Emma Grede doesn't make cute sandwiches for her kids

💥 CYBER WEEK: $60/yearly until Dec. 5th, Lizzo's Substack, L'Oréal wants to capitalize off your scars

Slutty Founder is a weekly newsletter about the culture of beauty and the business behind it.

Inside this week’s newsletter: My time at Axios Pro Rata’s BFD Event in NYC with notes from Emma Grede’s Panel; Lizzo’s Substack, L’Oréal wants to capitalize off your scars.

💥 CYBER WEEK SALE — get an annual subscription for just $60 (from $99/year) until Dec. 5th. 💥

Tis the season to re-watch Gossip Girl Season 1 Episode 9 🍁 !!! Let’s get into this week.

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• I went to Axios Pro Rata’s BFD Summit last week in New York mostly for a complimentary nosh and some vino and to see what Emma Grede was talking about. Despite being there fresh off of SKIMS’ $225M raise, she kept pivoting every question back to Good American, which I found bizarre.

1. “As you know it’s very expensive,” she noted of the raise which will fund the opening of one retail store per month. She did not go into details around where the retail stores plan to open.

2. She mentions SKIMS Beauty was a no-brainer since the brand already has such a specific aesthetic and unique POV on product. There weren’t any additional details on beauty apart from her excitement to establish it as a new vertical, which makes me feel like it may be more of an afterthought cash grab after all.

3. She kept swinging back to things we can find in her upcoming book which will be titled: Start With Yourself.

   Between this and dodging all of the SKIMS questions, I picked up that Emma’s next journey includes striking out on her own.

4. Despite reports of about 1 in 5 women on a GLP-1 for weight loss, Emma notes that Good American has not been affected by a shift in down-sizing. She attributes this to their tight focus “true inclusivity.” which they’ve had since inception.

5. She says most companies don’t have the end consumer in mind because their leaders aren’t the end consumer.

6. “What is a disaster anymore. We’re all talking and I don’t think it hurts,” she says on the attention economy. Sydney Sweeney’s Great Jeans campaign was referenced. Considering Emma’s proximity to the you know who’s, I think Emma would know best here.

7. Emma doesn’t make cutesy sandwiches for her kids. I felt seen by this despite not having any. She is a master of owning her time and hates the work life balance myth (which unlike her, Mark Cuban would never be criticized for — her words). To that point, she thinks if your business is flailing, the best people to hire are moms.

💥 CYBER WEEK SALE — get an annual subscription for just $60 (from $99/year) until Dec. 5th. 💥

• I read Lizzo’s debut Substack piece on our cultural obsession with weight and I was not expecting it to be such an emotive and eloquent read.

  Celebrities joining Substack don’t bother me. Are they charging people for subscriptions? I’m struggling to envision Charli XCX enabling Stripe.

• The latest grift are the people on Threads pretending that they have event spots to give away for Art Basel by asking you to message them for one. They are then redirecting you to a purchase link for “access” all of the events.

  A bait and switch gets more and more sophisticated every day!

• I’d like to ask Shay Mitchell in what ways she thinks skincare starts at birth.

• The scar care category is expected to reach $5B by 2030 and L’Oreal is smelling the money. With 80 million new scars formed every year in the US alone, who can blame them.

  My thing is….

  Remember when I said these large beauty conglomerates have their ears to the streets on what the indie founders are doing to establish market fit? I feel like this supports my suspicion.

  I instantly thought of Motivo Scar Care — the only medical-grade scar care system co-created by a patient and (world-renowned) plastic surgeon duo. I am also learning 1 in 3 people experience trauma and anxiety related to their scars, which makes sense because I can’t even tell you how irrationally angry I get when I think about the one I have from being attacked by an evil pitbull while walking my little angel.

  Motivo was founded after Jadis Montijo underwent top surgery and the scar recovery products he used irritated and inflamed his skin so severely that he ended up needing an additional corrective procedure just to undo the damage. Thus Motivo was born. This is such an OG, genuine need-to-market brand formation story. We just don’t get them like this anymore!

  

  I swear this isn’t a plug. I just love what this brand is doing so much and think it’s one of the most inventive that I’ve seen (and will see) in a very long time. I’m actually deeply considering getting onto their cap table.

  Motivo, by the way, is doing a site-wide sale of 25% off from this Thursday-Monday.

• Is Merit the first beauty brand to run a campaign featuring used products?

  

  I got slight PTSD thinking about when I would do my own product photography and would panic if there was so much as a teensy smear on a single letter on the back of the bottle. It almost seems silly how committed we were to perfection just a few short years ago.

  Dare I say this creative direction is absolutely brilliant. This is always the case with Merit though, frankly.

• Don’t forget to get your applications in for:

  1. Sephora Beauty Grant ($100,000) — Application closes November 28th, 2025

  2. Sonsie x Shopify Mindful Beauty Award ($100,000 cash award and resources to support and nurture female-founded beauty and wellness brands) — Application closes December 14, 2025

I’m open for a few sessions over the next couple of days while I let my greens soak. If you want to review application questions and feedback you can book me: HERE.

That’s it for today.

Will I be seeing any of you at Art Basel next week? Drop me a line!

xxo,

SF