Hi Business Besties. Here’s what we’re covering today.

• Resource roundup

• Register for Cash Camp

• December mentor call schedule (Siff Haider’s dropping in!)

• How to test an ambassador strategy like Good Girl Snacks

• Skim the headlines

• New podcast: 3 decisions that made Lucy Henry-Hecks $90 million last year (Dissh)

• Figure out your finances for 2026: Join Cash Camp, Female Founder World and Mercury’s new (and totally free) business finance workshop series for founders. Class starts tonight! 🔗Tell me more

• The Canva for physical products just launched. Fabra lets you choose a template or base product, design a 3D product, and share or export your tech pack. 🔗Tell me more

• Pamela Anderson’s new brand Sonsie is partnering with Shopify to gift one female founder $100,000 in cash and support to grow your business. 🔗Tell me more

• You can now capture the email addresses of your new Instagram followers. Manychat, the automatic Instagram direct message tool, dropped the new feature making it possible. 🔗Tell me more

• Wondering how much equity you should give advisors? This post has insights on what other businesses are really doing. 🔗Tell me more

• Here’s a quick AI tip for gaining press. 🔗Tell me more

• Looking for a product idea? I loved this roundup. 🔗Tell me more

• Betches cofounder Aleen Dreksler is judging the winner of this $25,000 grant. Get your applications in.🔗Tell me more 

• Fly By Jing was featured in Netflix’s Nobody Wants This . Here’s how they secured the placement. 🔗Tell me more

• The 15 Percent Pledge’s $100,000 grant is back. 🔗Tell me more

• Doing all your design yourself? Pomelli, a new AI tool from Google, helps businesses create scalable social media campaigns. Enter your website and Pomelli will create your brand identity and use it to create consistent content. 🔗Tell me more

• Add Monday, January 5, 2026 to your calendar: It’s when the second round of submissions for Allure ‘Best of Beauty’ roundup open (round one submissions just closed). This is an iconic press series and one worth pitching. Paid Business Bestie members should check out our PR workshop in your member dashboard before shooting your shot with Allure. 🔗Tell me more

We Built The Business Finance Workshop Series You Need

Too many business besties tell me you’re not confident when it comes to business finance.

It’s easy to find free advice online about content marketing and brand building, but finance is still one of the most gatekept parts of building a business.

Since Female Founder World started, I’ve been thinking about a free workshop series that plugs this knowledge gap, but I just needed the right partner to bring this to life. And then earlier this year, I met the team at Mercury and shared my vision for a live business finance workshop series taught by real-world operators and founders that was free from jargon and only shared what founders really need to know. They loved it! Enter: Cash Camp! 

This free, three-part video workshop series is kicking off on TONIGHT, November 24 and will help you build financial confidence.

Registrations are open now. Here’s what we have planned:

November 24 at 8:00 PM ET: How to Choose the Right Capital at the Right Time with Kimmy Scotti

If you’ve ever wondered whether to get a business loan or approach investors, this workshop is for you. Learn how to evaluate funding options so your working capital fits your margins, growth plan, and seasonality.

December 1 at 7:00 PM ET: Master Forecasting and Cash Flow with Vadicel Joy Abboud (COO, Gorgie, and Former CFO at Ceremonia)

Never face the panic of a cash crunch, overstock, or missed sales again. Learn how to forecast demand, plan inventory, and project cash flow with confidence.

December 8 at 7:00 PM ET: Build a Winning Pitch Deck and Investor Strategy with Kelley Arena (Investor and Founder, Golden Hour Ventures) 

Unlock the steps to crafting a pitch deck and fundraising strategy that hooks investors, communicates your vision, and sets up your capital-raising game plan.

December Schedule For Business Bestie Members

Tuesday, Dec 2 at 4:00 PM ET - Q&A with Siff Haider, Arrae

Arrae founder Siff Haider is joining the Female Founder World group chat to answer all of your questions in a live video call. Arrae’s the wellness brand that’s quickly scaled their way to $100M in revenue. They started DTC and have just recently launched into wholesale at retailers like Target and GNC.

