👀 Sephora's doubling down, business plan 101, Shark Tank news

Hey, welcome to Female Founder World, the place to meet your business besties online and IRL. This is our free 5-minute email keeping thousands of consumer brand builders in the loop. New friends are welcome! Feel free to forward this email to your people. 

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👇 Today we're covering

• 📓 Resource roundup

• 🗞️ Skim the headlines

• 🤳 Live Workshop: How to Win on TikTok in 2023

• 💘 Trinity Mouzon Wofford started a side hustle with $2,000. Now it's landing in ULTA

• 👉 Get supplier and freelancer recommendations from the coolest brand founders

• 💻 Live workshop: Create your business plan with LeAnn Darland, cofounder of Talea (Business Bestie subscribers only)

• 🎧 New podcast ep: Ashley Mills spent $200 to validate her multi-million dollar business idea, Obé Fitness

📓 Resource roundup

• Founders raising money, listen up. We just found the (free) bible for fundraising: From your pitch deck template to tips on getting investor leads, it’s good stuff. 🔗 Tell me more

• If you’re a US-based founder making between $100,000 and $499,000 a year, you’re almost out of time to enter this program. Apply by March 31 for the opportunity to score mentorship and a $10,000 grant. 🔗 Tell me more

• Canadian founders can apply to become 2023’s Canada’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Past winners include Knix founder Joanna Griffiths—so if you're making big moves, don't sleep on it. 🔗 Tell me more

• Gatsby is a tool helping you find influencers and UGC creators who already love your brand, rather than reaching out cold to creators who haven't used your product. It's a shortcut to more ~authentic~ content and partnerships. 🔗 Tell me more

• You know Jaclyn Johnson as the serial-founder-turned-investor who built and sold Create & Cultivate for a cool $22M. Well, she just dropped a fundraising course to help founders get the investment they deserve. We've scoped it out, and it's def an investment, but also exactly what you need if you're serious about raising money. Use the code FFW10 for 10% off. (Oh, and yeah we shared this last week... With the wrong link. Oops) 🔗 Tell me more

• The Female Founder World group chat's been going off this week. We've been comparing product samples and giving each other feedback, sharing tips on getting set up with Meta ads, recommending tax accountants, and spilling the best apparel manufacturers. The Female Founder World community >>>. 🔗 Tell me more

🗞️ Skim the headlines

RETAIL: Sephora is really doubling down on the sexual wellness space, which it launched into last year. British brand Luna Daily (known for its pH-balanced body washes suitable for use, well, everywhere) will land in 260 Sephora stores across the US next month. Luna Daily just raised $3.7M to fund all this growth, after launching in the UK literally just one year ago! The brand’s founded by Katy Cottam, who used to head up brand marketing at Charlotte Tilbury. TikTok-famous beauty brand, Basma Beauty is also landing on Sephora.com this week after launching in 2021.

Standard Dose, the popular wellness retailer, seems to be facing some financial troubles. We spotted this news on Beauty Independent, and apparently, Standard Dose owes money to more than a dozen of the brands they carry, with one brand being owed a whopping $40,000. The worst part? They're not responding to payment requests.

WEB3: There's a new, super practical tool helping Shopify merchants tap into the power of Web3. It's created by Ty Haney, who built Outdoor Voices before launching TYB, a community-powered loyalty program built on the blockchain. The news is that TYB now integrates directly with Shopify, letting brands reward shoppers for writing reviews, referring friends, and posting on social with digital collectibles in the TYB Shopify App. Brands like June Shine, Body, Loverboy and Topicals are already using it.

SHARK TANK: Aussies, you're getting a local version of Shark Tank—and applications are open now. There’s an absolutely killer lineup of sharks joining, including Showpo’s Jane Lu and serial entrepreneur Dr Catriona Wallace. 

FOOD & BEVERAGE: Jing Gao, founder and CEO of Fly by Jing, just landed $12M of funding. Jing first started her food empire after raising $120,000 on Kickstarter. If our math is mathing, that's a lotta growth in just a few years. Stoked for you, Jing.

In another major win for female founders in the food and bev space, Kayla Castañeda, the founder and CEO of Agua Bonita, has announced that her ready-to-drink canned aguas fresca biz is launching across the US into Whole Foods AND in Target stores across Canada. Get it, Kayla.

CELEB: Who knew Vanessa Hudgens was such an entrepreneurial baddie? She's the face and cofounder of a cactus water brand and a margarita brand, and now she's relaunching her beauty brand, Know Beauty. It was originally launched with singer Madison Beer with a pretty.. umm.. busy concept. You’d send in a DNA sample and they’d come back with personalized skincare recommendations. Now, they're relaunching with a more simple offering: Know Beauty will be selling one product, a $35 clay mask, on Amazon.

TECH LAYOFFS: Amazon is about to lay off another 9,000 employees, or 3% of their workforce. This comes after they already slashed 18,000 jobs recently. Disney is also expected to make 7,000 employees redundant, and Meta said last week that they'll be laying off another 10,000 people, after cutting 11,000 in November. It's not a good time for tech workers. If you've been laid off and want to start a business, this founder has been there: Swipe through Kayla’s story about building a Whole Foods-stocked beverage business after being let go.

BEAUTY: Trinity Mouzon Wofford and her business partner (also hubby!) have been busy. They've raised over $1M from incredible investors and announced this month they're launching in ULTA (all while also building the cutest little fam). Talk about a power couple. We're diving deep on their story at the bottom of this email, so keep scrolling. 

