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! If someone forwarded you this email you can subscribe here:

Bulletin 📌

1800-HypeGirl Hotline 📞

Your 1800-HypeGirl Hotline is in full swing, did you get our cute text this morning? Happy sparkling if so! If not, do not fear. You can still get in on all the action for Monday's. Whether you're a student, working 9-5, or an entrepreneur our hotline is totally ✨free✨ and takes just 5 seconds to get set up. Powered by our pals at Norby.

Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞

LIVELY CEO steps down (catch Michelle's story here). Emma Chamberlain's coffee brand closes $7M series A. Selena Gomez's mental health startup Wondermind gets a $100M valuation. Maacha Le Blanc raises $5M for Milli Mylk. Peloton will cut nearly 800 jobs and hike prices. All the stats you need to know for the future of social. Holey Grail raises $9M for sustainable Taro Donuts. How to protect your biz from inflation. Chillhouse goes global with Paris opening in La Fayette (Chillhouse's story is such a great one). TikTok is fast becoming the top search platform. Serena Williams' essential next step. Scotland the first country to offer completely free sanitary products. Guava announces funding round of $2.4M. Lisa LaFlamme dropped as TV anchor for going grey, ummm WTF?!

🔑 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. 3 rules to change culture, from the queen of disruption 👑

EP398: Diving into the journey to founding two $100M companies with serial entrepreneur, WILD, Thinx & Tushy founder Miki Agrawal.

For Miki, each entrepreneural venture has been a huge educational uphill battle. Disruption is in her blood. But with that comes the need to educate her target audience and rid them of all the negative stigma associated with her state-of-the-art ideas (people don't like change, btw). Three businesses in and she's developed a 3-pronged thesis around (successfully) changing culture:

1. A best-in-class product ⭐ the product needs to have a wow-factor in your consumer's hands

2. Accessible labeled language across every touch point of the brand 😂 funny copy will get you very far in life

3. Beautiful art-y design 🦋 people like pretty things, people like sharing pretty things, simple

Through these steps, you can educate people in an iconic way. Make them interested in leaning in, then talk to them where they are.

2. Pitching your way to $8.3M VC 💸

EP400: Learning from Sam Safer Valentine, one of the co-founders of tech start-up Norby about her non-traditional pathway into the world of tech.

Fundraising is a number of things coming together in a beautiful recipe: numbers and traction, the wider environment, buzz, timing, where your competitors are, finding the right partners and investors... But it's also a damn crazy ride 🎢

Sometimes you'll be faced with 99 no's, but the facts remain the same. You just need one yes. If you're going to bet on yourself (as you should), keep going. Sam shared her top advice when it comes to pitching to investors over and over (and over) again:

1. Iterate: don't be afraid to change your deck and pitch after each call

2. Minimalise: stripping away excess clarifies the problem you're trying to solve

3. Practice: pitch with a few firms that aren't dream firms to find your flow

As with most things in life, the more you get out there and pitch the easiest it will become. It's time to get yourself out there and in front of people.

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 I'll be diving into the learnings of 7 brands from the podcast putting the planet first, so we can all learn how to build a sustainable future.

1. Start your biz the way you intend to run it 🏁

That means incorporating sustainability into your biz model from the get-go. Sustainability starts with design. It’s easy to be sustainable if you design it from the get-go, but it’s not so easy to re-truth your brand if you don’t come up with these concepts initially. So AS PER the advice of Kester Black founder Anna Ross, have a real good think about your business and how it's going to look a decade from now. Incorporate sustainability into your brand from day zero.

2. Get nitty gritty about your supply chain 🔗

Take a birds-eye view of your organization. Find out how you operate, which processes are outdated, and where those inefficiencies lie. You may even find sustainable alternatives to help you reduce production costs. This learning comes from self-confessed sustainability nerd Charlotte Pienaar, who has a constant and effective magnifying glass on every little aspect of Everyday Humans’ supply chain.

3. Find your sustainability tribe 💚

Find other business founders on a similar path to you, with the same mission as you, trying to do their bit to better the planet. Caroline Cotto quickly discovered the value of networking in building Renewal Mill. This is such a popular and exciting time for sustainability, so take full advantage of that and join the conversation wherever you can.

4. Join forces with your community 🤗

In founding dog-food brand Chippin, Haley Russell quickly picked up on just how excited her community was to drive positive change with her. Fighting climate change is something we’re all in together, chipping in to try to make a difference in the world.

5. Have a true passion for what you're building 🔥

If you want to create a sustainable business, the most important thing is to do something you truly care about. For Isabel Aagaard from LastObject, it was clear for a long time that she wanted to create something that really had the power to create a difference. It is SO important this aligns because starting something is a huge thing and it’s going to consume everything in your life.

6. Educate and empower people ⚡

Don't just sell to people, but start a conversation and change the narrative. Through Blueland’s IG channel, Sarah Paiji Yoo delivers value to her audience instead of thinking about how to extract value from them. Tips and tricks on how to incorporate sustainability into your life. It’s time consuming, but it’s something that directly fuels Blueland’s mission and feeds back into the success of the brand. Harness the opportunity you have to show up as a brand every day and speak to your audience in a very organic way, that’s the gift of building a brand in this day and age.

7. Don't give up ✊

Repurpose founder Lauren Gropper reminds us that even in times when rejection hits you and you think it might be easier to quit, the only thing that successful people have in common is that they never give up. So give yourself, and the planet, the chance to be successful by simply not giving up.

What’s on this week? 👀

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

TUES: Amy Voloshin from PrintFresh - original artwork for apparel companies ⁠🎨

WED: Hype Club's weekly virtual coffee chat - join a group of like-minded founders navigating their first brand ☕️

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

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔

📚 Disrupt-Her by Miki Agrawal: a manifesto for the modern woman, asking us to dissect and disrupt 13 major areas of our lives keeping us from living fully.

🎧 The 20 Minute VC hosted by Harry Stebbings: interviews with the world's greatest venture capitalists on how to attain funding for your business.

Job Alert Time! 💼

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

REMOTE 🌎

• Weird yummy water brand Aura Bora is looking for a VP of Sales to join their team, to serve as a critical member of the leadership team. More here.

NYC 🇺🇸

• Bulletin is hiring! They are the modern (& coolest) wholesale market for retailers and buyers and are looking for an entry-level Ops Lead. More here.

• Olive oil brand Brightland is on the hunt for a paid Marketing Intern to start part-time in September. Read all about it here.

LDN 🇬🇧

• Demi-fine jewelry brand Missoma is looking for their next Wholesale superstar to help drive their business strategy forward. Something for you?

Syndey 🌞

• Ovira, taking the women's health industry by storm, is searching for a new member for their Growth team to dive straight in. More info here.

& whilst I have you here...

I'm calling all entrepreneurs, small business owners, and influencers - this one is for you. Have you met Norby??? If not, you need to... She's great. She's super social, ultra-cute, and incredibly reliable. She's a link-in-bio tool that we've been using to connect with our community (you!), launch marketing initiatives, and keep track of all of our own data (the magic sauce of 2022). So go say hello and check her out by clicking all those friendly waves below & grab a free month trial using the code FSC at checkout.

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