Hi Business Bestie. Today we’re kicking off the Build In Public Challenge, sharing new grants and tips for getting on the Forbes 30u30 list (nominations are open), a big shift in influencer marketing, Jasmine’s July smart swaps (including a new AI tool for Slack!), and a case study exclusively for paid subscribers.
GRANTS, OPPORTUNITIES + TOOLS
RESOURCE ROUNDUP
✶ Consumer founders, apply for Makers Mindset’s Summer Grant to access $10,000 in equity-free funding. 🔗 Tell me more
✶ Forbes 30u30 nominations are open until the end of August. Paige on Team FFW made the list this year and has some tips: Try get nominated by a previous 30u30 lister; build a personal relationship with the Forbes team; and lock in to stack up some milestones over the next six weeks and apply close to the deadline. No brownie points for applying early—get some big wins first! 🔗 Tell me more
✶ First place in this WBENCPitch competition receives $20,000. 🔗 Tell me more
✶ US businesses that have been operating for at least a year and generating $100,000 in annual revenue are eligible for this $5,000 grant. 🔗 Tell me more
✶ Tory Burch Foundation’s funding finder will help you figure out which funding options are right for your business. 🔗 Tell me more
✶ Y Combinator’s accepting applications for the Fall 2026 Batch funding cycle. It’s happening October to December in San Francisco. 🔗 Tell me more
✶ There is $40,000 available to female food and beverage founders with at least $500,000 of lifetime sales. 🔗 Tell me more
PRESENTED BY ADOBE EXPRESS
The Build In Public Challenge Starts Now
Feel like everyone has figured out founder content except you? We are kicking off something new for you at Female Founder World: the Build In Public Challenge, a free 12 week program that starts now.
Building in public helped brands like OddMuse, Parke, Real Fine, Heaven Mayhem, and so many others who have been on the show to cut through in crowded categories. We have heard the stories. We all know being a forward-facing founder has huge potential to grow our businesses. And yet we’re holding back. It’s probably for one of the following reasons:
You don’t know what to post that feels brand aligned and also gets views.
The content you produce doesn’t look “right”.
You don’t have the budget for a social media team.
You’re too busy to post consistently.
Posting feels cringe.
I’m hosting the challenge to help you overcome this. On the show every week and in this newsletter you will receive:
Weekly content prompts to personalize and recreate that are timely, plus guidance to help you leverage founder-forward content to strengthen your actual brand world.
Mini tutorials showing how to use tools like Adobe Express to execute the weekly content prompts.
The FFW community behind you.
Over the next 12 weeks, our Build In Public challenge will take you from zero to posting comfortably with your own singular voice and POV, and help you figure out exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it.
The first episode is live now and all about setting your foundation: Figuring out your point of view, your point of difference, and your content pillars before you post a single thing. We bust the myth that you need to be an influencer to make this work, and give you the practical first steps to actually get started.
This series is presented by Adobe Express. Create your Adobe Express account for free at adobeexpress.com—you’ll need it through the challenge.
Business, Brand + Internet Tea
SKIM THE HEADLINES
BEAUTY + BOYS: Gen Alpha boys are just as interested in beauty and personal care as Gen Alpha girls. An Ulta Beauty spokesperson shared this new research with Glossy, explaining: “Their feelings about beauty and wellness seem to be almost equal [between boys and girls], and that’s really unique. I haven’t seen that ever.” Team FFW covered some opportunities in this space on the show recently.
INFLUENCERS: Paige Lorenze is the new face of a Clinique 55th anniversary campaign.
SEPHORA ACCELERATE ✶ Sephora is revamping its accelerator program to help indie beauty brands become better prepared to enter retail, Beauty Independent reports. Right now, Amazon and TikTok Shop make it faster and cheaper for brands to launch and grow when compared to traditional bricks-and-mortar distribution. And, with indie brands now representing 32% of the $125 billion U.S. beauty market, Sephora needs to make sure indie brands are prepared to succeed on their shelves longterm. The refined Sephora Accelerate program will take a “holistic view of brand building,” and give founders mentorship from Sephora executives and veteran founders of brands like Tatcha, Tower 28 and Briogeo.
PHE PHE ✶ Lifestyle influencers Brigette and Danielle Pheloung’s brand appears to be making an entrance into the bridal industry after @acquiredstyle posted a teaser from her legal wedding in a custom look.
AI ✶ Google's Merchant Center (the free tool where you upload your product feed so you show up in Google Shopping) got an update that’s worth talking about. AI Performance Insights now shows your "share of voice,” calculating what percentage of AI answers in your category mention you vs competitors. Conversational Attributes is also new, adding extra product fields so Gemini (Google’s AI) describes your products the way you want.
REVOLVE ✶ Functional wellness drink, Seoul Tonic, just became the first ever beverage in the beauty section on Revolve. The brand’s founder Sophie Hood was on the Female Founder World podcast recently. Listen to the full episode.
REFORMATION ✶ Recently filed to go public after 17 years in business with $507 Million in sales.
COLLABS ✶ Hot Girl Pickles teamed up with SETTE on a green coquette pinky ring starting at $2000, and early orders came with a free jar.
BUMBLE ✶ Bumble is hosting 3 nights at Montauk hot spot Mary Lou’s across the summer. They placed a custom yellow photobooth inside featuring a custom Tezza filter to make sure everyone gets their best summer snaps.
PRESENTED BY OMNISEND
9 Smart Swaps Jasmine’s Making This Month
✶ Omnisend: for SMS and email marketing. SMS rates just dropped to $0.007!
✶ A4 sketch pads: for brainstorming and freeform thinking.
✶ Call Me Ted: I’m moving my content diet towards longform content like biographies. I recently revisited the Ted Turner autobiography (the guy who started CNN) on audiobook. It’s a great way to zoom out and look at how a successful life is built over many decades, rather than the hot takes and quick wins we see in our feeds every day.
✶ Bouf Growth Tonic: the best hair growth serum.
✶ Foraged For You supplements: I’m loving organic meat supplements and these capsules are organic.
✶ Capsule Wardrobe: Rebuilding a cohesive wardrobe of pieces that work together help me feel polished and get dressed quickly without decision fatigue.
✶ Viktor AI: An AI employee that lives in Slack and Teams.
✶ Brick: I’m taking back control of my screen time with this clever app blocker.
✶ Logitech Brio 4K webcam: So much better than using your computer’s inbuilt camera on calls!
Smart Swaps is presented by Omnisend, a reliable and intuitive email and SMS marketing tool trusted by over 150,000 brands just like yours. Their SMS prices just dropped and now start at $0.007.
Switching to Omnisend is the smartest swap you can make in your business today. Right now Omnisend will do the hard work for you and migrate your business from your existing email provider to get completely setup on Omnisend in just five days—free for any paid user.
Use the code FFW35 for 35% off.
NEW EPISODE JUST DROPPED
They Started Selling Lab-Grown Diamonds In 2015 Before The Boom. Today The Industry’s Worth $30 Billion
Subscriber Segment
Creator Groups Are About To Dominate Influencer Marketing: How Brands Should Tap In
This is a subscriber-only story available to paid Business Bestie members.
The most culturally resonant influencer moments now aren’t coming from individual creators, they're coming from groups. Friend groups. Squads. Collectives. And brands are starting to figure out that partnering with a group of five creators who genuinely like each other is worth more than partnering with five individual creators who've never met and whose audiences do not overlap.
A great example, taking this shift to a new level, is a group called “The 4 in the 5” that all post together…
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