Female Startup Club

Today we’re learning from Lilly Sparks, founder of afterglow.Afterglow is introducing a new category called erotic wellness and they’re building an online universe—where porn is made by and for the feminine gaze. A universe where doing guided masturbations and partner exercises is just as normal as reading the morning paper. Where women can be both celebrated and centered.In this episode we talk through Lilly’s transition from building a CPG company to $10m in revenue and deciding it wasn’t what she saw for her future, and transitioning into building her dream vision of what she’s truly aligned with. And holy moly it is so interesting.LINKS WE MENTION:Afterglow's InstagramAfterglow's TwitterLilly's TwitterFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramDoone's TikTokIn sponsorship with Zyro, easiest to use website builder and eCommerce platformIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we’re hearing an incredibly inspiring story from Nitasha Mehta, a woman I met in New York who works in the CPG space for a company called Boxed. And why I wanted to share this story with you is to show you how much impact you can create in the world, even without jumping straight into starting a business. I think it’s an important reminder that you can create significant impact at your place of employment; with resources and support at your fingertips.Nitasha’s an experienced digital marketer with over 15 years of expertise in e-commerce, product marketing, CRM, and shopper marketing. She currently heads up CPG Brand Partnerships at Boxed, working directly with over 60 CPG brands. She's extremely passionate about technology and equal opportunity, and she launched the RethinkPink initiative at Boxed--which led to Boxed becoming the first and only US retailer to take a stand against gender pricing inequities. She has also been involved with legislation and has testified in states that have introduced bills to repeal the Tampon Tax, 3 of which went on to repeal the tax, as well as joined Congresswoman Jackie Speier in her Pink Tax Repeal Act.I’m so inspired, and I hope you are too.LINKS WE MENTION:Nitasha's Instagram Nitasha's LinkedInFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramDoone's TikTokIn sponsorship with Zyro, easiest to use website builder and eCommerce platformIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey and welcome back to the show! It’s Doone here, your host and hype girl.In this solo episode, I will talk you through a few, just a few, of the many mistakes I’ve made with my different attempts at business. And, let’s be honest this is a just handful that I’m not so emotionally scarred from that I can actually talk about. There’s probably another handful that I’ve blocked out of my mind. It’s tempting to lock all my mistakes away and throw away the key, but there’s a real opportunity here to turn these entrepreneurial failures into learnings. So strap yourself in, here are my 7 worst business mistakes (& their learnings) that cost me thousands of dollars.Firstly, doing something that you don’t actually enjoy. Life is too short! Time is passing us by. Yesterday the pandemic just started and now we’re halfway through 2022. We should be enjoying life not hating it. We spend so much of our life working (especially as entrepreneurs) that it may as well be on something that lights a fire in our belly. Stay laser-focused on what makes you happy, and check in with yourself to make sure you’re doing what’s right for you. Secondly, doing things driven by money over passion. This is a tough one to swallow. You can get caught up in building this exciting business and the glamour of that rather than something you’re truly passionate about to your core. Check in with yourself, and make sure you have that burning passion and connection.Next, creating solutions for problems no one really needs. Or wants to pay for. Most startups fail, that’s a hard fact. Just because we have this little lightbulb go off in our heads and think it’s genius, doesn’t mean people will want to actually pay money for your solution. Make sure you do the research and prove out your business concept before you go all in.Then, hiring too early. This one sucks. And this is where you lose a lot of money, especially when it comes to hiring agencies. And where you can harbor quite bitter emotions. You need to have the right foundations in business ready to go so that you’re set up for success when hiring an agency and seriously I still don’t seem to have learned this lesson.Which leads me to mistake number five. Making the same mistake twice. Three times. Four times. You get the drift. I’ve hired agencies too early, staff too early, contractors too early, signed up for software I don’t need yet… All of it! Multiple times. Know where your entrepreneurial weaknesses lie-, and learn to nip problems in the bud next time around.Also, not having a clear focus. Pushing yourself in multiple directions is again a total time and money waster. With a million ideas it's easy to go off on some random tangent, when you should be focusing on what’s working and doubling down on that. It certainly helps to have a super clear North Star you can check yourself against. And finally, not understanding your numbers. My god. Knowing your numbers inside and out is critical in building a business. You need to know where your profits lie, you need to know how much you can be spending to acquire a customer and where you can put a dollar in and get a dollar back.If you relate to any of these, I feel you girl. Let’s get straight into it! This is me for Female Startup Club.PS: if you love this mini-episode, please do share it on Instagram, drop into my DMs or leave a review wherever you’re listening to this episodeAnd if you have something specific you want me to cover, just directly reach out on Twitter or InstagramDoone's InstagramIn sponsorship with Zyro, easiest to use website builder and eCommerce platformIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we are learning from Lisa Guerrera, the founder of Experiment Beauty.Chances are you’ve seen this brand on Instagram or Tiktok, but if you haven’t Experiment is a chemist-led brand building science-backed beauty 2.0. They're rebranding what a science-backed beauty brand feels like for the next generation of consumers and also what it looks like. All of their products are clinically backed, thoughtfully sustainable, and ridiculously fun. You’ll probably recognise their first product which is the acid neon green reusable sheet mask we’ve all seen cruising around the internet.I loved this chat with Lisa, she shares her journey so deeply and there are so many takeaways you’ll learn from her.LINKS WE MENTION:Lisa's InstagramExperiment Beauty's InstagramFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramDoone's TikTokIn sponsorship with Zyro, easiest to use website builder and eCommerce platformIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we are learning from Lisa Guerrera, the founder of Experiment Beauty.Chances are you’ve seen this brand on Instagram or Tiktok, but if you haven’t Experiment is a chemist-led brand building science-backed beauty 2.0. They're rebranding what a science-backed beauty brand feels like for the next generation of consumers and also what it looks like. All of their products are clinically backed, thoughtfully sustainable, and ridiculously fun. You’ll probably recognise their first product which is the acid neon green reusable sheet mask we’ve all seen cruising around the internet.I loved this chat with Lisa, she shares her journey so deeply and there are so many takeaways you’ll learn from her.LINKS WE MENTION:Lisa's InstagramExperiment Beauty's InstagramFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramDoone's TikTokIn sponsorship with Zyro, easiest to use website builder and eCommerce platformIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we’re learning from Galyn Bernard, founder of Primary.Primary is a non-gender, sustainable and inclusive kid’s clothing brand rewriting the rules for what kids wear every day. The brand creates timeless essentials at great prices all while keeping kids comfortable at home, the playground and school. An all inclusive, non-gendered brand, Primary provides quality fabrics in every style and color, catering to all kids’ needs and wants.You are going to love this episode!LINKS WE MENTION:Christina's InstagramGalyn's InstagramPrimary's InstagramFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramDoone's TikTokIn sponsorship with Zyro, easiest to use website builder and eCommerce platformIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we’re learning from Galyn Bernard, founder of Primary.Primary is a non-gender, sustainable and inclusive kid’s clothing brand rewriting the rules for what kids wear every day. The brand creates timeless essentials at great prices all while keeping kids comfortable at home, the playground and school. An all inclusive, non-gendered brand, Primary provides quality fabrics in every style and color, catering to all kids’ needs and wants.You are going to love this episode!LINKS WE MENTION:Christina's InstagramGalyn's InstagramPrimary's InstagramFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramDoone's TikTokIn sponsorship with Zyro, easiest to use website builder and eCommerce platformIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we are learning from Dee Charlemagne who is the co-founder of AVEC Drinks. Made with real fruit juice, low or no sugar, and natural botanicals, Avec’s drinks are the better-tasting — and better for you — mixers you deserve.Now before we get into it - there are so many pieces of gold in this episode, we chat through the money stuff, selling through 100,000 units in the first year in business and landing the NY Times on launch day. Grab a pen and paper, you’ll need it. LINKS WE MENTION:Avec's InstagramDenetrias' LinkedInFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramDoone's TikTokIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we are learning from Dee Charlemagne who is the co-founder of AVEC Drinks. Made with real fruit juice, low or no sugar, and natural botanicals, Avec’s drinks are the better-tasting — and better for you — mixers you deserve.Now before we get into it - there are so many pieces of gold in this episode, we chat through the money stuff, selling through 100,000 units in the first year in business and landing the NY Times on launch day. Grab a pen and paper, you’ll need it. LINKS WE MENTION:Avec's InstagramDenetrias' LinkedInFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramDoone's TikTokIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on the show we have Alexandra Fine. One of the women behind Dame. Dame is leading a sexual wellness revolution as a women-powered resource for game-changing products for pleasure and supportive content. Through in-depth research, smart design, community input, and plenty of empathy, the Dame team has designed a line of exceptional tools to enhance sexual wellness for vulva-havers and their partners everywhere.Dame is not only revolutionizing toys for sex, but changing the way we experience, understand, and explore sexuality as part of holistic wellbeing. Since 2014, the team has opened doors that have long been closed to the sexuality industry, becoming a key player in the movement to bring pleasure to the forefront of wellness.We talk through her approach to building this business, crowdfunding, marketing and how she uses the businesses challenges as her opportunity. You might have heard that Dame sued the MTA and has had some pretty exciting stuff in the works these past few weeks.LINKS WE MENTION:Alexandra's TwitterAlexandra's LinkedInAlexandra's InstagramDame's InstagramDame's LinkedInDame's TwitterFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club’s Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.