🤳 How to win on TikTok in 2023: Live online workshop

🕒 29 March at 6pm ET

Female Founder World has tapped TikTok expert Taryn Lamb (she’s an SMB Account Manager at TikTok!) to lead this workshop for consumer brand builders about how to win on TikTok in 2023. 

We’re covering creative best practices, real life examples from brands who are seeing great results on the platform, and the tips you need to know to create a hit. You’ll also learn how to DIY a successful paid TikTok campaign, from goal setting through to execution. 

Phew, that’s a lot! Get ready to take notes, ask questions, and win on TikTok in 2023.

💘 Trinity Mouzon Wofford started a side hustle with $2,000. Now it's landing in ULTA

Trinity Mouzon Wofford was studying to become a doctor when she saw nontraditional medicine help her mom treat an autoimmune disease. It sparked the idea for what became Golde in 2017—a modern and accessible superfood wellness brand.

She was 23 and (srsly love this part of the story!) teamed up with her high school sweetheart and now husband to pool $2,000 in savings and start the business.

They taught themselves everything from packaging design to photography, business finance and product formulation, and moved in with Trinity's mom to save money. Golde doubled revenues every year and now, six years later, Golde is a big player in the wellness space and sold in stores like Goop, Target and (this was just announced this week!) Ulta Beauty.

Trinity started Golde as a side hustle with her high school sweetheart (now husband!).

“We didn't have a ton of experience. We didn't have any funding to put into the business, so we just learned our way through it, figured it out and Googled around.”

Once they nailed the branding and the formula for their first product, a turmeric latte, they started putting boots on the ground and going door-to-door to local cafes and mom and pop shops, looking for stockists.

Instead of focusing on making sales through her own website when Golde launched, Trinity went door-to-door at cafes and independent stores to find her first stockists.

"What we found was, as a small bootstrapped brand, one of the best things that we could do was to partner with these more established retailers who already had foot traffic and tons of digital traffic if it was an online retailer."

2020 was a massive shift for Golde. With retailers closing up shop due to the pandemic, suddenly their website became the main revenue-driver.

There was also a huge focus on supporting Black-owned businesses. Support poured in from celebs like the Kardashians and Beyonce, who posted about Golde, and their product was back-ordered for months.

"We switched out our production facilities, our warehouses, everything needed to be upgraded and engineered for a new level of scale." 

Her advice to new founders is: "Make sure you get references from these partners before you go ahead and start with them. At the end of the day, partners are representing your business and you're counting on them."

In 2021, Golde landed at their first mass retailer: Target. Trinity first met a senior staffer from Target at a dinner, but took the partnership slowly, learning what pricing structure and packaging would succeed at the retailer. She eventually joined the Target Accelerator Program and, over time, redesigned a line of products that would specifically work well for Target.

Today, Golde has raised over $1 million from entrepreneurs-turned-investors like HBFIT founder Hannah Bronfman, Nasty Gal and Girlboss founder Sophia Amoruso, Briogeo founder Nancy Twine, and Live Tinted founder Deepica Mutyala.

Golde used this cash to launch new products and expand into new stockists—including Ulta! Trinity's been having conversations with Ulta for years, and this week Golde finally lands in 750-plus Ulta Beauty doors and online! Congrats, Trinity.

👉 All of the best supplier contacts from the coolest founders

Female Founder World asked female founders building the coolest brands around (we're talking Tower28 and Ceremonia cool) which freelancers, agencies, and suppliers they're using and loving. Those answers were put together in a gorgeous list of best-in-the-biz contacts for consumer brand builders like you. 🤌 

We'll be updating it regularly, but paid members can take a peek now in the Business Besties digital downloads folder. Know a great accountant, publicist, lawyer, lab, graphic designer, or any other rockstar serving the biz community? Reply to this email with your recommendation and we'll add them to the list (thanks, btw!).

➡️ Become a business bestie and access the list.

Camber is an app for finding new places with familiar faces. It’s for tourists that want to feel like locals and locals that want to feel like tourists. And, it's created by friend of Female Founder World, Mady Maio.

💻 TONIGHT: Create your business plan with LeAnn Darland, cofounder of Talea (Business Bestie subscribers only)

🕒 28 March at 7pm ET

Spend the night zooming out on your business, and let's make a plan for success together.

LeAnn Darland, co-founder of Talea Beer Co., is teaching Female Founder World Business Bestie subscribers how to write a business plan in this 50-minute virtual workshop geared towards CPG and consumer brand builders. 

LeAnn launched Talea, the first woman-owned brewery in NYC, in 2021. It's been like, five minutes, and they're already stocked in Whole Foods, employ over 30 people, and have a 9,000 square foot facility.

LeAnn also has an MBA, along with the practical biz experience, and is hands down the best person to show you how to create a practical plan for your consumer business.

This workshop is only for our Business Bestie subscribers. DW though, it’s easy to join here.

🎧 New Podcast Ep: Ashley Mills Spent $200 to Validate Her Multi-Million Dollar Business Idea, Obé Fitness

Ashley Mills and her co-founder were working corporate jobs in talent management when they fell in love with boutique fitness classes. They realized that not everyone had access to the IG-worthy yoga, spin and pilates that they’d gotten hooked on, so they created obé Fitness, an online fitness platform to democratize access.

She first spent around $200 to validate her business idea: a live on-demand fitness platform that prioritizes entertainment and exercise. She went on to build an absolute tech powerhouse, raising $15 million, producing more than 10,000 classes, and partnering with Disney! 

In this episode of the pod, Ashley chats with Female Founder World's Jasmine Garnsworthy about how she validated her idea, got her first customers, scaled the business, and hired a dream team.