We are delighted to be welcoming 11 experts to our Founders’ Social today. Please see below a summary of each of them and the key topics they are able to offer advice on.

Please complete the poll below to let us know in advance which of them you would like to engage with one on one and we will do our best to facilitate.

Nnenna Onuba; Brand founder, Angel investor and MD, 21 Road Capital- a specialist Beauty Corporate finance & M& A consultancy. She orchestrated the successful sale of Nailberry, a premium non-toxic cosmetics brand. Specialist topics are:

• founder exits/ M&A,
• valuation, and
• strategic corporate finance.

Cora Millenna; Has led on the digital and marketing transformation for brands such as Burberry, Charlotte Tilbury, Estee Lauder, La Mer & Dr. Barbara Sturm.

• paid media,
• brand media and
• creative topics

Lottie Unwin; Founder of Up World – a world of expertise for curious marketers and Brand Hackers runs fractional marketing teams.

• How to build a personal brand
• How to hire your first marketer
• How to get really clear on the marketing work you should start with

Wizz Selvey; Thought leader and a go-to industry name for market insights and advice in the retail industry. Previously Head of Buying at Selfridges, and Director at Cowshed Beauty and Soho Home, Wizz is now the founder of WIZZ&CO, a strategy agency specialising in retail, consumer trends and brand-building.

• How to position a brand to get more engagement and sales with customers
• Beauty trends and how to align your brand to consumer needs
• How to scale with large retailers

Kelly Gilbert; Award-winning journalist. Formerly Beauty Editor of British Vogue and longtime contributor to The Times and STStyle. Now co-founder of BCCBEAUTY to work directly with beauty founders, most often pre-launch or early stage growth. This work takes in a broad remit including identifying market opportunity, ensuring the creative direction enhances the brand messaging, developing brand positioning and really nailing the brand USP.

• What is your USP?
• Is it convincing?

Wendy Slattery; Founder and CEO of PoweredX Beauty Buddy which has a beauty squad of over 100,000 members create UGC, Consumer Video Content, Rating and Reviews, Market Research and insights.

• Consumer Video Content/UGC,
• Sampling and Reviews.

Sophie Bond; Has worked at a variety of CPG brands (Red Bull, Benefit Cosmetics, Camden Town Brewery) across creative, brand & marketing. Now at NICE as Marketing Director, living and breathing B.B.E (Big Budget Energy).

• B.B.E (Big Budget Energy): how to make your budget look bigger than it is

– Maxing socials to be relevant to your target audience

– Do fewer things better and when to choose freelance over agency

• Crowdfunding: How to make the most of creating a marketing campaign

– Working with Seedrs

– Assets to amplify (Launch video, fresh perspective on traditional marketing)

Hannah Wilkinson; Experienced professional specializing in customer retention, loyalty, CRM, and data analytics. With a background working for brands such as Elemis, Jo Malone, & Charlotte Tilbury

• Customer Experience (CX) The new acronym business’s should invest in
• Integrating your Tech stack for a seamless customer experience and true CRM
• The importance of customer feedback vs. data analytics
• Considerations when launching Loyalty programmes

Alex Beyer; An engineer by training, a beauty-lover at heart, Alex has spent the last 7 years building, growing, and developing tech solutions for the world’s fastest growing DTC businesses.

Co-Founder of Sourcerie. Everything related to international expansion operations, especially for DTC personal care businesses – including:

• logistics, fulfilment & shipping, duties, taxes & accounting, international pricing, cosmetic regulation compliance, corporate structuring / local entities vs. cross-border operations

• Specific experience in the following regions: US, Canada, UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand
• Personalisation in the beauty space, ranging from personalisation of product i.e. formulation (like Function of Beauty, Prose, Proven, etc.) to personalisation of online experience or service (like Sourcerie).
• First round fundraising, sharing the tips and tricks that worked for us when raising our £1.8m pre-seed for Sourcerie.

Georgie Dawson; Brand Consultant. Has worked in in the beauty industry for over 15 years, having worked in house and agency-side to develop and execute brand strategies for global corporates such as P&G, Estee Lauder and Pfizer. Her areas of expertise include influencer marketing, measurement, consumer insights and brand channel content strategies and production but happy answer anything across any element of consumer facing comms!

• Best practice with i. Press ii. influencers  to build authentic relations?
• When to pay and when not to pay? #Spon #ad
• How can editorial/ PR truly help my brand when there are so many other costs to consider?

Danielle Le Toullec; Head of Marketing & Communications at True investment and innovation firm (our hosts for the event), where she leads on events, portfolio engagement, PR (incl. deal announcements), partnerships & content.

• how to leverage your investors from a marketing POV,
• how to engage journalists,
• personal brand.