Premium Beauty News - What is the purpose of the FaB community?
Odile Roujol - Most venture capitalists, business angels have a preference for tech-led businesses and ideas. Investors spend more easily into tech products and tend to be sceptical about physical products and the potential return on investment. However, there is a sea of untapped opportunities in the fashion and beauty worlds. We have created this network to help investors and founders of fashion and beauty brands to meet and share experiences together.
Premium Beauty News - How do you support them?
Odile Roujol - Brands founders can learn from each other at dedicated events and exchange best practices. Product safety and manufacturing is part of having great products and keep customers loyal, we try to make them aware in a context where the regulation doesn’t control all brands. I encourage them to have advisors and mentors to continue to grow as leaders. Some founders have “love money” (money from family, friends and acquaintances) in funding and just raised a seed round, other are at a later stage and even generate revenues above USD 10 million.
Premium Beauty News - What is your relationship with investors?
Odile Roujol - Investors love the conversation as most entrepreneurs they meet pitch them, here they talk about trends, they don’t have to take a decision at the end of the meeting. They meet people they wouldn’t have time to during their business days.
Elsa Jungman
Elsa Jungman, founder of ELSI Beauty Former skin care microbiome expert at AO Biome, Elsa Jungman founded its own brand ELSI Beauty at the beginning of this year and benefited from the very start of the network in San Francisco. “This network has helped me understand the process of creating my own brand. Sometimes you can meet people that are a bit more advanced in the process and you can learn best practices or how to pitch to investors for instance,” states Elsa. |
Premium Beauty News - How did the FaB community start?
Odile Roujol - The movement started with meetings in San Francisco, California, and has expanded in Europe (with London, Paris, Berlin and Spain), and is now expanding into Latin America and Asia (Shanghai, Singapore. Seoul, Tokyo) and for sure in NY and LA. The local chapters are entrepreneurs knowing well the ecosystem. The whole idea is the “pay forward” and “give back” culture dear to the Silicon Valley. We raise a voice together, we support each other, we are stronger as a global movement. We may also bring some industry experts into the mix so they could help founders about formulation, clean beauty, but also about influence, growth...
FaB meets every three months in San Francisco, every six months in Paris for example. It’s flexible and connected to the local network and regional needs. The price of tickets just cover the food and beverage and taking pictures. Exciting period as we are a fast-growing community! Built for founders and funders, by entrepreneurs sharing the same passion, the community gathers around 1500 members worldwide.
