Why is L.A. the place to build an inclusive and sustainable brand?
Dear FaB friends, founders, and investors,
It was a true pleasure to see you, and thank you to the founders of Uncover and Ettitude for sharing their stories, Shamin Rostami Walsh & Brian Lee @ BAM Ventures, and Claire Chang @ IgniteXL Ventures for co-hosting with us ( Odile Roujol, founder of FaB community, and Fab Ventures). Thanks to our partner, Silicon Valley Bank, for the beautiful venue and warm welcome in Santa Monica!
L.A. the startup ecosystem:
“It’s the place to be for founders, open to Asia, still manageable if having clients in Europe,” says Phoebe, co-founder of Ettitude (see bio at the end), sustainable fashion (organic bamboo). She chose L.A. after living in Australia, and Kat, her co-founder came from NYC.
“We can’t complain. Great people (creators, influencers, tech people, founders in consumer tech…), great weather all year.” (they have a great smile). They pivoted from a pure D2C model a few years ago, towards a model with B2B clients in luxury, premium women apparel.
Many founders attending were leading data platforms and Saas solutions in the fashion and beauty verticals. Whether to find vintage clothes as an aggregator or rent a tuxedo, or to find the right suppliers for biotech ingredients.
“Choose carefully your partners for the go-to market strategy”.
“Be aware corporations are slow to convert into revenues, it can take 18 months!”
VCs.
Fab Ventures has invested in K18 hair, which is now acquired by Unilever, and has been the most important deal in the last 12 months in the beauty space. A alk about a second brand in her portfolio, Fund I, Bubble for Teens Skincare, now also in the UK and Australian market.
IgniteXL Ventures has invested in both Uncover and Ettitude, guest speakers today. Also an investor in Bubble.
BAM Ventures has invested in Merit Beauty (luxury beauty by making it clean)
Attending: the team of Willow Growth, also an investor in Bubble. Now with Fund II.
Inclusive beauty.
The founder of Uncover skincare (see bio at the end of the post; one of the co-founders comes from Nigeria, and the brand is already in diverse markets in Africa with 14 plus SKUs) explains why dark melanin skins don’t have what they need from the global brands.
Attending, the CMO of ThirteenLune, the L.A.-based Bipoc brands’ platforms. Visit their flagship in Larchmont, with plenty of amazing events, including celebrities (allies).
“We welcome all underrepresented founders, our customers love great products and being part of an engaged community.”
Sustainable Fashion:
Fashion is one of the most polluting industries. Fixing it means different solutions at different stages:
- material science,
- supply chain
- re-sell, life cycle of the product
Hollywood:
Many experts were attending, supporting famous athletes or faces.
There is a need for brands to have spokespersons relating to the brand's value and manifesto.
FAB community:
Feel free to share our LinkedIn In page in Los Angeles and global FaB LinkedIn group (page social media) and the newsletter with your favorite people.
https://www.beautytechcommunity.com
A community founded by Odile Roujol (also Fab Ventures) now has 15,000 founders and VCs who have met and 4000+ subscribers to the free quarterly newsletter.
Thank you to our 40 founders and investors who are attending this morning’ coffee this Monday.
Let’s keep in touch for the next meeting. Miami will take place tomorrow, Oct 29th, with 200 attendees!
Have a lovely week,
Odile and Camille
Message from our partner for the meeting: Silicon Valley Bank.
SVB
Drawing on decades of experience in Tech, Healthcare and Life Sciences, SVB can combine powerful insights with comprehensive solutions that help accelerate your business — like flexible lending, a powerful digital platform and faster payment processing. Silicon Valley Bank is the preferred banking partner for entrepreneurs and investors in the innovation economy.
Co-hosting with us (and thank you also for the fabulous croissants!):
Shamin Rostami Walsh BAM Ventures MANAGING DIRECTOR
Shamin Walsh has over 17+ years as an active angel investor who gained experience in the consumer space through her early investments in companies such as Sweetgreen, Flexport, and Sir Kensington’s.
Prior to joining BAM Ventures as a managing director, she was a consumer-focused partner at an early-stage generalist firm with tangible assets in 3PL/fulfillment, cold storage/co-packing, and manufacturing, giving her a holistic perspective through which to evaluate emerging consumer businesses. She managed the investment portfolio and served on several boards. She also leveraged her experience as a transactional attorney to assist in contract negotiations, fund formation, and fund construction.
Shamin received her B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from Loyola Law School. Shamin is passionate about education and dedicates her free time to creating access for others. She previously served as an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at Loyola Marymount University, as the Head of Engagement and Advocacy on the Teach for America Associates Board, and as a mentor with the Fulfillment Fund.
Guest speakers and founders:
Bio Jade co-founder of Uncover
Jade Oyateru and Sneha Mehta are the co-founders of Uncover, a skincare brand at the forefront of African beauty. Creating innovative, effective skincare formulas with Africa’s rich, powerhouse botanicals such as Baobab and Rooibos as well as driving inclusivity in focus group testing — ensuring all their products are tested and approved by women of color in Africa who have long been ignored by the beauty industry. Skincare for women of color is still vastly underserved and Uncover is on a mission to make Africa a priority and not an afterthought by taking A-beauty global. The brand has already made waves globally with a recent feature in Vogue’s prestigious top 100 beauty innovators list and a close of an oversubscribed funding round.
We are a movement to make melanated skin a priority. Millions of us exist in Black, Brown, and every shade in between, yet the beauty industry treats us as an afterthought. We put melanated women at the center of everything we do — R&D, formulation, and product testing — because all skin deserves the best. Despite what society has declared beautiful, our mission is to uncover what’s real — because your real is worthy of being seen.”
“We are a community-built skincare brand that believes no woman should lose confidence over her skin. We celebrate every blemish, every stretch mark, every woman, and every body and encourage U to wear your skin with pride. We believe in patience, consistency, and self-love inspired through healthy, effective, nourishing products and lifestyle.”
Bio Kat and Phoebe co-founders of Ettitude:
Phoebe Yu and Kat Dey are the co-founders of ettitude, an award-winning next-gen materials company innovating textiles using regenerative plant science. Textiles is the #2 most polluting industry in the world, and contributes 10% of global CO2 emissions. The foundation of ettitude’s innovations is proprietary CleanBamboo®. Using organic FSC-sourced bamboo, ettitude uses green chemistry in a lyocell-like process to manufacture fiber that is a clean alternative to the chemical- and resource-intensive viscose, cotton, silk, cashmere and nylon. ettitude’s luxury materials are more durable, more breathable, antimicrobial and save up to 86% of CO2 and 99% of water. Major brands are already starting to adopt these materials in their product lines.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fab-meeting-founders-and-investors-in-los-angeles-tickets-1054587241829
and of course, Odile Roujol https://www.fabcocreationstudio.com/