Monday, Dec 8 at 4:00 PM ET - Dr Barbara Levin: How to Build And Manage Your Team As A Solo Founder

Dr Barbara Levin, my leadership coach who also works with a bunch of your favorite founders, is teaching in the Female Founder World group chat next month. She’s covering one of our most FAQ: how do I scale my team as a solo founder?

Tuesday, Dec 9 at 4:00 PM ET - Kelly Parker: How to Prepare to Exit Your Business

Join Kelly Parker to chat about her experience selling her business to Urban Stems. Kelly is an advisor for The Whisper Group, the exit readiness advisory firm for women-owned businesses. How can you launch and grow your business with an exit in mind? Kelly will go over all the things to know. Come ready with questions.

How To Test An Ambassador Strategy Like Good Girl Snacks

Good Girl Snacks, the brand behind the viral Hot Girl Pickles product, has been posting about a new ambassador strategy, so I asked the founders to break it down for us.

They’re being scrappy with the first phase of their ambassador program, and share how they’re testing the strategy on a tight budget.

Background: Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar had an idea for a food brand that would reinvent sleepy aisles. They were 23 years old and saw pickles trend as a snack on TikTok and thought it was a perfect place to start. The idea became Good Girl Snacks, known for their viral first product line, Hot Girl Pickles.

Milestones: Within 12 months of launch, they sold 10,000 pickle jars through their website, and within two years massive influencers like Alix Earle organically posted about them, they became Erewhon’s best-selling pickle brand, made Forbes 30 Under 30, and they’re now launching with a big retail partner–without spending a dollar on ads or influencers.

Ambassador strategy test: Good Girls Snacks is testing a college ambassador program on college campuses in cities where the brand sells in retail. It started this August at USC (University of Southern California). USC students hold influence amongst college students and LA locals, and tend to have more disposable income compared with other college students, and Leah and Yasaman predict these students can become “mini influencers for their networks of people”. So far the ROI “seems strong”, but it’s still early.

How to find ambassadors: Leah and Yasamin tasked their intern with finding their first college ambassadors, and also recommend other brands try Home From College, or share a Google form on Instagram Stories/social media.

How to run the test: GGS has an ambassador manager who texts in a chat with their ambassadors regularly. Ambassadors are asked to complete IRL tasks on campus to drive brand awareness, but also quick social engagement and content creation tasks in return for rewards.

Quick tip: Engage someone who is on campus and who will know how best to recruit and engage ambassadors at each college. Create the foundation of the program and hand then hand it off to your local college “expert.”

Next up: Leah and Yasaman plan to expand the program to colleges in Austin, New York, Dallas, Phoenix and San Diego.

BEVERAGE: Benny, the better-for-you energy drink, just launched in Target US stores! Cofounder Paige Cey is an OG Business Bestie—support her next time you’re in Target or order your Benny at Target.com. To make the launch a hit, Benny launched a new holiday-inspired flavor, Sugar Plum Fairy, for Target with creator @emmaleger, hosted a chic dinner in New York, did some wild-posting, and held a ‘Cafe Benny’ popup. Their content rollout was strong—hit reply and let me know if you want me to break down the post types and content schedule that fuelled the launch.

LAUNCHES: A while ago I predicted that creatine would be a huge wellness trend this year, and the product launches keep coming. The latest: Arrae dropped a new Tone Sour Green Apple creatine gummy as part of its Black Friday sale.

COLLABS: If there is a tween in your life, you know this generation is all about creating literal decks to share their holiday gift wish lists with parents. Canva and Urban Outfitters have tapped into this behaviour to collaborate on a set of three themed templates created exactly for this purpose. Smart.

CONTENT: Advertising budgets are ramping up for paid content ahead of the holidays. Here’s your annual reminder that organic content might not perform as well as it usually does this. 

INFLUENCERS: China is now requiring influencers have a degree to discuss topics like medicine, law, or finance. Do you think the US needs more regulation around what influencers without formal training can post about and recommend?

SEPHORA: Sephora announced its Sephora Squad 2026 class. The Sephora Squad is a year-long ambassador program connecting beauty fans with Sephora.

