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 📌

And then... 💭

Something sparkly arrives in your inbox ✨ Whether you own a business, are workin’ 9-5 or just started a side hustle... The next stage of FSC is going to be for YOU. The clock is ticking, and soon you will receive the email that will reveal all. I'm so excited. 

Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞

2022's consumer trends are here. Join the next stage of Mamamade through Seedrs. EY is inspiring 100,000 girls to pursue a career in STEM. Female VC leaders appointed as investments are dropping. Three ways to prep yourself for the great wealth transfer, it's happening. Women are handling stock market volatility WAY better than men. There's absolutely no good excuse for a lack of women in tech. GlossGenius triples valuation & raises $25M to give beauty industry’s tech stack a makeover. Virgin Atlantic updates their gender identity policy. Balmain Beauty incoming. LinkedIn is in hot water over sneaky AB tests. Fast Company was hacked! & Inc. is still down as a result. Spanx promotes CFO Kim Jones to CEO. Rebecca Minkoff & Morgan Stanley launch Banker Bag (2.0). Walmart is getting into the wedding dress biz. M&M introduces gender inclusive mascot. Loreal is developing a $140M research centre in New Jersey. Norby is officially a creator's DREAM.

🔑 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 start a beauty brand with less than £300 💸

EP419: Zara Saleem started her Ayurvedic-inspired skincare biz, Delhicious with £250 at her kitchen table - now she has a waitlist of 50K. 

Zara was on mat leave from teaching when she developed a painful skin condition that just wouldn't budge. Grandma to the rescue, she used her old recipes to start experimenting and found the perfect formula to heal her skin. 

Step 1/ create a product so great you can't not share it with the world 🌎 (misconception: you don't need to have a big range - start with one thing)

Zara got together about £250 to spend on ingredients and (super simple) packaging and started handmaking and hand packaging the product in her kitchen.

Step 2/ start small and scrappy, go slow, prove out the concept, and start there - do things yourself as much as you can 🐢

It took months for the first order to arrive. Zara started posting on Instagram and got a lot of press off the back of her story and South-Asian heritage.

Step 3/ your story and your why is your strongest selling point, shout loudly 📣

Taking the learnings from Instagram Delhicious made their TikTok debut, and after initially seeing 0 results went from 0-50K followers in just a few months. 

Step 4/ be consistent and you will get there - keep getting that content out there, test it out and see how people respond 🤳

Thank you TikTok! Now to satisfy the 50,000-strong waitlist... I love a story that shows just how this journey can be for everybody, and with access to a couple of hundred $$$ & some grit YOU can do this too.

2. Building an app as a non-techie 🤖

EP421: Discovering what happens when a climate activist becomes a tech founder, with One Small Step's founder Lily Dempster.

"There should be an app for that!" - says everyone, always. We've all had an idea for an app before. It's one thing to have an idea, it's an entirely different thing to build the thing itself (entrepreneurs, you might know a thing or two about that). Lily talked us through the options you have if you WANT to build a mobile application, but you're not so technical yourself: 

1. Learn to code 🤖 this is the most time-consuming option, but you'll gain a skill that's been dubbed the 'most fundamental' of our time

2. Bring on a technical co-founder 👯 someone who can do the coding and development side of the business

3. Start hiring 👀 you could consider raising money early days and hiring out sources developers to work on your idea

4. Use a no code platform like Bubble ☁️ these days there are a bunch of no codes that lower the barrier to entry, everyone can jump on and build an M

In figuring out which options makes the most sense for your business, get out there and start speaking to people. Lily found people are REALLY happy to give feedback. Build those relationships, collect advice, and use the power of loose ties. 

Biz Wins & Failz 🎢

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 alone in celebrating those highs.

This week, Herbar's founder shared her rollercoaster: 

Why does this happen so often to small businesses? 😟 Luckily Catarina was able to contact (SO MANY) people at IG to fix the issue. Thank gosh to the power of community. 

*The doors to Hype Club are open, now’s the time to join our community of uplifting entrepreneurs building the future CPG companies! It doesn't need to be lonely. 

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔 

📚 Principles by Ray Dalio: the unconventional principles that Ray has developed, refined, and used over the past 40 years to create results in both life and biz.

🎧 At The Table hosted by Patrick Lencioni: sit across the table from one of the foremost experts in leadership and business.

Job Alert Time! 💼

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

REMOTE 🌎

• Hero Cosmetics, putting the power back in our hands, is on the hunt for an Interim Controller for the finance department. More info here.

• Fishwife, aiming to make ethically-sourced tinned seafood a staple, is looking for a creative Digital Marketing Manager. Apply directly here.

LDN 🇬🇧

• Daye, raising the standards in the female healthcare industry, is looking for a Project Manager to lead their subscription-model growth. More here.

Melbourne 🌞

• Clean personal care brand Frank Body is looking for a passionate human to join its retail team as a Global Senior Account Manager. More here.

Oh! And while I have you here...

I want to give you a little tip when it comes to hiring. Because let's be real for a sec, hiring isn't easy. There is a reason it's so often quoted as a guest's "worst money mistake" on the show - finding the right piece to your business puzzle can be hit or miss. & that's risky business. I'm pointing you in the direction of LinkedIn Jobs. This platform helps find the right people for your team faster & for free. In just a few mins you're tapping into the largest professional network, opening doors to the candidates you actually want to be talking to. There are enough risks in business, don't let hiring be one of 'em!

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