The Stanza

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Today's guest is Jordan Gilman, founder of Peoplevine. This episode is for all the hospitality operators who subscribe to The Stanza. Peoplevine is the hospitality CRM used by San Vicente Bungalows, Zero Bond, ZZ's, Casa Cipriani, Faena, and many more brands you already know and love. I've partnered with Peoplevine over the last 3 months and I wanted to have Jordan on the podcast to chat about his experience pitching to luxury hospitality brands, why their CRM is loved by the best operators, and how a great CRM is needed to deliver a consistently great guest experience.

Thank you to the team at Peoplevine for being early supporters of The Stanza newsletter and podcast.

Episode highlights:

• Pitching to high end hospitality clients
• Building a network of luxury hospitality operators
• Expanding into the UK market
• How Peoplevine designed its CRM based on their personal guest experience
• Executing an effective loyalty program
• Views on private dining clubs such as ZZ's
• Jordan's thoughts on the future of members clubs

Read about how your favorite clubs use Peoplevine: https://www.peoplevine.com/clients

Follow The Stanza on IG / TikTok: @thestanzamedia

Subscribe to ⁠The Stanza⁠, a newsletter at the intersection of investing, hospitality, & fashion.

We chatted about fundraising as a first time founder, how she financially supported her transition from Goldman to entrepreneurship, and her view on the future of sustainable fashion. I appreciated Bianca's honesty throughout the conversation

Episode highlights:

*Apologies in advance for the slight background noise!

Download Whering: https://whering.co.uk/

Connect with Bianca on IG: @biancarangecroft or LinkedIn

Follow The Stanza on IG / TikTok: @thestanzamedia

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter at the intersection of investing, hospitality, & fashion.

Today's guest is Alek Koenig, founder and CEO of

Settle is a cash flow management platform for CPG start ups. Brands you love, like Ghia, Soft Services, Ceremonia, Lalo, Italic, and Starface, are users of Settle, and it's easy to see why. From streamlining your AP, managing bills and vendor payments, to getting working capital loans with transparent terms, Settle provides solutions to problems specific to CPG brands, all within a modern and simple interface.

Settle is also backed by institutional venture investors such as Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital. And even if this episode isn't a typical consumer brand founder story, I asked Alek to come on as a guest to share insights from transitioning from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, fundraising advice, and managing a company in uncertain times.

I've also partnered with Settle to give you guys $250 in transaction fee credits if you use the code (THESTANZA) to sign up for free - that means transaction-fee payments for you. Click here Settle's Working Capital calculator so you can see how much financing power your business is eligible for.

Episode highlights

*Thank you Settle for partnering with The Stanza*

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter at the intersection of investing, hospitality & fashion.

This episode is sponsored by Peoplevine - the best hospitality CRM software. Check out why Peoplevine is used and loved by the best private members clubs and book your free demo here.

"Everything he touches turns to gold" - this is what a brutally honest friend said to me about today's guest, Raphael Farasat. Raphael is the founder of award-winning Truffl Agency and co-founder of Last Crumb Cookies, the viral luxury cookie brand. He's worked with the likes of Tesla, LinkedIn, and Heineken, and as the creative director behind really cool upcoming consumer brands such as Better Bagel, Barcode Drinks, Boba Ice Cream, Jean Dousset, and more. We chatted about the power of metaphor when it comes to building a world for a brand, his creative process, and taking a contrarian approach when it comes to marketing and storytelling. Every founder building a consumer facing business - whether that's a cpg brand, hospitality group, or marketplace - can benefit from this interview.

Episode highlights

• Raphael's creative process
• A networking strategy that brings aligned opportunities
• Applying the scarcity model from streetwear to cookies
• How to create a contrarian brand that people love
• Metaphors and consumer psychology
• How to create a membership program that fosters customer loyalty

Connect with Raphael on IG: @raph_

More on Truffl Agency: https://truffl.com/

Try Last Crumb cookies: https://lastcrumb.com/

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Today's guest is Layla-Joy Williams, founder of IYLIA wines. Layla-Joy is an American entrepreneur living in Spain, where she produces IYLIA to distribute in the US. Prior to IYLIA, Layla-Joy was a womens shoe designer for Stuart Weitzman and Michael Kors in NYC, and has a background in technical product design. We chatted about her experience working in NYC fashion for over two decades, entrepreneurship as an American living in Europe, and how her design career prepped her for the wine business.

A personal side note from me: I've mentioned IYLIA's moscatel wine on the gift guide this year because it's such a beautiful and crisp wine. I also wanted to compliment Layla-Joy on her rose wine. It's probably the best rose I've ever tried (and I'm not exaggerating). It smells fruity and it just goes down very easily. It's the perfect aperitivo wine and I just think it's so cool to hear Layla-Joy's story especially as another American living in Europe. Enjoy the episode.

Episode Highlights:

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Today's guest is Brandon Snower, founder of Le Alfre, a menswear brand based in NYC. You may recognize his brand story from his viral TikTok, in which he shares how he went from investment banking to starting a brand during the pandemic. We chatted about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, how he managed having $3,000 in his bank account at one point, how he's positioning Le Alfre in a sea of new fashion brands, and getting great press for Le Alfre. He's made incredible progress in the 2 and a half years he's been working on Le Alfre, not only from a sales perspective, but he's also secured investment from the former head of Richemont Group N. America. Well done!

