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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Worth Shouting About 📢

London Launch Party 👯 Feb 24th

If you’re in London at the end of the month, I’m hosting an intimate book launch for my upcoming book - Your Hype Girl - and you are of course invited.

The book features the stories and learning from 51 of the mind-blowing women from the first year on the show and I’m just SO excited to share it with you

We will celebrate on February 24th in partnership with Soho Works. If you want to come along, just pop me an email so I can pop you on the guest list. It’s going to be super cute & I would love to meet you!

New York Launch Party 🗽 10th of March 

The details on this event are still being firmed up, but so you can make a note in your diary, we’ll be hosting a little soiree in New York in partnership with our pals at Norby & Brik+Clik. Details to be announced in next weeks email!

Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞

Sunroom launches - an alternative creator platform empowering women to cash in. Nearly half of American workers are considering leaving their current jobs. DTC back to brick-and-mortar? Women-led crypto groups demand their turn. Gemist raises $3M in seed funding. The most active investors in beauty.

🔑 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. Start as you mean to go on 🦉

EP273: Learning from Anna Ross, the female founder who started her business with $50 and now runs an 8-figure beauty brand, Kester Black.

Anna’s No1 lesson ten years into this rollercoaster is the importance of really understanding the values of certifications when you’re still small. Do you want to label your brand as Vegan? Circular? Clean? You don’t immediately need to get accreditation, but make sure your biz would allow for it down the line.

The mistake: Anna intends Kester Black to become a sustainable and circular brand, but as this wasn’t in the brand philosophy from the get-go, they have had to discontinue a number of products that don’t fit this agenda.

The advice: Do it early, use the free resources, and just really think about it.

Start your business the way you intend to run it. Think about your business, the stages of growth, and how it’s going to look a decade from now. 🕰️

2. The train is still going 🚅

EP275: I had a chat with Emily Harpel, the founder behind cotton candy brand Art of Sucre that’s popping up all over your TikTok right now.

Maybe we should start creating a separate section for all this TikTok gold ✨ It’s clear this platform is going nowhere and only getting more prolific for brands. We delve into the topic of it being pretty hard on social media right now. How your skin has to grow thick quickly, and you really have to be on the ball.

📽️ The reality of it is, the sooner you get into that space the more you’ll stand to benefit - the skillset of the video world is not going anywhere any time soon

🦋 Find what makes you different, there’s no such thing as being too oversaturated - you’re unique and the world needs to see that

For anyone reading this, start today. It’s intimidating but worth it. Let go of the cringe aspect. You’ll be the one that’s laughing when you have the success.

FSC Mini-Series from the Founder ❤️

In this new 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 I’ll give an update on the non-alc wine brand - which we’ve decided not to move forward with this at this point. Let’s jump into how we came to this conclusion, and why some good things must come to an end.

Some good things must come to an end 🍷

If you’re new here, or not quite sure what I’m talking about, last January my husband and I decided we were going to embark on a non-alc wine adventure. We teamed up with a master sommelier and started working with a big player in the industry to develop a premium, yummy non-alc wine brand.

We worked with two amazing women from After Hours (based in Brisbane) on our branding. The brand and identity we built is just mind-blowing & they were absolute shining stars to work with. (shout out!!!)

So we built the brand. We created a top-class, incredible product. We were stoked, BUT… We couldn’t get the numbers to work. What we created is complex. It was expensive. And it got to a point where I truly wasn’t sure anymore if I would buy it as a consumer. And I’ve spoken to enough women in the space to know this is not a basis to start your entrepreneurial journey from. It just wasn’t adding up.

When it came time for us to commit to placing our first batch of 6000 units we just had to pull the pin. That deep connection and personal investment just weren’t there, and when I look at how I feel about FSC vs. what I felt about the brand, it was really different.

So that’s my final update of the non-alc wine brand for now. Those who have followed and supported so far - a massive thank you. But that’s the end of that story.

Biz Wins & Failz 🎢

Straight from Hype Club.

This week, I announced that after almost a year of R&D and working on our non-alc brand, we’ve decided not to move forward with it at this point:

And I feel pretty good about it, to be honest. We learned a lot about the industry, the process, and about building a brand. And we met so many inspiring people. It’s time to double down on what’s bringing me joy - and that’s Female Startup Club - and putting those tiny steps one in front of the other to keep building this media company for folks building the future of e-comm.

*We’ll be opening our doors to Hype Club again soon, 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…

MON: Aimee Yang from Better Brand - food tech to disrupt the carb industry 🥯

WEDS: Jessica Warch from Kimai - handmade ethical jewelry 💍

FRI: Doone's back - with a solo episode ✨

Click here to tune in! 🎧

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔 

📚 Billion Dollar Loser by Reeves Wiedeman: a vivid inside story into the epic rise and spectacular fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork.

🎧 The Pitch, hosted by Josh Muccio: see the behind-closed doors of real entrepreneurs pitching to real investors, for real money.

Job Alert Time! 💼

Hello 2022, what better time to look for a new job? Check out these cool women-owned DTC job listings on our radar:

REMOTE 🌎

• Parade, the better underwear company, is looking for part-timers to build the future of Parade through Community Outreach. Something for you?

• Daily Harvest, on a mission to deliver the healthiest food, has a bunch of really cool job openings in Creative, Product & Marketing. Check it out.

NYC 🗽

• Brightland, the Cali company elevating simple moments in the kitchen, is on the hunt for their first Director of Brand Marketing. Apply here.

MISSOURI 🇺🇸

• Summersalt, the flattering designer swimwear brand, is searching for Fashion Designers and Marketers for their team. More info here.

Reply to this email if you want to be on the guestlist for our London book party :)

Keep shining bright, till next week! ✨