⚡️ TikTok x Sephora incubator, AI tips for biz owners, supplier contacts

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. 

— Jasmine 

Did someone forward you this email? Welcome! Subscribe here.

👇 Today we're covering

• 📓 Resource roundup

• 🗞️ Skim the headlines

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

• 💘 How Jaclyn Fu Sold Over 1 Million Bras Online

• 🎉 Female Founder World x Museum of Ice Cream party pics

• ⚡️ Live Workshop: AI Shortcuts to Simplify and Supercharge Your Content Workflow

• 💻 Live Workshop: Create Your Business Plan With LeAnn Darland, Talea Beer Co. (Business Bestie subscribers only)

• 🎧 New Podcast Ep: #HalfTheStory Founder Larissa May Quit Her Startup Job to Build a NonProfit

📓 Resource roundup

• Female Founder World asked some of the founders behind really cool brands which freelancers, agencies, and suppliers they're using and loving. We turned the answers into a list of best-in-the-biz contacts for consumer brand builders 😎. It's updated regularly and now available in the Google Drive to Business Bestie members. Know a great publicist, accountant, lawyer, lab, fulfillment center, graphic designer, web developer, or any other superstars serving the biz community? Reply to this email with your recommendation and we'll add them to the list. 🔗 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's been working on something new to help your biz get funded: Cherub, a two-sided marketplace for up-and-coming founders to connect with angel investors. (IKR!? SMART!) They're taking applications now, and we know you want in. 🔗 Tell me more

• Wait, while we're talking about Jaclyn Johnson, she also 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. 🔗 Tell me more

• Gen Z VCs is the community and newsletter covering trends, business and more through a Gen Z lens. 25-year-old creator Meagan Loyst is the face behind the content whose POV has been read by millions of people and is constantly being published by Business Insider and Fast Company. She's got a lot of interesting stuff to say—you'll like her newsletter, promise. 🔗 Tell me more

• $100k is up for grabs to US-based businesses with a female leadership team (we’re looking at you, business besties!). Finalists of the PitchHER competition will compete for the investment from Backstage Capital, which will be split among three winners. 🔗 Tell me more

• Gabrielle Union teamed up with LinkedIn to award three Black female-owned businesses in the fashion, skincare, and hair industry $25k grants. 🔗 Tell me more

• Here's another shot at funding—this time from IFundWomen and Botox. Apply before 7 April to *maybe* become one of 20 winners to land $25k grants, coaching, and mentorship. 🔗 Tell me more

• We're usually TikTok girlies, not Twitter girlies, but sometimes there's a tweet too good to scroll past. This Twitter thread breaks down goals for your first year in business, covering cash flow, how to get customers, storytelling, and more. 🔗 Tell me more

• Manychat's a startup offering Instagram direct message automation. Think of it like Klaviyo or MailChimp for your Instagram DMs and an easy way to automate your Instagram messages. 🔗 Tell me more

🗞️ Skim the headlines

SOCIAL MEDIA: Sephora's partnering with TikTok and marketing agency Digitas on an incubator program to get emerging beauty brands up to speed on the ways creators are driving growth and engagement on TikTok. The first round of brands were pulled from past Sephora Accelerate programs and include Hyper Skin, Topicals, and Eadem. They'll learn from TikTok creators including Amy Chang (@bondenavant on TikTok, 1.6 million followers), Rocio Lopez-Jimenez (1.5 million followers) and Nyma Tang (164k followers on TikTok). Got FOMO? This isn't a one time thing. The program will happen every quarter with three new Sephora Accelerate brands that have launched at the retailer.

Meanwhile, fun new generative AI tools are coming to YouTube, starting with the ability to virtually swap oufits and create "fantastical film settings". YouTube says the new features will drop in the next few months.

Oh, and you should still be posting to Instagram btw. According to new research from Glossy, it's the best social platform for building brand and driving sales.

CELEB BRANDS: Sorry if you're sick of celeb CPG brands, because we're kinda into this one—hot sauce by Ed Sheeran added to his brand, Tingly Ted (lol!). At least it's not another celeb skincare biz, besties.

RETAIL: Popup Grocer opened its first-ever permanent location in New York. It's cute af and showcases a nonstop lineup of emerging brands, with 400+ products and a fun experiential element: a café showcasing rotating bakers-in-residence and coffee providers. Also, haircare fave, Ceremonia, founded by Babba Rivera, is also building out a retail location in Soho, New York. You won't be able to miss it 🎨. Over at Sephora, chic candle brand Nette, founded by Carol Han Pyle, just landed.

MONEY: BelliWelli, best known for the tastiest probiotic brownies around, just closed a $15.4M Series A. Congrats to Katie Wilson and her husband/cofounder Nick Wilson, that's big time!

