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Welcome to The Founders Edit, the weekly newsletter where female founders get the latest trends, opportunities, and advice.
This week, we're highlighting a grant for businesses with social impact, lessons learned from an 8-figure female entrepreneur, and some inspiring female entrepreneur businesses.
Let's leap right into what’s brewing in the business world!
Inside This Edition:
Read Time: 5 minutes
đź’° Funding Focus: Social impact businesses can get support from the Emergent Ventures Grant.
đź“° Industry Insights: Advice from a successful female founder, UK company growth, and more.
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🛍️ Lessons From Female Founders: Apply these unique qualities to your own business.
đź‘ Founder Networking 18th - 27th Feb: Mark your calendars for these networking events.
🛠️ From The Vendor List: A smart sustainability tool you can use in your business.
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Funding Focus: Emergent Ventures Grant
​The Emergent Ventures Grant, started by the Mercatus Center in 2018, offers funding to innovators around the world for projects looking to create positive social impact.
🙋‍♀️ Application Tips for Success:
- Personal Story Matters: Clearly articulate your journey and how it motivates your project. Your personal background and drive are crucial to setting your proposal apart!
- Define Your Idea's Impact: Describe what differentiates your idea and its potential societal benefits. Highlight the innovation, expected impact, and a brief financial plan to demonstrate the feasibility of your project.
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Industry Insights: Latest weekly news
Stay up to date with the latest trends and news in the business world. Here are three stories that caught our eye this week and what you can learn from them:
Advice: From Selling Her Engagement Ring to an 8-Figure Business
​This Entrepreneur.com interview with Denise Woodard shared some actionable tips from her journey to building a $25 million company.
Key Insights:
- You Can’t Stop Thinking About It: If your new business idea is keeping you awake at night, then it’s time to seriously consider putting all of your effort into launching it!
- Avoid The Shiny Objects: There will be a lot of distractions when building your business, but keeping focus on the core product of your business is key to success.
👩‍🏫 Rebecca's Take: If you’re struggling to come up with the right business idea, it might be a sign that it’s not a perfect fit yet. While I don’t necessarily suggest maxing your credit cards and liquidating your retirement account like Denise did, I do think you should believe in your business idea so much that you are willing to go all-in on it!
Meta Continues to Invest in Threads
Threads has begun testing a new "Today's Topics" feature among select U.S. users, aiming to spark conversations on popular topics without the negativity found on other platforms.
Key Insights:
- Customized Engagement: Threads' "Today's Topics" will utilize AI to highlight trending discussions, giving users a more personalized experience while sticking to their community guidelines and avoiding divisive content.
- Striving for Positive Interaction: By introducing trending topics, Threads aims to integrate the live, event-driven conversations found on platforms like Twitter without the negativity.
👩‍🏫 Rebecca's Take: Meta looks to be trying to turn Threads into a “friendlier” version of Twitter (which shouldn’t be too much to ask!). When a platform continues to put time and resources behind a newer feature, they typically reward early adopters who use it with more reach, so I would recommend posting a bit on Threads to see if it works for you and your business! Follow us on Threads here.
Record Surge in UK Company Launches in 2023
2023 witnessed a historic high in new company formations in the UK, with the online retail sector leading the charge in business growth, according to NatWest and Beauhurst's New Startup Index.
Key Insights:
- Girl Power: The number of female-founded businesses continues to grow every year in the UK with a record 164,000 female-founded companies launched in 2023!
- Hot Sectors: Online retail, property letting, and street food stalls were the fastest-growing sectors, with online retail alone accounting for over 82,000 of the new businesses.
👩‍🏫 Rebecca's Take: UK entrepreneurship continues to rise every year, and it’s great to see the number of female-founded businesses increasing as well. While we still have a way to go to catch our male counterparts, women around the UK are continuing to make the leap and start their own businesses!
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Lessons From Female Founded Brands
Featuring remarkable female entrepreneurs and their products, along with unique qualities that can inspire your own business approach.
This week, we're spotlighting three exceptional women-led brands we love:
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Spruce: Spruce was founded to offer non-toxic cleaning products to create a healthier, eco-friendly cleaning experience free from harmful chemicals and plastics.
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Founder: Mahira Kalim
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What makes them stand out? Personal Connection. Mahira shared her battle with infertility, which led her to learn about the harmful impacts of endocrine-disrupting chemicals and microplastics found in conventional cleaning products. Her commitment to creating healthier, non-toxic alternatives is not only rooted in her own experiences but also in a broader mission to protect consumer health and the environment.
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With Nothing Underneath: With Nothing Underneath (WNU) was created in 2017 by former Vogue stylist and Tatler editor Philippa Durell to sell the perfect women’s shirt.
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Founder: Philippa Durell
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What makes them stand out? Tailored Innovation: WNU uniquely adapts men's tailoring for women, offering shirts that combine British heritage with a perfect fit for the female form. This approach, coupled with the founder's background in high-fashion styling, makes the brand stand out by providing women with timeless, effortlessly chic wardrobe staples.
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St. Moriz: St. Moriz is a UK-based self-tanning brand that creates salon-professional-developed products.
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Founder: Melanie Brownlow
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What makes them stand out? Quality Ingredients: St. Moriz takes their commitment to top ingredients seriously, and only uses the best non-toxic and cruelty-free ingredients in their products. Their products are sold around the world but are still produced at home in the UK!
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Do you know of an amazing female-founded brand that should be featured in a future newsletter (or want to see your own business featured)? Reply to this email and let us know! |
Founder Networking: Upcoming Events (18th - 27th February)
Here are some of the best female entrepreneur networking events happening in the next week:
In-Person Business Women Networking - London City
- Date and Time: Wednesday 21st February 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
- Location: The Anthologist - 58 Gresham Street London EC2V 7BB
- Price: ÂŁ30
- Who it’s for: This is a casual event you can drop in to and have conversations with other women in business over tea and coffee.
- ​Get more information and sign up here​
Women in Business Breakfast
- Date and Time: Wednesday 21st February 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
- Location: Kindred - Queen Caroline Street London W6 9BW
- Price: ÂŁ10
- Who it’s for: Start your day with a business women’s breakfast at the beautiful Kindred venue in Hammersmith.
- ​Get more information and sign up here​
Female Entrepreneurs Networking + Coworking Event
- Date and Time: Thursday 22 February 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
- Location: National Theatre - Upper Ground South Bank London SE1 9PX United Kingdom
- Price: ÂŁ5
- Who it’s for: Head to the National Theatre for a day of coworking and networking with other female entrepreneurs.
- ​Get more information and sign up here​
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From The Vendor List: Bluebird
​Bluebird helps companies of all sizes analyze their products to create sustainable and low-carbon practices.
Why It's Useful:
- Product Directory: Add your product to Bluebird’s product directory to be found by other brands and consumers.
- Climate Impact: Quickly have your products analyzed with life cycle assessments to show that your products are eco-friendly.
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