Female Startup Club

Joining me on the show today is Maeva Heim, founder of Bread Beauty Supply. Or Bread for short. Now, I Actually met Maeva by chance last year when I was in Melbourne visiting a friend and I recognised her voice from a podcast I’d listened to her speak on before and the rest is history - now she’s here with us sharing her story. But, back to the episode - Bread is the best shampoo alternative and co-wash for kinky, curly, coily hair. We’re talking about how she took a third door approach to launch exclusively with Sephora and what she’s learned so far while we have a few giggles along the way. LINKS WE MENTION:The Magic of Thinking Big by David J Schwartz  The Hard Thing About Hard: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz Eckhart Tolle’s books Bread Beauty Supply WebsiteBread Beauty Supply InstagramMaeva Heim InstagramFemale startup club InstagramIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me on today’s episode of the show is the founder behind a company called La Luer. Nicole invented a skin tech product called the Mira device - and my goodness - you’ll never need to pay for a facial again. La Luer was born out of Nicole’s need to develop a solution to maintain healthy skin while working long hours. She struggled with dullness, blemishes and uneven skin tone. From thousands of topicals and hundreds of at home tools, to 10-step skin care routines and in-office treatments, Nicole was overwhelmed with all the available options on the market. She was surrounded by other women facing similar frustrations. Tune in to hear her story, how she launched and how she’s grown this business.LINKS WE MENTION:La Luer Website La Luer’s InstagramNicole’s InstagramFemale startup club’s InstagramIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me on the show today is Alison Cayne, the founder of New York based biz Haven’s Kitchen. Originally a cooking school that started out in 2012, Haven’s Kitchen is now helping cooks of all kinds in the kitchen with their ridiculously yummy looking, vibrant squeeze sauces.I highly recommend jumping on the website to get a taste for what these delicious pouches look like. As soon as you see them I can guarantee you’ll want them in your life! I’m keeping faith that they’ll make their way to a wholefoods in London someday soon. In this episode we’re covering Ali’s 8 year journey and so many lessons she’s learned along the way including the major moment she realised she would have to close down the best performing side of the business earlier this year due to the pandemic.LINKS WE MENTION:Terra Cycle:  partnered with Haven’s Kitchen on recycling their pouches CASTE: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson WHO: Solve Your #1 Problem by Geoff Smart and Randy Street Skincare line used by Ali CayneHaven’s Kitchen Website Haven’s Kitchen Instagram Ali’s Instagram Female Startup Club’s Instagram In partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me on the show today is Dianna Cohen, the founder of haircare essentials startup, Crown Affair. Crown Affair is a company that’s reimagining hair rituals and taking a considered approach for the top of your noggin. And this story all starts from an unassuming google doc. When Dianna decided to share her hair care routine with some women in her life - and that document suddenly went all over the internet -she saw an opportunity to innovate in a space that she had such a fond personal connection with, and bring her past industry experience in building brands for companies like Away, Outdoor Voices and The Wing into her DTC brand. Launched pre pandemic Dianna shares the lessons she’s been learning along the way, how she approached her pitch and the importance of community and storytelling. LINKS WE MENTION:New York mag Crown Affair’s Towel Review Crown Affair's WebsiteCrown Affair's InstagramDianna's InstagramFemale Startup Club's Instagram In partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me on the show today is Hilary Quartner, co-founder of Hilma. Hilma launched January 2020 by 3 remarkable women; Hilary Quartner, Nina Mullen and Lily Galef, and makes natural alternatives to your medicine cabinet staples that are backed by scientific research. They offer clean label and clinically researched herbal-based alternatives for upset stomach relief, head tension and allergy and immune support.In this episode we cover how they approached formulation, a really interesting marketing campaign they used during launch to get the word out there and what made them attractive to Forerunner Ventures when they got to pitch. LINKS WE MENTION:Hilma’s InstagramHilary’s InstagramFSC’s InstagramSTARTUPCLUB20In partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me on the show today is Isabel Aagaard, one of the co-founders behind sustainable startup LastObject. LastObject is creating sustainable reusable alternatives to replace single use items in your bathroom like the Q tip, tissues and cotton pads with many more to come. A big part of this episode is talking about the incredible kickstarter campaign that put them on the map, reaching their goal in just 22 minutes and going on to raise $1.3M over the following months. We dig into how they built their email database and how much it cost to acquire the initial 