Business as usual: unexpected Kardashian collab, a take on the bag charm trend, from the ashes of Boisson, & hideous "Sneex"
Plus Labor Day Sale finds and a diary from my first trip to Nantucket. 💔 ⚓️
Good morning! NOTHING is better than the new Sabrina Carpenter album. There are really only two songs I didn’t download, and I like them all! I just love them marginally less than the others. It’s a great listen, end to end.
The song below feels like every single conversation I’ve had with my single female friends (so 95% of all my friends) in the last 4 years. (cc: Scott Galloway….)
I’m seeing so many great Substack events popping off lately—
, and many more. I’d LOVE to host something for First Rodeo subscribers in NY this fall and LA this winter… is that interesting to you?Brands (or Substack HQ), I’d love to hear from you if you’d want to get in the mix!
As usual, this email is a bit too long for email, so click here to read it in browser.
I did my best to hold back my feedback on Sara Blakely’s newest launch. I like Sara Blakely! One of the most earnest things I’ve ever done was take her Masterclass on starting a business before I took the leap and started my own. (Unfortunately, this did not make me successful. Don’t tell Masterclass.)
That said… this launch brings back visceral feelings of… 1999. The name! Eek! It makes me want to hide my face in my shirt like a turtle! That’s all.
Sustainable retailer The Rounds raised more money, $24M more money, to be exact. I think I applied for a very junior job there after I wrapped Goldune and they were a much younger company. I didn’t get a call back, which sticks in my craw a bit even after all these years. It’s sort of my shit!
Aspiring entrepreneurs should read
’s piece on starting Sporty & Rich. I like that Substack gives platform to founders who can clap back on all the “your rich parents funded this business” claim, sort of how like Instagram made it easy for celebrities to refute tabloid gossip.
FWIW, I agree heartily with Emily’s point about how spicy founders or operators should probably not be the necessarily-empathetic and patient customer care reps who answer angry and unhinged customer emails all day. (This is a fast way to go insane. I know because it keeps happening to me!)
When I worked in sales and rev ops, we used to always try to separate the salespeople from the chaos or internal friction with editorial or product teams who tended to default to a “no” vs. a “yes, and” when there was a client request— it just didn’t serve the salespeople to be going out into the world and trying to get a million dollars for the company when they couldn’t be confident that once they brought the deal in, it’d be 1.) appreciated by the team (it rarely was) 2.) executed on willingly and without objection (which it also rarely was). I often think the same thing about founders fundraising: they need to be insulated, to some degree, from the clusterfuck of snafus and myriad disasters, they need to stay drunk on their own Kool Aid so as not to lose hope and give up the ship.- wrote a brilliant “5 types of portfolio career” breakdown that is a must read for any freelancers or consultants— or anyone who has ever even considered going down that path. I think I am a “Special Generalist” if not a multi-hyphenate. What do you think you are?
This collab between Kourtney Kardashian and Simon Huck’s Lemme and Brooklyn charm jewelry brand Haricot Vert was so not on my bingo card for the year. I think it’s actually pretty smart for Lemme but then begs the question— if mega brands with endless pockets are partnering with the indie brands… who the hell are the other, smaller indie brands supposed to partner with? It’s like they’re swimming in our end of the pool.
One of the co-founders of (now-bankrupt) Boisson— a NA liquor store concept, basically— has founded yet another liquor store concept. This feels like… a long shot… to me! But we all know I have a bias against marketplaces, having been there done that ;)
I liked
’s “Ready to rebrand? Wait! Read this first!”. This is a must-read if you are always wanting to rebrand or value brand over everything else (including sanity and budget). Too often founders walk away unhappy after spending tens of thousands on a new brand identity…I really agree with
that there is a hair-loss category explosion that is about to reach fever pitch. The reality is that there’s like… 2 or 3 key ingredients in-market that actually support hair growth/prevent hair loss. The only thing that’s changing is the branding, packaging, ordering experience.
My initial take on Great Many, the newest “innovation” here, is that it looks like nothing special. All the guys I know use Hims or Keeps and all the women I know use Nutrafol— shoutout to my friend Sophie, our resident telehealth and Ozempy expert (promise her AMA is coming soon! She’s a busy bee!) who used to run the show over at Keeps. Our friend group was blessed with luscious hair during that era and I’m pretty sure they all still use Keeps.
What I’m trying to say is that if you’re already pretty far gone on the hair loss journey, maybe consider a transplant! These brands want your subscription money for all eternity, but you could also just fork over a few grand, if you have that much money to spend on your scalp, say somewhere like Portugal or Turkey, and be done with it.
I’ve been steadily updating my BURST OF RED moodboard and I am now fully enamored with red everything. Much of it is or will be on sale for Labor Day. Truthfully I just have a lot of fun discovering cool red things and adding them here.
I loved this piece from
: a bunch of different female POVs on moving to a different country! The Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Germany, many more. Made me want to move, as usual, lol.I am keeping my eye on smart things that are going on super sale this weekend: Rhode, J. Crew, Ciao Lucia (shockingly mortal prices right now), Mansur Gavriel, Dusen Dusen (sample sale!), (my favorite sleepy gummies— they happen to be one of the most clicked links I’ve shared here, so you must need help sleeping to!) and many, many more. Everything I’ve saved right here!
Deeply resonated with
’s piece on not wanting to dress like a cool girl, but wanting to dress like a Nora Ephron character. Yup! For me, this could also be dressing like a Nancy Meyers protagonist— whether the 11 year old ones or the 60 year old ones.File this under CULTURE: We’re leaving for Portugal next week— for most of September— and here are a few things I can’t wait to not think about, hear, read about or talk about during that time.
brat
discourse about the seasons, whether it is summer or fall, and what people think about whichever season it is or isn’t
retrograde anything
brainrot
the election
TikTok
I did see
and post about Hotel Lobby Candle’s first foray into home! (Diffusers, soaps, etc.) I am intrigued, I bet they’re crushing it with this launch— and I really like that they launched with refills off the bat. Becca had me when she mentioned the diffuser had really good throw…In my inbox this morning:
on The Age of Entitlement. A great read on getting what you want…. and not, particularly online.This new-to-me luxury bag brand is really fun— I love how unique they look. (I am a big fan of not looking the same as everyone else.) Also a fun take on the bag charm trend that is sweeping the nation— similar but different.
Longtime readers know that after devouring 25+ Elin Hilderbrand novels, I’ve been dying to get my ass to Nantucket! And last Thursday… I finally did.
(At the same time as , no less, who wrote a fun first timers guide to Nantucket here! I was in great company, though I didn’t run into Alisha around town—surprising since it’s a small town and I ran into other folks! We had different stays/criteria, and I loved reading hers— so leaving my thoughts below.)