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one with that idea. When embarking on her trademarking journey, she found Bossy to be SUCH a common word in beauty. But hundreds of thousands had been spent on products at this point. So what do you do when the cease & desists land on your doormat? You fight your battle.

Though Bossy Cosmetics is killing it now, the multi-year process remains the most expensive heart-wrenching anxiety-riddled journey of Aisha’s life. The learning? Do your research before setting your heart on your brand name. Avoidance is the cure!

2. Entrepreneurship is leadership 👑

EP311: Dorian Morris is building her beauty empire, Undefined, through social impact; working with female & minority-owned factories & thoughtful partners.

Dorian Morris is a bootstrapped team of one, and her brand is stocked in 1235 stores across the US. Yep 1235 - that’s not a typo. Here’s the three intentions she lives by:

1. Slow and steady wins the race 🐢I wanted to build a slow and steady foundation, to then have a foundation to build upon. I chose the path to grow slower. It’s a very different approach, but slow and steady wins the race. I think that means I’ll have more of a case when I do go out and raise money.

2. Entrepreneurship = leadership 👑To run a company, take the toolkit you’ve learned across each different role you’ve had in your lifetime. Ultimately, entrepreneurship is about leadership. And leadership transcends different roles within companies.

3. Don’t follow a playbook 📖Umbrella idea, multiple collections within this broader vision; all about not following a playbook. Doing things unconventionally.

Get the right tools to be empowered to live every day life. There’s power in small decisions that can really change the beauty landscape. I am a bootstrapped team of one.

Biz Wins & Failz 🎢

Straight from Hype Club.

We’ve got an ongoing Biz Wins & Fails chat going in HC. This is where we can learn what we can hopefully avoid in our own journeys, and what keeps us feeling like we are not in this alone celebrating those highs.

Megan (from a|dash) shared Hot Take’s Gabrielle Brullote win with us this week:

Nothing like a friend to put your in the spotlight 😉 Congrats to our newest member 🙌

*The doors to Hype Club are open again, so if you’ve been looking forward to joining us - now’s the time!

What’s on this week? 👀

Let’s see what we have in store for you this week…

MON: Rowena Bird from Lush - fresh handmade cosmetics 🖤

WEDS: Maggie Winter from AYR - ️the antidote to fast fashion ✨

FRI: Doone's back - with a solo episode ❤️‍🔥

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔

📚 It Didn’t Start With You by Mark Wolynn: offers a compelling understanding of inherited trauma and fresh, powerful tools for relieving its suffering.

🎧 Business Wars, hosted by David Brown: sometimes the prize is your wallet or your attention - sometimes, it’s just the fun of beating the other guy… Business is war. 

Job Alert Time! 💼

Check out these cool women-owned job listings on our radar:

NYC 🗽

• Kin Euphorics, the no booze brand transforming drinking into an act of conscious connection, is looking for a Social Media Manager. Apply here.

REMOTE 🌎

• Dame Products, the sexual wellness company on an inspiring mission, is on the hunt for a Director of Performance Marketing. Read all the info here.

• Lil Bucks, the Aussie-inspired buckwheat granola alternative, is hiring for a part-time Graphic Designer to join their team. Learn more and apply here.

• Nickis, the luxury children’s eCommerce fashion brand, has a number of job openings in Business Intelligence and Marketing. Find out more here.

Can we feature you on TikTok? 📢

You might’ve picked up on the fact I am loving TikTok RN. Do you have a money mistake to share that might help other founders to avoid/learn from? Check out our series here and hit reply if a story springs to mind.

Keep shining ✨