💡 Influencer gifting ideas, Ulta Accelerator, tradeshow calendar

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👇 Today we're covering

• 📓 Resource roundup

• 🗞️ Skim the headlines

• 🤳 How Etoile Collective got a mega-influencer to organically post about their brand

• 🗽 IRL event: Female Founder World x Popup Grocer in NYC

• 🔒 URL event: Biz coaching with Coco & Eve founder Emily Hamilton (Business Bestie Members Only—sign up your team!)

• BIPOC-owned beauty brands, get your applications in for the Ulta MUSE Accelerator! Eight brands will land a place in the 2023 program and learn how to get ready for retail. Applications close 26 June. 🔗 Tell me more

• Still need a summer intern? Looking for Gen Z content creators to join your team part time? You need ‘Home From College’. 🔗 Tell me more

• Female-founded businesses working to make the world better for parents and families should apply for this new $10,000 grant. It just opened today, so you're the first to know! 🔗 Tell me more

• We want to give you $1,000 cash and shout out your biz all over the internet! Enter Female Founder World’s Grant to End Gatekeeping for a chance to win cash and other money-can’t-buy prizes. 🔗 Tell me more

• This AI-powered advisor lets you know exactly what tech tools you should add to your biz based on what you’re building. So cool AND will save hours. 🔗 Tell me more

• Hey, Canadian small biz! Enter this grant before June 15 for a chance to win $25,000 funding. 🔗 Tell me more

• So we’re usually TikTok girlies, but this Twitter thread to gatekeep. It breaks down how to make more time in your calendar. 🔗 Tell me more

• Here’s a breakdown of 2022’s top beauty manufacturers. Scroll to see which brands are making the most product right now. 🔗 Tell me more

• 🔒 We created a calendar of tradeshows to check out in 2023 and beyond for Business Bestie members. 🔗 Tell me more 

FOOD & BEV: Snacking is on the rise in a big way. Data shows almost half of US consumers have three or more snacks daily, an 8% rise in two years. Thanks to Gen Z and millennials choosing snacks over meals, snacks are now a $181 billion industry.

LAUNCHES: Latinx haircare brand Ceremonia just launched a perfume. It’s already been covered on Refinery29, The Cut, Hypebae, and all over Instagram. Reminder: Ceremonia was founded by business bestie Babba Rivera (check out her interview on the Female Founder World podcast).

Glow Recipe dropped a Hyaluronic Gloss Balm, which they teased with the cutest UGC clip on TikTok. Listen to Glow Recipe founders Christine Chang and Sarah Lee on the Female Founder World podcast here.

Launching something cool? Reply to this email and tell us all about it.

AMAZON: If you’re not on Amazon yet, it’s time to make moves. New stats show Amazon sellers averaged over $230,000 in sales last year— and indie sellers account for more than 60% of total sales across the platform.

MONEY: Dust off your pitch deck. Selva Ventures is preparing to invest $34 million in health, beauty and wellness consumer brands. In the past they have invested in businesses like Mid-Day Squares and House of Wise.

MARKETING: Glossy dropped its list of this year’s top fashion and beauty marketers, including tactical case studies and ideas to inspire your next marketing moves.

Getting an influencer with over half a million Instagram and 1.2 million TikTok followers to post about your small business—without paying them—is an art.

This week Etoile Collective (you’ve seen their mirrors and makeup cases all over TikTok) pulled it off with one of the most personalized and creative influencer gifts we’ve ever seen for influencer Sopha Dopha (Sophia Begg). Sopha’s notoriously hard to gift, so this is an even bigger win.

Founder Michelle Hu packed the influencer gift with personalized touches and emotional meaning—including both Soph’s cat and her mom. Ahead, Michelle walked Female Founder World through how she made it happen.

1. Michelle saw Soph post about an upcoming trip to Europe and decided to create an elaborately personal gift for the vacation. She reached out to Soph’s manager for shipping info, then worked with an artist, Sara Sidari, to handpaint Etoile Collective makeup cases with an Italy-inspired lemon print for both Soph and her mom. The only thing better than a nice gift is a nice gift you can share with someone you love, so think about how to include your target influencer’s friends or family in your next gifting campaign.

2. Michelle figured that Soph would miss her cat, Pumpkin, while traveling. So, she added something special for Pumpkin, too. She filled the makeup case with fancy cat food created specifically for Soph’s breed of cat, British Shorthair.

3. The package included a card with a QR code. That QR code didn’t link to a product, but to a perfectly curated playlist for Pumpkin to listen to while Soph was traveling. Hits include tracks from The Lion King and by The Pussycat Dolls. 💀💀💀 The lesson here is that humor always wins.

4. Soph ended up posting a video to her Instagram Stories about the press package, giving Etoile Collective visibility to over 500,000 followers.

   Claps for Michelle—she earned that organic coverage.

IRL Event: Female Founder World x Popup Grocer in New York

🕒 Tuesday June 6, 7-9pm EDT

Female Founder World's hosting a party with Popup Grocer in New York City, presented by Gorgias!

Taste-test the cutest new brands, grab a gift bag on the way out, and listen in to a candid fireside chat with Swoon founder Jennifer Ross alongside Jasmine Garnsworthy, creator of Female Founder World.

Space is very limited and offered to Business Bestie subscribers first.

URL Event: Group Business Coaching with Coco & Eve founder Emily Hamilton

🕒 Monday, 19 June, 8-8:30pm EDT

Emily Hamilton spent $220,000 to launch her beauty brand Coco & Eve, starting with a single hair mask. Six years later she’s well on her way to $100 million in annual revenue and sells 600 of those OG hair masks every day—plus a full line of skin and hair products. 🤯 

Emily’s on the Female Founder World podcast this week. Plus, she’s hosting a virtual Group Business Coaching call just for Female Founder World Business Bestie subscribers.

Today Coco & Eve’s available at Ulta Beauty, Sephora, and more international stockists, and Emily has some tips on how you can get stocked with the big retailers too. Can’t make the coaching session? Scroll for some quick tips.

• Get your customers to be your advocates. Coco & Eve’s customers kept asking for their products in-store, and eventually the retailers listened! Encourage your customers to ask for your products in stores where you're not yet stocked.

• Prioritize press coverage. Emily says some buyers spotted media coverage of Coco & Eve before bringing the brand in-store.

• Identify the right contact. Do your research and make sure your pitch lands in the hands of the decision-maker. Try LinkedIn and RocketReach to get the deets.

• Go IRL and make connections at tradeshows. Emily recommends CosmoProf and in-cosmetics Global to network with buyers.

🎧 New podcast episode: Coco & Eve founder, Emily Hamilton