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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Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞

Emily Weiss steps down as CEO, and no - that doesn’t mean the sunsetting of the Girlboss. TIME releases list of 2022’s 100 most influential people. Blackstone is taking on turbocharge with Supergoop. Africa’s most inspirational women in leadership list announced. 8 virtual gifts for busy entrepreneurs. Kim K is Beyond Meat’s first taste consultant (and here’s why the internet finds it funny). Ulta Beauty reports $2BN record sales. How Gen Z are shaping the workforce.

🔑 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. Up close and personal ☎️

EP345: On disrupting a category, acquiring customers at scale through guerilla marketing and a $9M raise, with Katie Spies, Founder of Maev.

I’m obsessed with the investment Katie makes in really getting to know her customers. This is the step in brand-building that’s so often overlooked. Because let’s face it. It’s not the easiest. It’s timely. There’s no shortcut. And there are always better things to be doing. Despite this, Katie takes 5 customer phone calls a week and has since the early days in building Maev. That’s commitment.

In her opinion, if you can understand the customer better than anyone else, you can build any product. And I can definitely get on board with that.

It’s fulfilling (for both you, and your customers). It’s helpful for the business. And, humanizing is fab. People want to buy things from people, not faceless corporations.

FSC Mini-Series from the Founder ❤️

In my ongoing mini-series within the FSC podcast, you’ll hear directly from me, your Host & Hype Girl about all the goings-on with the Female Startup Club. This week, a little recap and sneak-peak all-in-one. Every since our Hype Club workshop two weeks ago I haven’t stopped thinking about all we learned, and I’m just so psyched to share it with you. This solo episode hasn’t been released yet, but here’s a little sneak peek of what you can expect to plug into your ears later this week.

Your Go-To Guide to Organic Marketing 🍃

For a little bit of context, every Wednesday we host a virtual coffee chat through the Hype Club so all the founders can catch up in a chill fashion. Roughly once a month we bring in an expert in the DTC space to teach us about their area of expertise, give us some tactical lessons, and provide strategies to level up in business. This month, Experiment’s Lisa Guerrera on virtual friends, creative collabs & tips for TikTok.

🕸️ Making Friends on the Web 🕸️

It is ultra-important to make friends on the web, whichever industry you’re in. Being a content creator on your brand account sets the tone to catch those eyeballs. Truth be told, if you’re not prepared to make content and dive into social it’s going to be really hard for you to grow organically. Lisa became friends with a lot of content creators, through her (now) 50K strong TikTok account. At the end of the day, it really helps to come at people as a creator, over coming at them as a brand.

🤗 Approaching Your Online Community 🤗

Firstly, it’s key not to ask for too much right off the bat. Ask enough to get on their radar. Propose something that’s easy to help with, something that will lay the foundation of that connection moving forward. Secondly, it helps heaps to target someone influential in your niche, but to ensure that that person is reachable and attainable. They will be much more willing to help. And lastly, one for when you’ve built up a bit of a community is to hunt for those connections in your own follower list.

🤳 Kicking Off on TikTok 🤳

There’s no right or wrong way to curate your content, as long as it fits your brand essence. As Fiona Chan told us on the podcast, you should always create content in a way that makes life easier for yourself. Above all, keep in mind that you don’t need to be an expert to do well on TikTok, just give people access to a whole new world. We have just two hard rules for you. Number one, consistency. Even if you’re not posting every day (though, you probs should be), consistency is the secret. Number two, don’t burn yourself out. It’s really easy to do on TikTok. And no one wins from that.

🦋 Cool Collabs 🦋

You can achieve an impressive amount by yourself, but damn. Together we can do so much. Partner up with a brand that has customers that look and act like the customers you are targeting. Simples. The goal is to approach a brand that’s a little further on in the journey than you. The result will be more social clout, more credibility, and more engagement. There’s SO much opportunity here. If you’re early on in the journey, don’t feel intimidated. Ask yourself, what sets you apart?

This brings me to conclude on something I truly believe to be the smartest thing you can do for yourself and your biz today. Whether it’s through your social media presence, collabs, or fundraising, relationship building is, now more than ever, the most important thing to do. Relationship building is not algorithmic. An ios update can’t take that away from you. And it will open up a whole new world of possibilities.

I’d love to know if you’re tuning into the episode later this week, post a screenshot or drop into my DMs. I can’t wait to hear what you’ll take away from it ❤️

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔

📚 High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil: this is the handbook for navigating challenges that every high-growth company will eventually face.

🎧 The Skinny Confidential, hosted by Lauryn Evarts Bosstick and Michael Bosstick: a juicy mix of wellness tips, business advice, relationship insight, and much more.

Job Alert Time! 💼

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

REMOTE 🌎

• Thingstesting, your guide to new internet-born brands, is looking for a Social Media Specialist to help nurture their community. Apply here.

LDN 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• Ethical jewelry brand Kimaï is looking for an entrepreneurially-minded Chief of Staff to serve as the right hand to the CEO. Really cool opportunity. Apply here.

• Digital-first global beauty brand Trinny London is looking for new superstars to join their growing PR and Influencer team. Read all about it here.

NYC 🗽

• Chillhouse, NY’s wellness destination for modern self-care, is on the hunt for a Senior Marketing Manager. More info here.

• Gen Z educational platform The Conversationalist is also looking for a Chief of Staff, someone as an extension of the CEO, to join their team. Apply here.

Washington, DC 🇺🇸

• A little different, but super interesting. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is looking for a Senior Program Officer to focus on Women’s Economic Empowerment & Financial Inclusion. More information on the role here.

If you resonate with something in this week’s newsletter we’d love to know! Share it with us on Instagram tagging @femalestartupclub & @dooneroisin ✨