How to fail 🐧; If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; Ciao for now 👋🤶

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

December 14, 2021

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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We will miss you! 🤶🎄

We are going on our annual break for two weeks and will be back as usual on January 3rd. Over the hols, we will debut FSC’s Greatest Hits through the poddy. Revisiting some of the most inspiring, wholesome, and educational conversations I’ve had in the last 1.5 years, jam. packed. with brain-power ✨

🎁 A little gift 🎁

Psst… There’s an epic download available for free in my TikTok bio: @dooneroisin

📅 It’s the year-long marketing calendar that we use to map out our efforts, as well as a comprehensive social media calendar for all the different channels

This is going to make your life 10x easier as a brand owner! Go check it out :)

Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞 

Breakout Ventures sets forth new $112.5M fund to back creative bioscience startups. How to effectively use the rest of the year. Sharon Bowen first Black woman to chair NYSE board. Ecommerce trends for 2022. What I unlearned about startups this year. 3 traits women who break the glass ceiling have in common. NFTs, explained.

🔑 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. How to fail 🐧

EP248: Learnings from Lezlie Karls, Co-Founder of Mid-Day Squares. We cover so much in this incredible chat - she’s a real force to be reckoned with. Now a killing entrepreneur, Lezlie also bravely opens up about what it means to fail a business. How to fail, make the cut, and move on.

We learn a lot from others’ successes, but there’s undoubtedly, even more, to learn about failures. They’re just a little bit trickier to talk about.

Lezlie had no trouble pinpointing the exact reason her beloved luxury fashion brand, Hector, failed. And she’s ready to pass on her lessons.

“I had Lady Gaga wearing my clothes. You think you’re going to have this traction. But we didn’t have traction. It didn’t happen.”

MISTAKE #1: ‘I didn’t design clothes for myself.’ 👚

“I am 5”3. And curvy. I was designed clothes for the 6”3 model. I couldn’t even wear my own clothes, and that’s a problem right there.”

This was the biggest learning that Lezlie brought with her to Mid-Day Squares. She became the consumer of her own product. If you’re not… Who is?

MISTAKE #2: ‘I didn’t utilize my community.’ 🤗

Clothing line Hector was within the 1% price point. We’re talking high-end fashion. This meant Lezlie’s community couldn’t afford to support her. When launching Mid-Day Squares it became easy for people to buy her product. Easy for people to support. This all helps create virality. 

MISTAKE #3: ‘I didn’t put myself out there.’ ❤️‍🔥

She was always behind the scenes. What is more engaging than seeing a 23-year-old running around NYC in heels trying to get into stores? If that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is. But she didn’t show that. She didn’t know how to. How to tell her story. How to put herself out there. How to market herself.

At one point you need to know how to shut something down. A good Founder knows how to throw in the towel. So, she did. After 3 years. Took some time off and realized what to do differently in the next venture. You go, girl!

2. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it ✌

EP247: We are learning from Ariel Kaye, the Founder of PARACHUTE. We chat about the early biz-building days and all about the channels you might not have considered that are working brilliantly today.

Ariel identified very early on just how important it would be to have a diversified marketing mix, being aware not to be too dependent on any channel.

“One of the things our investors encouraged us to spend some real money on is testing marketing channels. See what works and doesn’t work.”

The learnings? 

The PARACHUTE team got more and excited about more traditional channels.

  • Catalog: don’t forget the power of print! Studies show that consumers enjoy reading catalogs and have a lot more time for them over more modern & digitized approaches 📖

  • Streaming TV & Video: this is one of the most engaging ad formats there is, and really allows your audience to see, feel and realize your brand 📺

This is not new news, but the traditional channels are working really well. The most effective channels are simply the ones where you tell your story, and those particular channels lend themselves to some really beautiful storytelling.

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.

Christel Menu (who’s working on building a genderless fine fragrance brand) shared her struggle with the group this week:

“I just signed the contract with my perfumer to develop the formulas for the first two fragrances of my brand. As I add up the numbers, the cost of the product is turning out to be so high and as I talk to people about it, they think it’s actually astronomical and not the standard. I’m pretty low about it.”

Jenna Rodrigues was able to chip in with some A* biz advice: 

“Maybe you can look into fragrance houses that will require small MOQ. The one I worked with in Pennsylvania only required a minimum purchase of $250 per fragrance. We developed a custom fragrance from scratch based on my ideas/inspirations/requirements, and did a few sample rounds to get there. I highly recommend that route especially as a small business.”

Nothing beats Hype Club girls sharing insights and learnings to grow together 🔥

*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 we have in store for you this week…

TUES: Rachael Tyers from tbh Skincare - normalizing breakout-prone skin ✨

THURS: Lana Hopkins from some.place - collect, curate, and flex NFT collections 🤖

SAT: Doone's back - with a solo episode 🍷

Click here to tune in! 🎧

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔 

📚 Multipliers by Liz Wiseman & Greg McKeown: how the best leaders make everyone smarter, turning smart leaders into genius makers.

🎧 Glossy Daily, hosted by Danny Parisi & Zofia Zwieglinska: daily updates from The Gloss team, covering fashion, beauty, art, culture, food, and lifestyle.

Job Alert Time! 💼

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

REMOTE 🌎

  • Onova, the coolest innovation consultancy around, is hiring for Innovation Consultant and Marketing Analyst Interns. All the info here.

  • 54 Thrones, the clean beauty grounded in African rituals, is looking for a Retail Account Manager to build their strategy. Interested?

  • Golde, fast-growing superfood wellness and beauty brand from Brooklyn, is hiring an Operations Manager. Find out more here.

NYC/LA 🇺🇸

  • Kindra, leader in menopause wellness, is seeking a a Direct of Brand Marketing as they grow at lightning speed. Read all the deets here.

’Til January 3rd, friends 👋🤶 keep shining bright

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