Due Diligence

This episode is about discipline: what it is, what it isn't, and the surprising key to unlocking greater discipline that has helped me become a full-time creator. 

Kim Johnson is Head of Community at Geneva, a messaging app for communities. Prior to that she used to lead community at Glossier, the brand that is possibly the most synonymous with "community" in the DTC landscape. 

In this episode we discuss:

Learn more about Geneva here

Cristina Nuñez is a founding partner of True Beauty Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on beauty & wellness. Since raising their first fund in the pandemic, they have invested in today's most promising beauty brands including Crown Affair, K18, Dieux, Kinship, Moon Juice, and BeautyStat. Before starting True Beauty Ventures with her business partner Rich Gersten, Cristina worked in beauty at Clark's Botanicals and Laura Geller and prior to that in private equity at Catterton and Tengram Capital Partners. 

In this conversation we discuss:

Learn more about True Beauty Ventures here

Sarah Moret is the founder & CEO of Curie, a natural deodorant and personal care brand as seen in Allure, InStyle, Shape Magazine and Well + Good. Sarah founded the brand while working in venture capital at CrossCut Ventures and scaled it as a bootstrapped solo female founder in the early days into a business that is now backed by top angel investors like Mark Cuban and is sold in retailers like Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's and Anthropologie. 

In this conversation we discuss:

Find Sarah's Instagram here & Twitter here

My life changed over the last year into basically the one that I dreamed of in 2020, and it doesn't feel like an accident to me that I get to enjoy these opportunities & privileges I have now. In fact, it feels like I designed this life with care & intention by doing the work over the course of years. So in this episode, I share that process with you, step-by-step, in the hopes that they clarify for you the inner work involved in designing the life of we desire.

Kate Ward is the co-founder of Creator Now, an education platform for online creators that has raised $3M from top-tier investors including creators & angel investors like Casey Neistat, Justin Kan, and Jack Conte. She has also spent the last several years managing top YouTubers like Airrack (11M+ subscribers) and Yes Theory (8M+ subscribers). But most importantly, Kate Ward is one of my dear friends and my favorite person to talk to about human creativity, authenticity & purpose. And how creators can stay true to themselves on the journey of building a following & sharing their message.

In this conversation we discuss:

Katie Welch is the CMO of Rare Beauty, one of the most beloved beauty brands to have launched in recent years (and certainly one of the most popular celebrity brands if my TikTok comments are any indication). She was also the CMO of Hourglass Cosmetics and before that worked both in CPG and on the agency side gaining a reputation as a talented marketer and brand storyteller. Katie is also active on TikTok where she shares career advice & tips on how to break into beauty to an audience of 86K+ followers. 

In this episode we discuss:

You can follow Katie on TikTok here

One study has shown that 50% of entrepreneurs are susceptible to a mental health condition. And then you add in an economic downturn and its resulting challenges and the conditions are ripe for struggle.

This episode is just a reminder that if you're a founder/small business owner/entrepreneur and you're going through a tough time, you're far from alone. Give yourself grace and remember to applaud your hard work for making it this far. Take care of yourself and prioritize your mental health. And be a safe space for your founder friends to share what they're going through so we can all have more honest dialogue about what entrepreneurship can really be like beneath the shiny narratives of success.

Mentioned in the episode:

Bon Appétit article about Haus

Today's guest is Scott Norton, co-founder of Sir Kensington's. Scott is a consumer growth investor and backs early and growth stage consumer businesses across both physical products and digital services. He has invested in over 15 early and growth stage consumer companies, serving on the boards of MUD\WTR, Smallhold, and Firstleaf and investing in brands like Hero Cosmetics and Omsom whose founders we've had on the podcast previously.

For more information:

Scott's Twitter

Today's guest is Jackie Fast, founder & VC at Sandbox Studios, an LA-based fund that invests in seed-stage celebrity brands. She is also the founder of the Slingshot Sponsorship which she started out of her bedroom at age 25 to help A-list celebrities (like Prince) collaborate with major brands. Jackie sold Slingshot in 2015 after growing it into a multi-million-dollar global agency with offices in Singapore, Brazil, Oslo and Britain and a team of 30 people servicing clients like The Rolling Stones, Shell, Formula 1, Red Bull, and Sir Richard Branson. 

In this episode we discuss:

Today's sponsor is Smartrr, the Shopify app for brands that want to offer more tailored subscriptions & maximize lifetime value. Learn more and get a demo at smartrr.com/dulma.