🛍️ Gift bags, Stanley's super viral week, retail grant

Hey, Business Besties! Welcome to Female Founder World.

👇 Today we're covering

• 🎟 Peek inside Female Founder World Summit gift bags

• 🔗 Resource roundup

• 🗞️ Skim the headlines

• 👀 What we learned from Stanley’s super-viral week

Congrats on making it through BFCM! Let’s celebrate.

There are less than TWO WEEKS to go until the party of the year for small business owners, solopreneurs and founders! Come and celebrate on 9th December in New York at Female Founder World Summit.

Yes, the speaker and entertainment lineup is genuinely incredible, but let’s talk gift bags today. We’re filling a limited edition Female Founder World tote bag with products from Love Wellness, Kinfield, Odele, Briogeo, Amika, Curie, Marea, ABI AMÉ, Shaz and Kiks, and more beauty and wellness products.

We have a handful of tickets left for this one—hit the link below to secure yours.

Got a question about Summit? Reply to this email.

MONDAY: Halfdays cofounder Ariana Ferwerda is on the pod.

TUESDAY: Live business coaching call with Babba Rivera, Ceremonia founder.

On Instagram, we’re dropping a SoulCycle cofounder Julie Rice case study.

FRIDAY: Jump into the community home for a virtual hang of asks and offers.

🔒 On the business bestie dashboard: a recording of our coaching call with Babba Rivera.

• If you’re looking to launch into retail, don’t miss this accelerator from Macy’s. 🔗 Tell me more 

• We’re always told to educate our customers about the benefits of our products, and this post finally explains how to create content that actually does that. 🔗 Tell me more 

• Food and bev founders can win $25,000 in grants and mentorship from Pepsi execs through this pitch comp. 🔗 Tell me more

• If you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, this post rounds up super quick priority list for CPG founders. 🔗 Tell me more

• Canadian besties, here are 150 grants up for grabs. Someone’s going to win, so let’s make it you? 🔗 Tell me more

• This founder had a 9-figure exit for her deodorant brand. Now she’s sharing the lessons behind entrepreneurship that she’s learning from pickleball. It’s an A+ follow. 🔗 Tell me more

• 🔒 SmartSweets founder, Tara Bosch, hosted a live Q&A for Business Besties last week. Couldn’t make it? Paid members can watch the recording. 🔗 Tell me more

MONEY: Female Founders Fund is raising $75M that they will use to invest in women-led companies. Go get that investment! 

FASHION: Sofia Richie Grainge is collabing with Matilda Djerf on a product line. They’re teasing the launch on Instagram and you know this is going to sell out.

FOOD & BEV: Snaxshot is the viral media destination for discovering what’s cool and new in the food and bev world, and their founder Andrea just announced their newest offering, Snaxverse. The tech tool is going to allow customers to explore new brands that fit their tastes instead of yucking someone else’s yum and leaving bad reviews just because you’re not into super-sweet beverages, for example. 

KARDASHIANS: SKKY Partners, Kim’s private investment firm, just announced their first investment: a significant minority acquisition of the truffle condiment brand, TRUFF. Since launching exclusively direct-to-consumer in 2017, Truff has landed in nearly 20,000 retail stores. 

CAMPAIGNS WE LOVE: 

• SSENSE’s out-of-home (OOH) campaign has been so, so good. 

• No one does a launch like SET Active. This rom-com themed social campaign launched their new sleepwear.

What we learned from Stanley’s super-viral week

Stanley, the brand known for its travel cups, earned over 100 million views this month thanks to a perfect response to this viral video. We’re taking notes!

In case you missed it, a viral video showed a woman's car that caught fire, but her Stanley cup inside was still in perfect condition—even with ice! This video has over 80 million views on TikTok and has been shared by Business Insider, Daily Mail and New York Post.

Stanley responded to the video in under 24 hours with an offer to replace the cup and the car! The response has been wildly viral, gaining over 30 million views.

Our girl Meagan Loyst, founder of Gen Z VC, broke down the ad savings (a casual $1M) and the ROI from the viral vid in this post.

How can your brand replicate this viral moment? 

Social listening: Your entire team needs to be on the lookout for brand mentions online, and trending content within your category or adjacent to your brand values. (Anyone remember the Gorilla Glue hair incident? A hair brand could have jumped on and stitched that video!)

Move quick: If Stanley had responded to this video with a super high production value video instead of a quick stitch, it likely wouldn’t have picked up in the same way. While there’s a place for high quality content, sometimes it pays off to keep it simple and act fast.

Care for your customers: The way your treat your customers will be talked about—whether it’s great or awful. So you better make sure it’s great! Going above and beyond might go viral, but also creates a community that feels deeply connected to your brand.

🎧 New Podcast Episode: She Started an 8-Figure Fashion Biz, Halfdays, at 23