BEAUTY: Kim Lewis, the founder of CurlMix, shared that their haircare brand has gone from a team of 40 to 14, and is looking and potentially winding down. They’re asking their community for support and have already generated 5,000 orders through the community-focused campaign.

CELEB BRANDS: You have probably already seen the hot takes about Shay Mitchell’s new beauty brand, Rini, launching sheet masks for toddlers. TLDR: The internet is not on board.

FUNDING: Perelel, the doctor-founded supplement company for women, closed a $27 million investment from Prelude Growth Partners. You’ll catch their cofounder, Alex, on the Female Founder World podcast next month.

INSTAGRAM: Instagram’s new feature, competitive insights, show your follower growth, top performing posts, and posting frequency, compared to your competitors. Kinda obsessed.

3 Decisions That Made Lucy Henry-Hicks $90 Million Last Year

Over the past few years Lucy Henry-Hicks became a CEO, a multi-millionaire, breadwinner, and mother (twice). She’s the founder and CEO of Dissh, the iconic fashion brand reportedly on track to hit $150 million in sales this year.

When Lucy took over the business from her mom in 2020, they were a multi-brand retailer and not brand you know today.

She first joined Dissh right after school in 2006, and by 2020 had a different vision for the company than her mom, which ended in her mom leaving the business and Lucy taking over as boss.

Last year, Lucy sold part of the business to a retail magnate for $90 million—Dissh’s first external investor.

I spoke to Lucy for over an hour in LA this month to bring you the details on how she got Dissh to this point, what changes in a person’s life after become wealthy, and her advice for new brands. Everything I learned is on the Female Founder World podcast this week.

There are three decisions Lucy made while building Dissh that stuck out to me:

1. Brand and creative vision come first.

Lucy made the call to pivot Dissh from being a retailer that stocked multiple brands to a fashion label that only creates and sells Dissh-branded product. From this point onwards, she became obsessive about brand and protecting her creative vision as the brand grew.

“Creative vision is more important than anything. If you're chasing growth for growth's sake or because there's a [target] that you've agreed at a board level that needs to be met, in order to do that we've got to make some creative compromises along the way. Staying true to the creative path can maybe be like slower, but that's the long game.”

2. She didn’t build in public. And she didn’t feel guilty about it.

I personally believe sharing your story and your journey building a business is one of the most powerful ways to build community and get attention from customers and industry gatekeepers when your budgets are scrappy. Particularly if you embody your customer and can personify your brand. It’s powerful.

However, Lucy chose to stay behind the scenes and pour all of her creative energy into building Dissh as a brand, rather than herself as a personal brand that could fuel Dissh’s growth. She took over as CEO in 2020 and built the business during the peak build-in-public era on TikTok, but her decision to stay behind-the-scenes was intentional.

“My focus is growing the brand, and the brand is Dissh. The brand isn't Lucy. It's really important to me that those two things are separate, especially if you are looking to bring in partners into a business. I'm creating a business that I want to see here in 10 years, in 20 years and 30 years no matter what I'm doing. I've separated my personal brand from the Dissh brand and put all of my creative energy and vision into building Dissh, so that the brand is a reflection of me and my values and my creative style.”

There’s a difference between not showing up on social media to build in public because you’re afraid, vs because you truly believe it’s in the best interest of your brand. It’s up to you to know the difference.

3. She invested in paid media and influencers.

About 80% of Dissh’s business comes through socials and ads, and the second biggest sales driver is influencer marketing.

Lucy works with Insightly Media, a West Coast-based ad agency run by her brother, on Dissh’s paid strategy. They use a bespoke tool to dive into the psychometrics of consumer behavior and deeply understand the Dissh customer. These insights inform all of Dissh’s creative. She recommends working with a local agency based in the market you are currently focused on growing in.

“You can get a lot of information on the customer herself. We're matching that with what type of ads that customer is responding to and why. So is it a video that is shot in this particular format? Does it have a particular audio behind it or a song? There will even be differences in the tempo of the song that will influence whether an ad has a better thumb stop rate than something else.”

Get the full interview on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts.

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