This interview really highlights an attitude I think is essential for all entrepreneurs, and that is resourcefulness. Some people may even call it "scrappiness". My view is that it's the willingness to find solutions instead of feeling defeated when you come across obstacles. We touch on that in the episode, but I wanted to mention that it's a trait I've noticed in all successful people.

Episode highlights

Connect with Brandon on IG: @Brandon.Snower

Le Alfre on IG: @le.alfre

Follow The Stanza on IG/TikTok: @thestanzamedia

Subscribe to The Stanza, a weekly journal for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries: https://www.thestanzamedia.com

Today's guest is Julia Baldet, an investor at BC Partners, a large cap European private equity fund. Prior to BC Partners, Julia was an investor at Manzanita Capital, where she was the sole associate working on the $1B sale of Byredo to Puig in 2022. While at Manzanita Capital, Julia also managed some of their other investments, such as Diptyque, Space NK, and Susanne Kaufmann. In addition to investing at the institutional level, Julia is an angel investor in Konvi, The Edit LDN, and Kimai.

We chatted about how she created the career she desired, her insights from investing in consumer brands, and her advice for those wanting to break into consumer PE.

*Huge thanks to BC Partners' compliance team for giving us the green light to do this interview!

Episode Highlights:

• How Julia carved her career path into luxury consumer investing
• Byredo: deal process & dyamics
• Why Puig was the right buyer of Byredo
• Julia's insider perspective of the luxury beauty business
• What makes a $billion beauty brand prime for acquisition?
• What type of capital partner beauty & fashion entrepreneurs should seek
• How Julia sources angel investment opportunities
• Julia's investment criteria (company & founding team)
• Advice for aspiring luxury consumer investors

Connect with Julia on LinkedIn

Check out her essay for the blog Data Driven Investor

Follow The Stanza on IG/TikTok: @thestanzamedia

Subscribe to The Stanza, a weekly journal for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries https://www.thestanzamedia.com

*Check out which of your favorite hospitality brands use Peoplevine, the best CRM tool for the best private members clubs, luxury hotels, and restaurants. You can also book a free demo for your hospitality business: https://www.peoplevine.com

Today's guest is Lexy Copithorne, who is a creative director and brand strategist with experience across luxury real estate, hospitality, and fashion. I've never met anyone like Lexy - she has a unique intellectual approach to her creative work and in this episode we talk all about her process when creating physical and digital environments for brands.

Some of her experience includes: branding for luxury real estate developer JDS in New York, the Beverly Estate, also known as the Godfather House, Casalena, the LA Mediterranean restaurant, and is also a co-founder of Pruzan, a technical athletic wear company based between LA and London.

Also for some history here - before the lockdown Lexy and I were planning to launch a tequila brand but unfortunately the pandemic happened and our plans didn’t work out. But I got to witness how her creative mind works, and when I started this podcast, I just knew I had to have her on as a guest.

If you're obsessed with brand as it pertains to the digital and physical world, you're going to love this episode.

Episode Highlights

Connect with Lexy: Copithorne & Company - Copithorne & Company (lexycopithorne.com)

*This episode is sponsored by Peoplevine

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries: https://www.thestanzamedia.com

Today's guests are Jade Beguelin and Sabrina Sade, the co-founders of 4AM skin, a NYC based skincare brand. Sabrina left med school and Jade quit her wall street career to pursue building 4AM skin and they've been absolutely crushing it as a young brand. Something I really admire about Jade and Sabrina is their willingness to roll up their sleeves, be resourceful, and get things done. We chatted about being public founders on social media, having products go viral and selling out on Tiktok, and thoughts about building a brand and community that cares about what you're selling. If you're building in the DTC space, you're going to learn a lot from this episode. Enjoy!

The Stanza listeners get 15% off 4AM Skin with code STANZA15 on https://4amskin.com

Episode Highlights:

• Approach to building an audience online
• Brand /founder alignment on social media
• Going viral on TikTok & selling out on TikTok shop
• Lessons learned from selling vs branding
• How to create a community that cares about you & your brand
• Thoughts on raising money from VC investors
• How to be resourceful as a bootstrapped founder
• Starting a business with a friend 

Connect with Jade: @jadebeguelin on TikTok/IG

Connect with Sabrina: @sabsade on TikTok/IG

@4AMskin on TikTok/IG

Follow The Stanza on TikTok/IG: @thestanzamedia

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries. Sent every Friday: https://thestanza.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Use Gamma AI to create your next presentation, document, or website. https://try.gamma.app/thestanzapodcast

Hayley Mack founded Cent LDN while being furloughed during the pandemic, and since then has done partnerships with Elton John and Selfridges, StockX, Nando's, Adidas, Lush Beauty, and so forth. She's been featured in Hypebae, High Snobiety, Forbes, etc - all within three short years. Hayley shares insights into positioning her candle brand for success as well as advice for those building unique brands.

Episode Highlights:

Cent LDN: https://centldn.com or @cent.ldn

Connect with Hayley: @hayleymackkk

Cent LDN in Vogue: https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/are-candles-the-new-luxury-collectibles

Cent LDN in Hypebae: https://hypebae.com/2023/3/cent-ldn-hayley-mack-candles-international-womens-day-interview

Follow The Stanza on IG / TikTok: @thestanzamedia