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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Bulletin 📌

Lisa Guerrera is our Hype Girl 💚

The Experiment Beauty founder is joining us in the Hype Club tomorrow to chat about launching the coolest brand on the web RN, raising capital & organic marketing 🪴 if you haven’t signed up yet - you totally should. We meet once a week on Wednesday’s for a virtual coffee to chat about where we are in the journey, what’s going on in business (and life), mixed in with expert workshops & Ask Me Anything sessions from founders on the show. It’s a real vibe. Come hang with us tomorrow!

Our May Cheerleader: Zyro 🎉

Giving a shout out to our May cheerleader, Zyro. It’s a nifty tool that makes it easy for anyone to build a super ✨cute✨ website or online store, whilst giving a lot of control over your online presence. The ideal combo for solopreneurs and small businesses heading into the ecomm jungle.

Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞

Pinky Cole’s Slutty Vegan valued at $100M. Gucci is going to start accepting crypto. Threshold raises two new funds committing to capital of more than $450M. Conquer imposter syndrome for unbelievable success (ft. me). Wella Company acquires Briogeo. Young entrepreneurial duo invents reusable menstrual cup that inserts like a tampon. SoulCycle founders are building a company centered on workouts for the self. Colombian proptech Habi reaches unicorn status with $200M raise co-led by SoftBank and Homebrew.

🔑 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 make an impact ✊

EP336: this one is a little different. We’re hearing the incredibly inspiring story of Nitisha Mehta, who’s making a big stand against gender pricing inequalities and the pink tax whilst working in the CPG space for her employer, Boxed.

🌎 The world can be a shitty place.

🤷‍♀️ Want to make it better? Same.

We all want to leave this world a little better than we found it, but it can incredibly daunting to know where to start. Some women from the show are leading the charge with revolutionary brands (Bethany Edwards’ Lia, and Caroline Cotto with Renewal Mill) and some are buying local and feeling like they should be doing more (guilty ✋).

This episode is an important reminder of how much impact you can create in the world, without jumping straight into starting a business. Nitisha has single-handedly launched the RethinkPink initiative at Boxed to take a stand against pricing inequalities and is heavily involved with repealing Pink Tax legislation.

She shared her magic formula for making an impact in the workplace:

• Be vocal about what you care about

• Educate your network and those around you

• Support brands that align with your values

• Be brave, speak up, and don’t give up

You can create a significant impact at your place of employment; with resources and support at your fingertips. Heck, it’s even good for business. Give it a try.

2. Flying solo 🪁

EP337: chatting through Lilly Sparks’ transition from co-building a CPG company to $10M in rev, to deciding to build her own true vision with afterglow.

Deciding whether to go it alone or find a co-founder is one of the earliest, and most important decisions a startup founder will make. There is plenty of data that’s fledging support for both cases, and we’ve even chatted in this newsletter before about how finding the yin to your yang can make your journey that little bit easier.

☁️ But, as with many things in life, it just comes to the situation you’re in ☁️

Lilly is, after a wild ride, starting to recognize the value of having one person be in charge as she’s leading the charge with sexual wellness platform afterglow.

Co-founder relationships are super interesting. But it can also be messy. If anyone is not sure who is approving what, if two people are not aligned, and you can mum dad them a little bit: that’s just not good for the culture.

🧭 Every journey to entrepreneurship is unique - it’s up to you to regularly audit yourself on how you are with the direction it’s going

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, we’ll be taking a deep dive into the beauty space, going over the biggest learnings our multi-millionaire beauty-founder-guests have gained from founding and building the brands absolutely killing it in their space right now. So Let’s get straight into it.

1. Create something valuable, beautiful, and memeable ✨

KULFI Beauty Founder Priyanka Ganjoo pointed out to us that unless you’re creating things that people value, there’s no point in creating them at all. And nowadays, leaning into the sharable, memorable, memeable potential of a product gets you into a position where your product ends up selling itself. On top of that, it’s important to remember that your product does also need to… You know… Look good!

2. Kick off with a bang 💥

When your website goes live, it’s not like people are going to appear out of nowhere. You have to drive that traffic. Start as you mean to go on. In launching Kiramoon, Lindsey Martin ensured planning that pre-launch with a solid runway to go off with a bang and buzz. The more effort you put into your launch, the better results you’ll see.

3. Think outside the box 📦

Really think outside the box when it comes around to pitching your product to retail. Buyers in the beauty world are getting hit by constant blasts. There’s so much out there. Give yourself a chance by really making an impression. Tune in to the episode to hear how Amy Liu got Tower 28 Beauty stocked into Sephora, it’s a real cracker.

4. Don’t get complacent 🐢

Lesson number four is all around not getting complacent when you do land your dream retailer. Getting in is the easy part, what’s hard is getting the sale through. Connie Lo spoke us through the process with Three Ships Beauty. Investing in in-store marketing, samples, in-store promos, and gifting the sales associates. Remember, the goal is to get your product off the shelf, not just on the shelf.

5. Get yourself on TikTok! 🤳

I won’t tell you again. Ok… Maybe I might. In beauty, you’re in such a fab position to do well on TikTok. The platform completely lends itself to color, pop, and faces. And it’s beauty content that we consistently see going viral. Fiona Chan came on the show to talk through the complete blueprint of her success on the platform with Youthforia, and learning 5 is all around getting yourself on there and churning out some content.

6. Nothing is perfect 💯

Psychologically, perfectionism works to stop us from having to face failure. But realistically, it just keeps us from moving forward. Stephanie Lee from SELFMADE said these words to me: “I’m building this beauty brand for myself and everyone who needs this. Not to be perfect.” Whatever you’re creating, get it out and iterate along the way. We are smart enough that we can always pivot, no matter what.

7. Patience is a virtue ⏰

My final learning from chatting with all these amazing women in the beauty space is that all good things simply take time. It takes 10 years to reach overnight success. And it’s okay that it takes time. There are so many intricate and complicated processes involved here that you just don’t want to rush. You’ve got to trust the process.

For the full breakdown of these points, examples, and all the practical tips on how to implement them in your biz check out the episode.

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔

📚 Non-Violent Communication by Marshall B Rosenberg: life-changing tools for healthy relationships, creating a lot of healing to people’s lives.

🎧 Everything Is The Best, hosted by Pia Baroncini: get real, get vulnerable - this is the expert guide to simply not feeling so alone.

Job Alert Time! 💼

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

REMOTE 🌎

• ROSEN Skincare is looking for a right-hand person and force-multiplier for their CEO, Jamika Martin, in the form of Head of Staff. Sound like you? Apply here.

• ConnectxGlobal, the global community platform for inclusion and innovation, is on the hunt for a Female CTO to reinvent their startup ecosystem. More here.

• Primary, the gender-non-prescriptive, inclusive kids clothing brand is looking for a Director of Data Analytics to strengthen its team. More info here.

NYC 🗽

• Gen Z beauty brand Experiment is on the lookout for a social content creator and curator to join their (super cool) team. More info here.

If there’s something here that resonates with you, screenshot & share it on IG stories so we know! ✨