40,000 subscribers.LINKS WE MENTION:LastObject’s InstagramIsabel’s InstagramFSC’s InstagramIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for eCommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me in today’s episode is Melanie Bender, Founding General Manager of Versed Skincare. Versed launched as the first community-driven mass beauty brand and the first clean skincare line to debut in over 1,850 stores as part of Katherine Power’s lineup of super impressive brands including Who What Wear and Avaline. Driven by a team of skin experts and a community of 16 million people, Versed’s mission is to make clean products for all, with the planet in mind. They help you find what you need to use and what you need to know—from the right product mix, to ingredient breakdowns (the good and the bad), and late-night chats about those lingering pimples. We had so much fun recording this episode! We chat about the importance of gathering data to drive forward brand building, why launching into Target was critical to the success of the brand, keeping creativity as a core focus and what’s driving the brands growth right now.LINKS WE MENTION:Versed’s InstagramMelanie’s InstagramFSC’s InstagramIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me on the show is the CEO of Malala Fund, Suzanne Ehlers.For our 80th episode, I wanted to do something a little different to our usual founder stories. But let’s rewind a year. Female Startup Club was born so we could empower women to launch startups and solve global problems, primarily through ecommerce. On May 27th when we launched our very first program for women we also knew we wanted to give back to someone who aligned with our message and in our mission, and for me that meant the Malala Fund. We donate a portion of our sales to Malala Fund, to help the fight for girls rights to have access to 12 years of free, safe, quality education. So for me, this is a really special episode. Suzanne and I are talking about what it means to have every single girl in the world having access to education. What it means for society, what it means for the economy - and what it means for girls. Thanks for being part of the Female Startup Club episode! If you know someone who would benefit from hearing this episode please do pass it along so they can have a listen.LINKS WE MENTION:Malala’s InstagramMalala Fund’s InstagramSuzanne’s InstagramFSC’s InstagramInnovations: Orenda Project by Haroon Yasin, developer of Taleemabad app Pashtana Durrani in Kandahar, organization with digital e-learning labs powered by solar tools Kiki James, Radio Programming in Nigeria Publications: https://assembly.malalDigital publications of newsletters created by girls   Books:  The Saffron Tales Recipes from the Persian Kitchen by Yasmin Khan  The Rise by Marcus Samuelsson  World Central Kitchen by Jose Andres  Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad Podcasts: The Daily NPR Code Switch Bréne Brown Podcast The Unplug Collective Sonya Renee Taylor Layla Saad  Anti-racism Daily by Nicole Cardoza  Following on Instagram: Brooke Devard’s InstagramAlaa Murabit, Malala Board MemberIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for eCommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me in this episode is Beth Fynbo - the Founder of Busy Baby! Busy Baby is the company behind a nifty thing called the Busy Baby Mat and was born out of seeing first hand how difficult it can be when your baby is old enough to start grabbing at things on a table. Beth was a new mum at 40 and looking for products to help her and her friends as new mums, but struggled to find exactly what she had in her mind. She started creating a prototype for her product at home and then set about finding someone to help her bring this idea to life. We’re talking about the specific steps she took to validate her idea - which was pure genius, how much of her savings she needed to get started, the problems she faced when she started the patent process, what it’s like going through the target accelerator program and the exacts steps she took to grow from 100k in yearly revenue to $1m in sales all the while being a one-woman show. LINKS WE MENTION: Busy Baby!’s Website Busy Baby!’s InstagramBeth Fynbo’s InstagramFemale Startup Club’s InstagramResource for non profit military vetarans or spouses on how to start a business. In partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining me on the show today is the fairy boob mother, Annette Azan. Founder of Nuudii System.Nuudii system is a radical innovation for women’s boobs, it’s something in between going braless and wearing a bra and is an invention all women can benefit from. It’s been a decade long journey so far for Annette and in this episode we cover everything from the very beginning when she would lock her prototypes in a safe, to spending years finding her manufacturing partner, how she launched a kickstarter campaign with a goal to raise $10,000 but ended up with a million and the things she really didn’t expect to see in the process.LINKS WE MENTION:Nuudii System’s WebsiteNuudii System’s InstagramAnnette’s InstagramFemale Startup Club’s InstagramIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for eCommerce businesses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.