My toxic habit is thinking my friends are sending me articles because I’m featured in them
The latest rundown 🗞
My left eye has started twitching again from being chronically online. I’m literally typing with a black headband over my eye because I don’t have a patch handy.
Consider it proof that you’re getting every red cent of value from your Slutty Founder subscription.
The show must go on! How else am I going to manifest 300 additional paid subscribers by the end of my 90 day sprint? By the way this article is free so I’m not really off to a great start to that promise, am I.
On my mind
On yesterday’s Jimmy Kimmel news, I couldn’t help but recall the intoxicated Caucasian man I met at the Beverly Hills Hillstone late last year who bragged endlessly and unprovoked that America was the greatest place on earth because of its freedoms—”NOTHING like China” — while also babbling on about how he only ever dated / married Black women and how much of a man Donald Trump was (I gagged him by saying his reported height is his stage height). Beverly Hills by the way, is very MAGA. I may as well have lived in Alabama. I’m a 10-year Chinese visaholder and know boots-to-the ground how untraveled that man’s statements were, but whatever, I guess if he was closing out my bar tab.
Not even a full calendar year later and McCarthyism is back in full swing, baby! It’s actually pretty tragic. Although Kimmel was my least favorite late-nighter it’s still like DAMN. If you can’t go to Bella Noche’s where the hell can you go? I feel for all of the writers and staff.
A preliminary deal has been struck to keep TikTok alive in the U.S., widely expected to be led by Oracle’s Larry Ellison. 😬
We need to talk about the Carters. Not me obviously, but WE. The only people I fear being censored by more than the feds are the Beyhive.
Back to Beauty
Bring back the days of Rodin and beauty as luxury leisure 🥲
Since its launch earlier this month Rhode has become top 10 in Sephora which should surprise no one (not even me). It’s been reported that Rhode is accounting for 2.8% of Sephora’s total online sales placing it in the 10 spot in the skincare category and the 18th in makeup. Curious to see how they hold it down beyond the buzziness of their retail launch.
As I reported last week, the teen-focused skincare brand is launched by 15-year-old influencer Salish Matter and her dad Jordan Matter who I’ve since learned has 32.2M subscribers himself on Youtube (although he claims the account has been “taken over” by Salish. Okay “@kimandnorth”). Although the truth behind who’s actually running the account is unclear, what’s interesting about the reporting on this launch is that no one has called out that her dad actually has more combined followers than her. If Sephora actually looked at those analytics, they’d likely skew far older and male. Who pitched this beauty brand opportunity and how did it come into play?
Among Papa Matter’s videos are ones titled: BOYS vs GIRLS trapped in a TINY ROOM, Trapped in a TINY ROOM With My Best Friend (ofc the best friend is male), My Daughter SNEAKS OUT of the house AT MIDNIGHT, ARE THEY DATING; My Daughter Survives WORLD’S TINIEST BEDROOM. Those btw are the words he chose to emphasize. I’m not even going to describe the thumbnails.
It’s giving:
As I gently touched on last week, this brand will succeed as far as what Sephora and stakeholders are looking for, which is reach, and attention, and a ready-made audience 🤪. But I’m lowkey mortified (albeit not surprised) that Sephora has rewarded parasocial exploitation under the guise of young entrepreneurship. I liked the person I was before I discovered Jordan Matter’s Youtube account.
Where is my palo santo.
We’ve been covering the hyper-growth of the fragrance category quite extensively here on SF so I’m not surprised at the revival of the Balenciaga perfume, which by the way I’m not a fan of, for no other reason than that it’s outright hideous. Ordinarily, when tears form in the wells of my eyes it’s because I find something so beautiful, so the experience I’m feeling right now is a new one. It’s like I just started a fragrance brand and still print the labels at home because I can’t afford a screen printer. And my younger cousin did the typography in Word. This is unacceptable.
Speaking of fragrance, my girlfriend told me I’m the only person of color she knows that has fucked with the LORE launch, LMAO. So what if I think Greg Gonzalez is kind of hot. What now?
Looks like the success of creator affiliate programs has Sephora running to create their own.
Sephora President and CEO Artemis Patrick officially announced the unveiling of “My Sephora,” their digital storefront set to launch next month.
Shoppable storefronts are big business right now. ShopMy just raised another huge round ($77.5M), with Sofia Richie Grainge publicly investing. I even know of a few angels who have also.
Artemis says the difference between this and other affiliate platforms is that it’s “fully integrated onto Sephora.com.” Translation: Sephora keeps the traffic, data, and money in-house. Got it. Not sure how this plays out on the UX side for things like shade-matching and skin-tone specific products, which was my first thought.
I think turning an otherwise external affiliate $$ loss into an owned channel is a smart move for Sephora. The comments seem friendly.
BTW I have a founder friend that used to vehemently refuse all PR from Fast Company because they had a superstition that the pub is cursed. Their theory is that every time FC profiled a founder their company tanked catastrophically shortly after. It’s been years since I’ve been introduced to this superstition and I still can’t unhear it 😭.
Victoria’s Secret Runway to Revenue Accelerator Program is now live. You guys know how I feel about Accelerators, but this one at least comes with $10k. There’s also an additional shot at $40k through a pitch competition with the program wraps. Deadline is October 2nd.
➡️ If you’re applying, my Grant Strategy Blueprint is made for this (it’s the same system that’s helped me win over $130K in non-dilutive funding in 18 months). My clients have gone on to win programs like Sephora Accelerate, Goldman Sachs, BGV and more…
ASK ABOUT ME!
Have you guys been following the Wisdom Kaye x Miu Miu saga?
While everyone is sprinting towards the fragrance come-up, Gwyneth Paltrow said hmmm…let me launch a Row adjacent clothing line and make the girls feel even worse about being poor. I love that about her!!!
Lowkey let me tell you why this could work. From a cultural and societal standpoint, in moments where the economic climate is so divisive, leaning further into division can paradoxically work. tariro makoni published something parallel to this recently, which had me brushing up on Veblen. It's not just about having money—(anyone can fake it with the help of Klarna) it's about flaunting the gap between you and everyone else struggling through more elevated and discreet signaling.
I’m not terribly mad at the new GWYN line but I wish she’d chosen a different brand name. Why do celebrities insist on displaying their relentless egos by tagging their names onto every project? I’m begging for reprieve and a proper brainstorm.
Inside Jobs:
Ulta Muse Winner My Happy Flo is looking for a Social Media Manager. Apply at creators@myhappyflo.co
Our Hairitage is looking to fill 5 open roles for:
Content / Production Team, an EA level Personal Assistant, Brand Partnership Manager (West), YouTube Strategist, and Brand Ambassador. Send CVs + resumes to admin@adannamadueke.com.
This was fun. Hive don’t come for me. I already went viral on Threads earlier this month and had to swing on a gaggle of incels, so I’m fatigued. Bye for now!
xx,
SF
Paying attention to all Fast Company founder features now 💀
aww thanks for the shoutout, love your POV