Another business baddie just landed serious investment this month: Beauty entrepreneur and influencer Deepica Mutyala and the Live Tinted team closed a $10M Series A round! So far they've sold 1 million units of beauty product since launching in 2018.

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

🕒 29 March at 6pm ET

You know you should be investing more energy into TikTok, but you’re not sure how to be strategic on the platform in 2023. We get it: start here!

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.

💘 How Jaclyn Fu Sold Over 1 Million Bras Online

Jaclyn Fu grew up hating her size 32A chest. She stuffed her bra with socks, was in an ongoing war against gaping bra cups, and felt mortified about her smaller chest. It was the '00s you guys, and big boobs were everything.

In 2017 she noticed inclusive lingerie companies innovating for bigger sizes, but there was still nothing that fit small chests—standard bras in the US are created from a 36C model and scaled down or up, but this approach just doesn’t ‘result in a bra that fits small chests. So she created Pepper, a brand celebrating the IBTC (iykyk!!) that now hits 8-figures in sales.

Now she had the business idea, and she needed a scrappy, cheap way to validate it. She emailed friends and family with three questions:

What bra size are you? What brand do you wear? And, do you love your bra?

Everyone who was small chest came back with, “I hate my bra, it doesn't fit, but there's no other option, so what am I gonna do about it?”

Jaclyn wanted more validation that this idea was needed, so launched with a Kickstarter to fund the business. It took off and was funded in 10 hours.

She quit her job right away to focus on Pepper.

"The craziest thing was it wasn't my mom or my aunts or my cousins, it was strangers who were finding this Kickstarter campaign, writing into us saying things like, 'Where have you been all my life? I've been waiting for a brand like yours.' That's when I knew we were really onto something."

A big struggle for Jaclyn has been managing inventory for a fast-growing apparel business.

"I think a lot of what also helped us is shorter lead times. So working with your manufacturing partners to shorten the lead time will help you react to inventory, learnings, and, and situations faster."

Pepper began selling only through its website, and to this day continues to sell entirely direct-to-consumer and has zero stockists. This approach typically means brands need to spend on ads, and Pepper's constantly looking for creative ways to reach new audiences.

Last year they spent a scrappy $15,000 to try Hulu ads. For reference, most Hulu ads cost companies over $50,000.

"Typically our best performing ads feature my face in them, just me sharing my authentic story. That's what seems to really resonate with people."

➡️ Keep learning about how Jaclyn built Pepper.

🎉 Female Founder World x Museum of Ice Cream Party Pics

Thanks to everyone who came to Female Founder World at the Museum of Ice Cream last week.

✨ WHAT A NIGHT. ✨

We wanted to create a business conference that felt nothing like a business conference (fun! inspiring! friendly! relevant!) and pretty sure we pulled it off. These pics of Nadya Okamoto, cofounder of August, say it all:

All the party pics are in, and they're SO fun. Check them out here, and be sure to credit our photographer Xin Wang if you post. We're @femalefounderworld on Instagram and TikTok.

The next Female Founder World will be announced soon in this newsletter. 👀

⚡️ AI Shortcuts to Simplify and Supercharge Your Content Workflow: Live Online Workshop

🕒 20 March at 7pm ET

Everyone's talking about ChatGPT at the moment, but there are dozens of AI tools that business owners and content marketers should be using in their content workflows. We'll be covering the best ones and how to use them in this live workshop hosted with Moodelier founder, Claire Xue.

In this session we’ll be diving into:

• How AI is changing entrepreneurship and what it means as a business owner, plus some legal and ethical stuff to think about

• How to get Chat GPT to write in your brand’s tone of voice

• Understanding different platforms that can create images, and how brands can use them

• How to repurpose content for multiple mediums using AI

• Practical AI advice for business owners

• Plus! Bring a TikTok/Reels video or audio content and we’ll turn it into written content together

Here's an example of an image Claire generated using AI 😱.

💻 Create Your Business Plan With LeAnn Darland, Talea Beer Co. (Business Bestie subscribers only)

🕒 28 March at 7pm ET

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. Helpful stuff!

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: #HalfTheStory Founder Larissa May Quit Her Startup Job to Build a Nonprofit—It Became A Global Movement

Larissa May was building Kin Euphorics with founder Jen Batchelor when her nonprofit, #HalfTheStory started taking off. Today she’s a digital wellbeing pioneer with a thriving nonprofit who shapes legislation, works with huge companies like Pinterest and Maybelline, and has reached thousands of students with programming that’s creating a healthier and more equitable digital future.

In this interview, Larz chats with Female Founder World's Jasmine Garnsworthy about how to build a nonprofit, cause marketing, and how to reconsider your relationship with technology as a chronically online founder (all of us).