Table of Contents

• What I’ve been up to…

• Hot Deals🔥

• 🙌Portfolio Company High Fives

• 📰News and Food for Thought

• 🌈 Founder’s Corner

• 🍰Shop Women-Founded Brands/Current Obsessions

• 🍦Other Things No One Asked For

What I’ve been up to…

Literally everything.

August was slow and vacation-y like every good August should be (I went to Japan and took good notes. Please ask me about my trip to Japan so I can talk about it more).

Fall has been FULL BLOWN- hence the lag in this newsletter- but I am back in my groove, Stella! There are SO many deals I am excited about- more below!!

Also to that end:

🌟 Golden Hour is seeking an intern or part-time employee to help with events, marketing, content, social media, and changing the world. Send any great candidates to me- ideally a young, tech savvy hustler based in NYC.

Another Dream Ventures Accelerator with Annie Evans is in the books, and we had a glorious celebration day in NYC. We had with breath work at Peoplehood, a wellness morning with all the fixins, a pitch competition won by the fabulous Quani Burnett of Soft Rows (the k18 for textured hair). And of course, our celebration dinner with all of our favorite investors in NYC.

Check out the grads here- they are all truly building fantastic brands and I am lucky to know them.

We just hosted an Investor event for one of favorite portfolio companies, Brightland, in LA at Negroni Beverly Hills. Our LA investor network is top tier- let me know if you want an invite for the next one.

Also in LA, the Family Fund just produced an epic day called Founderland for founders and investors alike. Pitch slams across consumer industries, NAD drips, cool brand activations, great panels, and good people. I am inspired to produce an event as comprehensive and value added in NYC-this event was a masterclass in founder/funder community.

I am working on so many things I am excited to share but are not ready yet- consider that a teaser and stay tuned.

A note: SO many wonderful souls have reached out after this podcast with Jenny aired with stories of their own insane childhood twists and turns and big fat fails. Thank you for the kindness when I felt exposed. The lesson: we are all crazy for a reason- be kind.

Hot Deals🔥

Fun fact that I can’t stop repeating: if 30% of accredited women invested just $10,000 into a woman founded company, we can move over $10 billion. LFG….

Brightland

Keeping this one closely confidential- but we have secured limited allocation into Brightland’s insider round, and hosting a private event in NYC late October for our network.

CPG (Stealth)

Stealth “aircare” company (aka the non-toxic febreze). The founder found a lump in her breast which led her down the journey to eliminate toxins and pthalates from her life and home. She’s brought on a founding team and advisors from Blueland, Public Goods, Le Labo and Seventh Generation so she is surrounded by the best players in this space. Raising $750K and launching in January. For reference Febreeze does $1B in sales per year. I had a chance to smell the scents and they’re amazing - sandalwood, saffron citrus, lavender, and fresh poplin (soft linen).

Note! I would happily spin up an SPV for this one with enough interest. Air care is a MASSIVE market and there a non toxic brands ready to compete on price while crushing product development. I think this one could do it.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Massive opportunity for innovation with 85% market share owned by 3 companies making nasties (SC Johnson (Glade), Proctor and Gamble (Febreeze), Reckitt Benckiser (Airwick)

• Launching in January with commitment from Target and Container Store

• Seasoned investor and advisory board (airbnb, a16z scout, Three Ocean Partners)

•  Reach out for more info or for interest in a syndicate

Hanni

Hanni is Lazy girl body care with TRUE product innovation and sustainability built into the heart of the brand. Launching in all Sephora doors with real traction.

Want to meet the founder? Investment event for in NYC this Tuesday! RSVP here.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Approached by Sephora within first month of launch and now carried in all Sephora doors nationwide

• Focused on sustainability and empowering female-centric NGOs that help reduce plastic waste worldwide

• Expected to do between $4-$5M in gross revenue this year (more than 2x last year)

• To date, hanni has raised $5M from investors including Valedor Partners, FAB Ventures (lead by former CEO and President of Lancôme International Odile Roujol), Hayley Barna (Founder of Birchbox), Doug Bouton (Founder of Halo Top Ice Cream), Divya Gugnani (Founder of Wander Beauty, 5 SENS and Concept to Co), Alexandra Wilkis Wilson (Founder of GLAMSQUAD and Gilt Group)

• Annie Evans has an open SPV for small checks with Divya Gugnani- indicate interest in joining the round or for more info here

  

All Golden

All Golden is the first modern skincare and haircare line for women 45+ in prestige distribution. All Golden’s products are clean, sustainable, and high performance with a modern and chic aesthetic. The formulas address real issues associated with aging skin and hair resulting in incredible before and afters. The line is highly curated and edited for maximum results.

Another category ready for disruption- I am excited to see brands activelty target women 45+. This market has money and ready to be repped in beauty.

HIGHLIGHTS

• 46% of beauty purchases are made by consumers 55yrs+

• 70% of women age 40+ want to see beauty and grooming products created for,

  and marketed toward, perimenopausal and menopausal women.

