e.l.f. Buying Rhode Cosmetics $1B and The Renatural Building Wig Making Better

Friends,
It’s here! Our latest drop of More Than the Hype — a founder-to-founder chat with the lovely Aasiyah Abdulsalam. Aasiyah and I met through the Black Ambition 2023 Cohort; she absolutely KILLED it on the stage, and we got the chance to reconnect months later in New York with our private visit with Louis Vuitton’s team. I remember pitching her my idea to start More Than the Hype over dinner at Chef Kwame’s Tatiana restaurant. She instantly said she’d come on my fictional podcast, well, now it’s real and we finally got behind the mic together!

We’re talking innovation that actually solves real problems. From CAD files in a public library to a 40,000-person waitlist, Aasiyah Abdulsalam of The Renatural is redefining what it means to build in beauty. All you Tech bro’s hold on to your hats because Aasiyah is building something tech-centric, cool AF, and impactful. This is for anyone who's bootstrapping brilliance, scaling without shortcuts, or building the kind of product your customers would actually cry over (in a good way).

Here’s the Skinny, In this week’s Newsletter You’ll Find…

• Mom Juice and our growth

• 🎧 A founder story with patents, pitch comps, and $29 wig fix

• Hailey Bieber’s BIG $$$$ acquisition

• 🧠 Real talk on IP protection, brand loyalty, and community-building

• ✨ Wins, recs, and what we’re loving right now

What you’ll learn:

• How The Renatural used one $29 product to build a 40K waitlist

• The patent process actually explained (and why protecting is not patenting)

• Why great customer service still wins — especially in overlooked industries

• What’s next: lace-less, machine-made, hyper-realistic wigs 👀

KT Winery + Mom Juice

We’re gearing up for a Summer Reset with our new campaign about to launch for Merchandise - don’t worry, I’m going to include that here.

Launching in new states like Illinois and Texas this month with Target, and hiring to better round out our team. We’ve been in build-mode post-Mother’s Day, refining systems for our Marketing Team and updating our SOP documents with tools like ChatGPT and Scribe.

Next Hires Coming Up: PT National Sales Manager and a Community Manager for TN

NEW, NEWS 🚨

Acquisition Energy — Loving seeing all this M&A for female-led brands. The temperature is turning up, and I’m glad the market is starting to notice how women move the needle.

Hailey Bieber strikes $1B Acquisition to Sell Rhode to e.l.f. beauty - it’s no secret that the it girl factor, great products, and a better team had a lot to do with the brand’s explosive growth BUT when you look at the track record of other women’s owned beauty brands and products - a $1B after 3 years of doing business is absolutely wild. However, a win is a win - hat’s off to Hailey and her team; I look forward to seeing a positive shift for women-led and women of color-led businesses!!

💭 Founder Thought of the Week

Here’s the wild thing: sometimes the best product ideas come from limitations. No funding? No team? No connections? Great — now you’ll be forced to solve the real problem and do it faster. Aasiyah didn’t have a lab or a product team — she had library Wi-Fi, borrowed 3D printing credits, and a mission. That was enough.

I’ve been expanding our team using Fiverr and Upwork for YEARS. I think it’s a lot of companies’ secret weapon to keeping employee cost low but still making the work happen.

When you solve one thing well, the momentum comes.

💌 Lately I’m Loving

🛠️ Product: The Wig Fix — $29 that launched a movement. Still iconic.
🎉 1UP Protein Powder: Delicious Italian ice protein powder 

✨ Real-World Opportunities

Maker’s Mindset - I’m in the first Cohort for the Maker’s Mindset Accelerator for CPG Founders and now pitching for a grant! However, the fabulous Nancy Twine is already opening the doors for newer CPG brands to get access to some of the most knowledgeable people in CPG. Learn more here

📥 Join The Renatural’s waitlist: therenatural.com
💬 Hit reply and tell us what you’re building — we might just shout you out.

✨ Opportunities to Connect IRL + Online

Until next drop,
– Kristin & the More Than the Hype crew

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