We're back! Did you hear about this marketing CAI? Going mainstream; & pouring fuel on the fire 🔥

Where women in ecommerce come to get their key insights, tips and tactics.

January 05, 2022

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!

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HAPPY 2022 🥂

Welcome back to your weekly dose of female-focused ecomm & CPG content. We hope you’re as excited as us to get to biz on making ‘22 an absolute hit.

It was this time last year that I was working through my goals for 2021. I’m big on goal-setting, and this is the time of the year to set one big goal that’s the North Star ⭐ for the upcoming year. I like tactical goals that have a clear pathway to achieving them. In 2020 my main goal was to publish 100 episodes of the show, and I ticked that off the list on December 29th, 2020. For 2021, my big goal was to publish Female Startup Club’s very. first. book.

YOUR HYPE GIRL (the book!!!!!?)

And I am so happy to share that I have received our final test version and she’s looking un-bloody-believable. A solid 10 out of 10. What do you think?

Your Hype Girl is a compilation of 51 epic episodes from the show so far, distilled into quick chapters about the founder, her story, and the key lessons and learnings from the journey so far. It’s not your typical cover-to-cover book, but rather something you can open to any page to get your dose of inspiration.

We’re launching around the end of Feb (still TBC) and I’m going to need all the support I can get from you in the launch week! I’m building out an army of ambassadors - if you think you can help, hit reply and let’s chat.

Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞 

Cristina Junqueira leading banker in LATAM as Nubank goes public at $41.5B valuation. The future of black business is female. Women-focused PE fund Alitheia IDF raises $100M to invest in gender-diverse businesses across Africa. Five pressing issues businesses will face in 2022 - and how to tackle them. Outsized Ventures deep tech fund hits first €60M close of inaugural fund. eVisit names chief strategy officer after $45M Series-B raise.

🔑 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.

1. The CAI to marketing 🗝️

EP252: Learning from Michelle Ranavat from RANAVAT, a skincare line inspired by a love and appreciation for artisanal Indian tradition.

Michelle shared her approach to marketing throughout the past years, easily remembered through this handy little key:

1. C(onsistency) ☑️

“Stay consistent in how your brand positioning matches the brand voice.”

Whatever your positioning, branding, and marketing should take that into consideration. Everything you're putting out represents the brand (positioning), and that really ties into marketing. Positioning must match the voice. Always.

2. A(uthenticity) 🤳

“Growth and connection come from authenticity in the way that you share.”

When people connect with who is behind the brand (as awkward as it may be to put yourself out there) you are building an authentic connection, where people want to support you and try it. Showing up on social media as a Founder truly helps the brand grow. Get in front of the camera when you can, take the leap!

3. I(dentifiable) ❄️

“You’re not doing a service to anyone if you’re creating something that already exists.”

There’s so much out there in terms of innovation that we should all just push ourselves a bit more to push ourselves and the industry forward. Pinpoint or use what makes you unique - that’s your superpower. You’ve got to differentiate yourself. You, by virtue of being you, are unique to the world. You are the only person like you that exists. It’s time to use that to your advantage.

2. That’s so mainstream 💁

EP250: For this episode, I was joined by a very special friend of mine: Lana Hopkins. She’s recently launched her new venture, Some.Place, as the world starts moving into the metaverse. 💫

Lana is building a different narrative in the space. One that’s accessible to women and mainstream communities that feel marginalized from the NFT/Blockchain conversation. Feel heard? I certainly do. 👀

Some.Place is a whole new experience. How do you make sure a product as innovative and groundbreaking as this one is a hit with mainstream consumers?

  1. Change the narrative in terms of how you engage with your audience: for Some.Place this means thinking about every. single. touchpoint from a UX user experience perspective.

  2. Streamlining and simplifying the process: the key is to not make it scary, daunting, and overwhelming for new users.

  3. Elevating the aesthetic beauty of the experience: build a sense of mood and familiarity that users will feel drawn to, especially when introducing unchartered territory to the consumers.

If you’re as confused about NFT’s as I was, Lana does a great job at breaking it down in this ep. Tune in through the button below, you’ll learn a lot. 🤖

3. Pouring fuel on the fire 🔥

EP249: I’m chatting to Rachael Tyers, the Founder behind TBH skincare, about building a brand with your mum and all the good stuff when it gets to $$$.

This story is a good example of the success you can have when you pour fuel on the fire to accelerate growth, with a Founder who just closed on an equity crowd-fundraising round of $460K.

Starting with a friends & family round, the pair behind TBH quickly realized they would need to raise more if they were to sustain their huge growth. Within the first 18 months of operating, they’ve hit more than $1M in sales.

“If you get too focused on pulling all the cash out of the business you end up killing your acquisition strategy quickly. You need that working capital to go large.”

The facts remain the same. The cost of acquiring customers in skincare is simply put, super high. It’s very competitive. And no one ever raises enough (unless they’ve done this before).

👉 Whilst it’s a super intense process to go through, crowdfunding has been 100% worth it and helps them see the next stage of growth for TBH 🌱

Biz Wins & Failz 🎢

Here’s a cracker 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. A lot of us are seeing a lot of highlights, but tbh there are also so many downs and things that go wrong. In light of the festive period, we wanted to share a couple of feel-good ✨wins✨ this month.

Talking about starting as we mean to go on. Bring on 2022, ladies. 🚀

*We’ll be opening our doors to Hype Club again early next year, so if you’re looking forward to joining the next round of intakes keep your eyes peeled for our memo!

What’s on this week? 👀

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

TUES: Connie Lo from Three Ships - changing the natural skincare game ⚓

THURS: Lindsey Martin from Kiramoon - beauty with joy in mind 💖

SAT: Ali Kriegsman from Bulletin - premium wholesale platform ✨

Click here to tune in! 🎧

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔 

📚 Clean Beauty by Elsie Rutterford & Dominika Minarovic: all the recipes you need to manage your beauty routine naturally.

🎧 This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass: a weekly public radio program and podcast with a weekly theme on which stories are based.

Job Alert Time! 💼

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

REMOTE 🌎

  • Maven, the largest virtual clinic for women’s health, is hiring a Product Content Writer to join their product team. Apply here.

  • Culinary Agents, providing career-related information about the hospitality industry, is looking for Client Success Representatives. Apply here.

LA 🇺🇸

  • Táche, the nutty and sweet pistachios milk brand, is looking for a Regional Sales Manager in SoCal. More info here.

NYC 🗽

  • BentoBox, offering tech for the hospitality industry, has a bunch of really cool job openings from Chief of Staff to Product Manager. Check it out.

It’s good to be back! Catch you next week, keep shining bright ✨

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