☆ Gen Z broke the marketing funnel, $1M for your biz, trend report

☁️✫Hey, Business Besties™! Welcome to Female Founder World.✫☁️

Today’s lineup:

• Resource roundup

• Skim the headlines

• 8 books for entrepreneurial baddies

• You’re invited: Group business coaching

• Retail Bootcamp is live! Come and launch or level up your wholesale business in 30 days with us. 🔗 Tell me more

• Woah, there’s a $1 million investment opportunity open right now! 🔗 Tell me more

• Black female founders, this pitch competition wants to hand you $10k. 🔗 Tell me more 

• The investors behind brands like Glossier and Dollar Shave Club just dropped a 2024 consumer trend report. 🔗 Tell me more 

• iFundWomen has a $10k grant open. 🔗 Tell me more

• Aussies, this accelerator program is dropping $100k in prizes. 🔗 Tell me more

• Break into the venture capital industry with the Gen She VC scout program 🔗 Tell me more 

• US founders can win up to $30k through this pitch comp. 🔗 Tell me more

• This college student built a platform with mentors you'll actually want to learn from. 🔗 Tell me more

• Another 8 grant opportunities for female founders are open here. 🔗 Tell me more

• Julie Rice, the co-founder of Soulcycle and Peoplehood, wants you to come to her event. 🔗 Tell me more

• Beauty besties, this list of cosmetics suppliers is sooo valuable. 🔗 Tell me more

• Get bootstrapping tips, crowdfunding lessons and more advice on our free group business coaching call with CrateAway’s founder next week. 🔗 Tell me more

MARKETING: Vogue did an awesome piece on how Gen-Z broke the “marketing funnel”. Essentially, since this new gen spends most of their time online, they’re constantly engaging with, being inspired by, and in community with brands they love, instead of the typical “awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty” funnel that marketing teams have been following for years. You have to read Vogue’s entire piece—we loved it! 

BEAUTY: Women in sport, lfg! Charlotte Tilbury just beacme the first ever female-founded brand to sponsor Formula 1 racing. Obsessed with this news.

Amazon and Beauty Independent are teaming up on a one day summit for top Amazon and beauty leaders. Beauty Independent’s founder said “Amazon has become a key retailer for almost every beauty and wellness brand of note. The question is no longer whether to be on Amazon, but when and how to best do so.” 

TECH: YouTube now makes creators disclose when they’ve used AI to create anything that “could be mistaken for a real person, place or event”. Interestinggg.

GEN ALPHA: Mantle Skincare isn’t letting Gen Alpha buy their advanced skincare products. This is an interesting move after the whole “kids at Sephora” phenomenon kicked off, with more tweens than ever shopping for skincare.

WELLNESS: Goli Nutrition, the supplement brand that raised $100M in 2021, is being sold to avoid filing for bankruptcy. They’re stocked at big retailers like Ulta, CVS and Target.

LIFESTYLE: Looks like Meghan Markle’s dropping the next celebrity brand. She’s been teasing a new lifestyle brand on IG.

CELEBS: Olivia Rodrigo's handing out emergency contraceptives and condoms to the girlies at her concerts. We love that she’s working with Julie, the emergency contraceptive brand founded by Amanda E.J. Morrison and Julie Schott, the co-founder of Starface.

MONEY: ShopMy, the platform that allows creators like Alix Earle to monetize content through tools like digital storefronts, raised $18.5M. Investors include Jennifer Fliess, co-founder of Rent The Runway. 

LAYOFFS: An Outdoor Voices bankruptcy is apparently imminent after some major layoffs recently, and all 16 stores were closed. 💔

CAMPAIGNS WE LOVED:

• Liquid Death and e.l.f cosmetics teamed up and it’s kinda wild.

• SET Active can do no wrong in our eyes rn. Their recent collab with Reebok is the stuff of partnership dreams. Gimme all of it!

• Newly engaged Alex Cooper (Call Her Daddy Podcast) is the face of Skims’ new bridal line. This marketing movie is smart.

• Leon’s Bagels and Djerf Avenue are making a collab bagel.

• Covergirl is tapping their community to be the face of the brand for their first ever #BeACovergirl campaign.

• Wooden Spoon Herbs, a brand crushing it in the Female Founder World community, is launching at Whole Foods in the mood and stress category. Go get your medicinal herbs and support a Business Bestie.

• Monica Lewinsky is the new face of Reformation and the internet cannot cope.

• It was Expo West (aka the CPG Superbowl) this month and lots of new launches were announced there:

  • Taika is launching a Strawberry Matcha flavor RTD. 

  • Blume and BelliWelli both launched their own a gut-healing powders

• Supergoop’s activation is the stuff of popup dreams.

• Perelel created merch for a great cause.

No idea what to read next? These founders shared their top picks to launch or level up in different areas of your biz.

🤳 To level up your marketing:

• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout - recommended by Kim Lewis, CEO and co-founder of Curlmix

• Sweet Success by Candace Nelson - recommended by Nyakio Grieco, co-founder of Thirteen Lune

🛍 To level up your retail game:

• The Secret Life of Groceries by Bejamin Lorr - recommended by Kayla Castañeda, CEO and co-founder of Agua Bonita

💪 To level up as a leader:

• How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis - recommended by Tara Bosch, founder of SmartSweets

• Zero to One by Peter Thiel - recommended by Ali Wyatt, co-founder of Female Founder Collective

• Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 by Jim Collins - recommended by Jen Batchelor, CEO and co-founder of Kin Euphorics

✨ To level up your mindset:

• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz - recommended by Rooshy Roy, CEO and founder of Aavrani

• The Comfort Book by Matt Haig - recommended by Aishwarya Iyer, CEO and founder of Brightland

URL Event: Group Business Coaching Call with Crateaway Founder, Kristyn Berland

♡🎧On The Pod: Her Customers Invested $4.5M and Co-Own Her Business—CurlMix Founder Kim Lewis