• Founded by TWICE EXITED beauty founder Sarah Kugelman (skyn Iceland, Gloss.com)

• Launching October with 7 skus - including a hair serum that changes hair back from gray!

• Reach out for more info.

***********************

🙌Portfolio Company High Fives

📰News and Food for Thought

M&A /Venture News

LVMH Sells Off-White Brand to Bluestar Alliance LVMH announced that it would sell the Off-White LLC to Bluestar Alliance, a brand management company with a roster including labels such as Tahari, Bebe and Scotch & Soda. I feel like the brand really lost its cool after Virgil Abloh.

PepsiCo to buy tortilla chip maker Siete Foods for $1.2 billion: Hot damn! Thats a tortilla chip unicorn! I pray this product doesn’t go down hill- I LOVE Siete - one of the few seed -oil- free chips in the game.

Eeeeevrybody is watching what happens to Violet Grey after the foudner bought it back from Farfetch. I love this move and am so excited to follow.

Diageo acquires Ritual Zero Proof Spirits- but for how much?! (nonalcoholic spirits is the fastest-growing category in the adult beverages landscape, with 31% overall growth in nonalcoholic drinks)

Post Malone Invested in Poppi. Unrelated: Saw him at Jean’s recently and can confirm he is living his best life.

OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in funding at a total valuation of $157 billion.

Linkedin Top 50 Startups: Highlights: Perplexity is #1 (lots more AI), the host of this newsletter, Beehiiv makes the list, in women’s health: Midi for menopause care and Oula maternity clinic, and in consumer: Bubble, Happy Dad and Feastables, of course.

News / Reads

An Alternative to the Pap Smear Is Here, No Speculum Required: “a handful of health care companies are preparing to introduce a new model for cervical cancer screening and prevention that would circumvent the speculum: self-collection, in which a woman swabs her vagina in the doctor’s office”

YourChoice Therapeutics Advances Hormone-Free Male Birth Control Pill to Second Human Study. Woah.

From the undefeated founder of Starface and Julie and Futurewise is… Overdrive- the cool kids fentanyl test strip. Funny to me to compete on brand not price on such a utilitarian product but that’s the whole point here. The awareness and buzz and education is unmatched- and branding is top tier. They really are pros.

Paul Graham wrote an essay on “FounderMode” and the internet is still chewing on it- specifically, why women face a double standard for being “micromanging control freaks” and men may be viewed as simply “detail obsessed (see: Steve Jobs) in FounderMode.

Only Fans is doing over $6 Billion in annual revenue. I learned at a VC dinner last week that the cap table over at Slushy (the first VC backed adult content site) is stacked with the who’s who of VC- who are also tackling the complicated realm of ID verification and payment processing in these adult sites, and integrating AI models and matching. Sparing you hyperlinks here for obvious reasons. Let’s discuss how much worse dating is going to get now that the competition is an AI girlfriend…

Meta is brokering deals with celebs to use their voices as AI Chat Bots, including Dame Judi Dench, Kristen Bell, and John Cena.

🌈 Founder’s Corner

Beauty Brands Draw the Line Between Dupes and Fakes on Amazon: TLDR: Viral beauty products on Amazon are plagued by counterfeit knockoffs, challenging brands like Kiehl’s and Rare Beauty. Despite Amazon’s efforts to combat this, fake listings reappear frequently. Some brands sue, but the scale of counterfeiting makes it hard to control, while others embrace legal dupes. Strong brand identity is key to standing out.

Q2 2024 Launch Report Consumer Retail Services

Calling on all early-stage founders! Our friends at January Ventures are currently conducting their 6th annual company building survey to build off of prior years’ research and deepen understanding of the current landscape for founders. Link here

Grants/Accelerators:

Bold Beginnings Grant (women entrepreneurs under 30) for $25,000

Black Girl Ventures Grant due Nov 4

📖 Book Club

My summer reads were largely centered around productivity and building better habits- more below on this. Some gems are being implemented. The irony is not lost that my vacation was spent reading about productivity. Felt right.

Recent Reads: Long Island Compromise (loved) Remarkably Bright Creatures (absolutely not), and Slow Productivity (scribbled 1000 notes and love this but my nervous system will not comply).

🍰Shop Women-Founded Brands/Current Obsessions

Mama JuJu by Vyrao: This is not your basic b perfume. This smells like rain and earth and saffron and red magic and I love it

Have you ever gotten a Korean Scrub and watched sheets of your skin roll off? This LILIS instant peel is that but in a body SERUM. Its wild witchery and satisfying. New fav.

Follow with Hanni water balm and be soft and smell good.

The makers of my Favorite Serum in the History of All Time launched a cleanser 

🍦Other Things No One Asked For

@australianreptilepark

As comfy as ever 💅 #koala #koalas #australianreptilepark #visitnsw

Want more from this newsletter? Less? Reply and let me know! If you really love it, share with a friend.