Female Founder World

I LOVE it when you leave a review on the podcast. I read every single one (and usually screenshot and send them to my husband—"look how nice people are!). Drop five stars, make my day :). I have female founder Maria Littlefield on the show today. If you don't know Maria, you know her business: Owl’s Brew is sold in 18 states across the country at retailers like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Total Wine, Publix, GoPuff. Listen in and learn how she started, and how she's scaling her business.  LINKS Try Owl's Brew: www.theowlsbrew.com  Join the waitlist for the event connecting thousands of female founders IRL: www.femalefounderworld.com  Get the free 10-minute newsletter keeping 5k+ consumer brand builders in the know: www.femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com SHOWNOTES 5:00: Stay ahead of consumer trends in beverage 5:30: Going up against industry giants 07:45: Educating customers when you’re innovating in a new category 08:35: Maria’s approach to funding a physical product 13:00: How to get comfortable with asking friends, family, and connecting to invest 13:45: Events as a customer acquisition strategy.  16:00: Three tier system for distribution 19:00: Use vesting equity grants for advisors

Liv Koennecke is the female founder building Maison Essentiele, a luxe sleepwear and loungewear brand that's stocked all over the world–including at Net-a-Porter.  She did $70,000 in sales her first year and this year is looking at hitting over $750,000. Here's how she did it (and you can to). Links Join the waitlist for the event connecting thousands of female founders IRL: www.femalefounderworld.com  Get the free 10-minute newsletter keeping 5k+ consumer brand builders in the know: www.femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com Learn more about https://maisonessentiele.com  https://www.docsend.com/  https://smallpdf.com/  Shownotes 04:35 Product development 10:15: Liv’s wholesale strategy 15:40: How to pitch your brand to editors and get featured in Vogue 19:00: Influencer gifting vs sponsored posts 21:50: Alternative funding ideas to venture capital and when to take on angel investment 27:20: Tools and apps for ecomm growth 30:10: Resource recommendation!

Tanya Taylor launched her self-titled fashion brand in 2012. It was a different time for the business of fashion: pre-Tik Tok, pre-Instagram, and before spending big on online ads became the norm. We weren’t using the phrase ‘influencer’ yet, Fashion Week was still king—and ‘bloggers’ rarely got an invite.    The fashion industry’s been revolutionized in the past decade and Tanya’s been building her business through it all. How did she launch the brand back in 2012, and how would she do it differently today? What opportunities still exist for startups in the fashion industry? What’s the future of fashion rental? That’s what we’re talking about in today’s episode of the Female Founder World podcast. LINKS:  Tanya Taylor's Website: https://www.tanyataylor.com/ Join the waitlist for the event connecting thousands of female founders IRL: www.femalefounderworld.com  Get the free 10-minute newsletter keeping 5k+ consumer brand builders in the know: www.femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com

Sam Safer Valentine is the co-founder and COO of Norby, a venture-backed startup empowering creators and founders to own their audience with practical community success tools. She's an expert in helping brands and creators reclaim their social media audiences, understand and optimize your marketing funnel, and independently engage with your community.  Links Try Norby for free! https://nor.by/❤/femalefounderworld  https://www.lennysnewsletter.com Join the waitlist for the event connecting thousands of female founders IRL: www.femalefounderworld.com  Get the free 10-minute newsletter keeping 5k+ consumer brand builders in the know: www.femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com Shownotes 05:56 Why so many tech founders start agencies first. 07:33 How to adapt an optimisation mindset. 20:00 Raising VC with two male cofounders. 24:00 Day in the life of a tech founder. 27:30 Reclaim your social media following and own your audience. 32:30 SMS marketing ideas 34:00 How to centralise your social media DMs. 36:30 Resource recommendation!

My guest today is Nisha Dua, a Managing Partner at BBG Ventures, which she Co-Founded with Susan Lyne in 2014. BBG Ventures is an early-stage fund backing female founders with big ideas that will reshape the way we live.  Links https://www.bbgventures.com/  https://ifundwomen.com/ https://helloalice.com/ https://www.strictlyvc.com/  https://www.axios.com/  Join the waitlist for the event connecting thousands of female founders IRL: www.femalefounderworld.com  Shownotes (05:30): Should you actually be raising money for your business?   (08:20): The different types of funding sources for founders.   (10:40): How to get introduced to investors.   (15:30): Financial capital vs human capital and relationship capital.   (17:30): What makes a successful founder.   (20:30): Preparing for a pitch meeting.   (23:00): What startups are hot right now?  

Mo’s Crib is an ethical homewares brand out of South Africa. Sisters and cofounders Mo and Michelle Mokone use recycled PVC plastic, reclaimed from landfills and construction sites throughout South Africa.  Since launching in 2016 they've scaled internationally, including a launch into Crate and Barrel. So, how do you scale a product-based company when your supply chain is hand-workers and artisans? How do you grow ethically, and meet the demand of huge stockists? Listen to episode 56 of the Female Founder World podcast for the details. LINKS: Get the free 10-minute newsletter keeping 5k+ consumer brand builders in the know: https://femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com Learn more about Mo's Crib: https://moscrib.com/

Jennifer Ross is the cofounder of Swoon, a beverage company on track to take one billion grams of sugar out of the supply chain. Links Subscribe to our workshops for consumer brand builders: www.femalefounderworld.com

Kerrigan Behrens launched Sagely Naturals in 2015 with her cofounder Kaley Nichols after spotting a gap in the market for accessible, approachable CBD products.    After investing their own savings to produce 500 units, the pair got to work scaling a consumer brand in a category where Facebook and Google ads are banned. Today Sagely Naturals creates botanical medicine cabinet products that are stocked in 20,000 stores. How did they do it? Listen to this episode of the Female Founder World podcast to find out. LINKS: Sign up to the Female Founder World newsletter: https://femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com Learn more about Sagely Naturals: www.sagelynaturals.com

After years spent building brands at her design studio, Well Fed, Celeste Perez decided to bring her own consumer product to market: Droplet, a line of stress-balancing adaptogen and superfood-infused sparkling beverages.   Droplet launched right at the beginning of the pandemic and wow, does Celeste have some stories. Hit play to hear the speedbumps she hit while launching and how she beat them—and learn about the B2B marketplace building out Droplet’s retail strategy and the tools the team use for everything from inventory management to subscriptions. LINKS:  Get our free newsletter for tips, biz boss, and more resources. https://femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com/  Register for our free New York panel and networking event! https://newyork.shopify.com/femalefounderworld04071 Learn more about Droplet: https://drinkdroplet.com 

Ariel Kaye made the big shift from corporate life to entrepreneurship in 2014 when she saw space in the home bedding category for direct-to-consumer, high-quality bedding that appealed to millennial customers and launched Parachute. Fast-forward to 2022 and Ariel’s built a lifestyle brand and home decor empire with 14 physical stores all over the United States. So, how did she do it? Let’s find out in today’s episode of the Female Founder World podcast. LINKS:  Get our free newsletter for tips, biz goss, and more resources. https://femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com/  Register for our free New York panel and networking event! https://newyork.shopify.com/femalefounderworld04071 Learn more about Parachute: https://www.parachutehome.com/