ICYMI: The Most Inappropriate Campaign of 2025, A New Investment, The Business of Being a WAG

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Time for my favorite part of the week, ICYMI!!!

ICYMI ₊♡₊˚ 🍒・₊✧ ₊

Hi HSR ♡

Happy Lunar New Year! We are officially in the Year of the Snake and as much as I hate snakes, the meaning of the year is actually pretty perfect for this edition. The Year of the Snake is all about shedding the ego, the past, letting go of love lost, anger, resentment, anything that is holding you back. This is the year where growth is possible if you are willing to let go. I hope my latest podcast with Lucky #3 all about reinventing your life over helps you do just that.

♡ This Week’s Giveaway: The first 10 people to share the latest podcast episode on social, tagging @maggiesellers, @courtneyreum, and @hotsmartrich, will receive a signed copy of :Shortcut Your Startup” by Courtney and Carter Reum! 🎉

♡ This Week’s Quote: “The more you allow people to live their lives, the better your life will get. The more control you give up, the more you gain.” - Mel Robbins

♡ HSR Ventures: We are officially sending out our first HSR Ventures Investment Syndicate of 2025 to approved accredited investors this week. Our investment is in the fertility space. If you’re interested in learning more, fill this out here!

♡ Sephora Bozeman, MT: Whenever I’m in a new place I ALWAYS visit a Sephora and ask the staff about their top and worst performing products. It’s my little window into mass American consumption habits and nothing about what I learnt surprised me. Other than that, the Bozeman Sephora excursion did bring me into a Kohl’s for my first time… and after looking into it, this Kohl’s x Sephora partnership is a pretty great deal for both of them projecting $2B in sales by 2025. Slay. Although if anyone from Sephora is reading this, you have a serious inventory problem in Bozeman, MT.
 ♡ Biggest Hitters: Charlotte Tilbury, Summer Fridays, Drunk Elephant, Rare Beauty
 ♡ Biggest Loser: Drybar
 ♡ Something New I’m Trying (aka the 34th most popular product on Sephora.com based on reviews): Once I found out that this store only sold the top sellers nation-wide and I remembered I was out of primer, I decided to pick up this one for a more hydrated base and I’ve never gotten so many compliments on the state of my skin. My makeup has never stayed on so well and even in the dry weather, its been glass, dewey and hydrated.

♡ The Business of WAGS: Next week is Super Bowl Sunday and it’s a little crazy to think that the biggest stars of the evening arguably won’t be on the field, but in the stands… so in the paid section we are talking all about the phenomenon and business of WAGS. Since last year’s Super Bowl, Brittany Mahomes was featured in Sports Illustrated, Kristin Juszcyzk launched her brand “Off Season'“ with veteran fashion entrepreneur, Emma Grede, and just a few weeks ago the NYTimes wrote a front page article with the headline “Allison Kucharczyk surpasses the fame of her NFL husband”. But that’s just the start of it, pop-culture’s obsession is seeping into other WAG categories, as seen with the recent internet obsession with TWAGS (tech wives and girlfriends) so we’re getting into it in today’s paid section.

♡ How to Raise $8M and Then Roll Out the Most Inappropriate Campaign of 2025: If you haven’t already heard, Boardy.ai is the AI super-connector that has been making headlines—both good and bad. They raised $8M with this deck (which contains no numbers, market sizing, or business model) and did so without a single human phone call with investors. A huge success and leap forward in the world of AI. But less than a week later, they rolled out one of the most inappropriate campaigns of 2025. And while Boardy.ai might not be human, Andrew is—and I’m not big on cancel culture. So, I’ve decided to accept his apology and move forward with sharing the deck they used to raise and my thoughts on the real issue here.

Andrew never should have approved the campaign, but to my knowledge, his company didn’t train the LLM on what to generate. The bigger problem lies in the data that the LLM (large language model) is being trained on—how it receives, understands, generates, and interprets human language. If Boardy.ai’s LLM is trained to comment on women’s physical features while assessing men’s presence and expertise—all from the same photos—what does that say about the data shaping AI moving forward?

♡ People I’m Manifesting for the Podcast: Girlbosstown. Kirsten Green, Deepica Mutyala, Paige Lorenze, Payal Kadakia, Emma Grede, Kristin Juszcyzk, Payton Sartain, Shay Mitchell, Emily Weiss, Caroline Speigel, Lauryn Bosstick & Michael Bosstick with Lucky #3 and I together, Melissa Wood Health, Sami Clarke & Sami Spalter, and if there’s someone else you want on here, I am ALL ears.

♡ Love Is In The Air: Last Valentine’s Day, I bought myself Venus et Fleur roses—and a few months later, I was in the healthiest relationship of my life. This year, I’m still buying them, because self-love doesn’t stop when you start dating (and neither do their roses, which last over a year). No matter where you’re celebrating, they ship everywhere—so I can have beautiful flowers wherever I am, even in Montana. From forever roses to candles and home décor, Venus et Fleur has something for you, your situationship, or your forever person.

This Week’s Mood Board

• HSR Case Study: The Business of Being a WAG

Consumer News

♡ the brands, people, places, things that have captured my attention ♡

♡ Women’s Health & Beauty ♡

• The Ordinary expands its presence by partnering with Amazon, a strategic move by Estée Lauder - from WWD.

• Victoria Beckham Beauty appoints a new CEO to drive global expansion and innovation - from WWD.

• Rhode expands its reach with an upcoming launch at Sephora, marking a major milestone - from Puck.

♡ Media, Entertainment & Creator ♡

• Stella McCartney buys back LVMH’s minority stake while becoming its global sustainability ambassador - from Instagram.

• POPPi launches its fan community, "POPPi World," on TYB with exclusive merch and rewards - from Instagram.

♡ E-Commerce, Retail & Social ♡

• AG1 plans to expand beyond its core DTC product after 14 successful years - from Retail Brew.

• HALFDAYS and ILIA collaborate on a limited-edition ski suit inspired by ILIA’s signature lipstick shade - from Instagram.

• Natalie Holloway launches her favorite brand collaboration, blending fitness and wellness - from Substack.

♡ Tech, Business & Investing ♡

• TechCrunch reports 2025 may be another tough year for startups, with high failure rates projected - from TechCrunch.

• The supersonic jet is making a commercial comeback, promising faster air travel - from CNET.

PS: Something to Watch: The Enron Egg

Are we about to see the next Exxon Prank on TikTok with the Enron Egg? 27-year-old Connor Gaydos is making waves after acquiring the trademarks and name for Enron, the infamous energy company that collapsed in 2001 due to massive accounting fraud. Unveiling an “Enron Egg” in an Apple-like setting on January 6, the Enron Egg hasn’t stopped making headlines and feels like the next-gen iconic brand marketing parody we’re not done hearing about. I’m predicting it could be the next big trend on TikTok if they tap into the right digital creators, but let’s see what happens…

GIVEAWAY ALERT!

To enter this week’s giveaway of Courtney’s best-selling book “Shortcut Your Startup”, be one of the first 10 people to share this podcast episode on your socials and tag @maggiesellers @hotsmartrich and @courtneyreum to win!

TYSM, I♡U!!!!

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