ICYMI
The internet is divided and can’t stop talking about Alix and Alex, and I would by LYING if I said I wasn’t a little invested in what has gone down but I am so much more interested in sharing what my founder friends and I were gossiping about on the way to Pia Mance’s 30th birthday celebration at Cucina Alba where we overindulged on the best gluten-free pasta in LA and Aperol Spritz (at least those of us that weren’t pregnant, which funnily enough was almost the minority).
We talked about how we think 2027 Coachella Weekend 2 is going to become more relevant than Weekend 1 because it’s becoming increasingly cool “not to care”, Alix Earle becoming the becoming next BIG Celebrity Skincare Founder (hitting $1M in sales in under 5 minutes, $5M by late afternoon and selling out by the end of the day), and how f*cking uncomfortable it is to figure out how to integrate your partner especially if they’re successful because everyone makes their assumptions that it’s probably because of them, when it’s absolutely f*cking not. I shared that at Inc Founder House, I loved what Durana Elmi, founder of Cymbiotika, said about “entrepreneurship making you face every single part of your unhealed self” and immediately booked a therapy session for tomorrow afternoon.
We also swapped our favorite Sephora Sale must-haves which is why I ended up buying 13 things yesterday with my 20% off code and doing another order today… If you want to know what the female founders I’m obsessed with are living for, it’s these eye patches, this travel dry shampoo, this bronzer, this new skin tint I had never heard of to wear for a no makeup, makeup look, and this shade of lip liner since Rhode is still sold out everywhere.
This Week’s Mood Board
HSR ICYMI is a weekly newsletter and educational resource — its $8 a month or $80 a year. If you want to expense it, use this template if you need to ask.
The Next Big Kardashian Brand?
Ok Angels, welcome to an hour with my husband and I while we talk shop. This is the kind of conversation Courtney and I have every day. Out to dinner, traveling, consuming products, processing the world around us as my plus 1. These episodes serve a completely different purpose than our guest interviews, and honestly both matter equally. The episodes with Katie or Courtney are about going deep into the gossip of consumer trends, behavior and insights. The guest episodes do that and then some. I used to think we had to choose. We do not. It has to be both. Here are some of my favorite comments from this week's episode where Courtney and I break down how to evaluate investments, how investors think about risk, how to actually get a job in VC, the biggest red flags in consumer brands, and what separates billion dollar founders from those that do not make it.
Consumer Gossip
all the brands, people, places, things we’re gossiping about this week
Women’s Health & Beauty
Peptides hit $50B hype cycle as Protocole raises $6M to build a trust-first platform in a fast-scaling category. — TradedVC
AG1 lands nationwide at Target, marking its biggest retail expansion yet and bringing functional wellness into mass aisles. — CPG Wire
Mascara demand drops ~10% as the “no mascara” trend continues to rise, with Gen Z shifting toward bare lashes and skin-first beauty. — Tracker
Media, Entertainment & Creator
Nike taps creator. Brett Chody to lead global running storytelling, signaling the shift from athlete-led to creator-led brand narratives. — WWD
Unilever hands 50% of its ad budget to influencers, betting big on creators over traditional brand voice. — Marketingmentor.in
Consumer, E-Commerce & Retail
Skinny Confidential x Eden Rock drops a limited collab, turning hotel rituals into shoppable lifestyle products. — Lauryn Bosstick
Coachella 2026 fashion is all micro shorts, crochet, and cowboy hats, proving festival style is still a major retail driver. — WWD
Gwyneth Paltrow is bringing delicious, healthy food to New York with Goop Kitchen after top locations make $20,000 a day. - WSJ
Joe & The Juice closes fundraise at a $1.8 billion valuation to fuel 1,000 stores by 2028. - Bloomberg
Tech, Business & Investing
White Claw parent acquires Finnish Long Drink for $325M, doubling down on the booming RTD category. — TradedVC
Popup Bagels hits a $300M valuation backed by Tiger Global, as cult food brands continue scaling fast. — QSR Magazine
NVIDIA brings AI to the runway, showcasing generative fashion design as the next creative frontier. — retailboss
You Don’t Need More Content, You Need a Point of View
This week, I had the honor of being part of Inc’s Founder’s House in LA! Being there and seeing my HSR Angels in the crowd was truly a moment I’ll never forget.
I joined a panel about The Brand Storytelling Trend: Why It’s Happening and How to Win at It that was Moderated by Bobbie Gossage, West Coast editor at Inc, and also
featured Rashad Assir, Head of media, Redpoint Capital, and Kevin Prince, Founder, Heads in the Sky. So let’s skip the gatekeeping (and the $500 ticket) and get to what actually mattered.
This is not a content game. It’s a belonging game.
Everyone is talking about storytelling right now, but most people are still treating it like a content problem when it’s actually a clarity problem. We don’t need more content, we need specific and sharper points of view.
The biggest unlock, and something I come back to constantly when building Hot Smart Rich, is this:
Subscribe to Monthly to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Monthly to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
UpgradeA subscription gets you:
- Weekly startup, venture, & consumer brand insights
- Business case studies & experienced POV
- Post comments
- Invitations to HSR Insider virtual events