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Today's newsletter is dedicated to improving your mental health, brought to you by BetterHelp - the affordable online platform offering access to a diverse group of therapists.* |
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Hey Glow Gang! |
Welcome to your weekly dose of information, inspiration and joy for all things BIPOC women! |
That's it, that's the opening message. You know the drill... |
...Let's get glowing |
-Shilpa |
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News Of The Week |
Raise Your Voice 🗣️ |
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Natural Disasters |
Turkey and Syria Earthquake 💔 Rescue and recovery efforts are continuing in Turkey and Syria, following a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Monday. Over 19,000 people have died, with thousands more injured and displaced. It’s been recorded as one of the most powerful quakes to hit the region in nearly a century, and globally since 2021. Just heartbreaking. Here’s how to help (if you have the means). |
Business and Entrepreneurship |
Leaders, you’ve gotta speak up 🗣️ 51% of women from marginalised racial and ethnic groups in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and South Africa have experienced racism or discrimination at their current workplace. The stats come from a new research report by Catalyst, a woman’s advocacy group. There is a solution, though! The authors of the report outline three steps that senior leaders should follow to combat workplace racism and discrimination. The key piece of advice? Speak up! |
In more positive news, Thirteen Lune, the e-commerce platform for discovering BIPOC founded beauty brands, just closed $8 million in investment. Founder Nyakio Grieco will use the investment to add more brick-and-mortar locations, including a flagship LA store, expand into 600 JCPenny locations, and grow Thirteen Lune's own skincare brand. |
See also: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc. is believed to be the first major US company to have a CEO and CFO who are both women of Asian descent. |
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More News Nuggets |
Extra Nuggets 👀 |
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Glowreel Recos |
What we’re loving this week: |
Read - Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola. The story of a young, Black British woman who has no interest in love and unexpectedly finds herself caught up in a fake relationship with the man she warned her girls about 🤭 Fun Fact: Author Bolu Babalola basically has a masters degree in Beyoncé! |
Listen - Girls That Invest 🤑 Sim and Sonya make finance fun - something we all need in this economy! |
Make - Vegan Whipped Ricotta Toast by Pick Up Limes. For when you want to add a sweet touch to your brekkie or snack. 🍓 |
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Black History Month |
Support Black Women Owned Businesses |
Mother's Shea Whipped Shea Butter |
$19.99 (USD, ships worldwide)
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Trailblazing Woman Interview |
From The App Store To Times Square: BTS With Shannon And Priyanka From Volv |
 | Shannon Almeida (L) and Priyanka Vazirani (R) |
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Shannon Almeida and Priyanka Vazirani are breaking down barriers in the media and tech industries. |
The former high school besties are now the founders of Volv. Aka, the app that delivers an endless stream of personalised content in 9-second reads. If you haven’t downloaded Volv yet you need to - I credit the app to making me smarter and more informed 👏 |
Shannon and Priyanka are here to share the story behind Volv (it’s a good one!), the challenges they’ve faced breaking into the tech industry and the highlights and lessons they’ve learned along the way. Let’s go! |
How did you come up with the idea for Volv? |
P: We originally launched a startup called Benefactory with the mission of helping any victims of urgent crises through creative collaborations. In one of our campaigns in the US, we were trying to help migrants at the border. We found that not-for-profits were hiding the fact that they were helping people at the border, and companies didn't want a partner with us because they said it was too political. We were so committed to the issue though! So we cold emailed celebrities and Kerry Washington, Prabal Gurung, and Ilana Glazer partnered with us and the conversation changed. |
But we shouldn’t have to rely on celebrities to learn what’s happening in the world. We also saw how biased the media was when it came to the migrant crisis. We thought there has to be a way to share the news in a non-biased way for millennials and Gen Z. |
That’s a pretty cool back story! I love that Volv makes me more informed in seconds. What’s the overall purpose of Volv? |
S: We realised there has to be a better way for millennials and Gen Z to consume news content. The Volv app shares news updates that you can read in 9 seconds, and then you can click through to the original source. The main goal is for people to find out about things before they become mainstream or are trending online. That’s our ultimate north star. |
P: Part of our vision is also to help non-video creators go intelligently viral - without having to dance on Tik Tok! So if you have a newsletter or a podcast and you have great content, Volv will help put you in front of the right readers. So your feed and my feed will look completely different based on interests - it’s a win-win for the readers and the creators. |
You’re non-technical founders building a tech startup - that's no easy feat! What have been the challenges and highlights along the way? |
P: The biggest highlight is seeing people use the app, or having people share that they’ve been learning so much from our product! |
Another major highlight is being recognized by one of the biggest social media companies in the world, Snapchat. We were one of nine startups in their accelerator program, and that gave us tremendous validation and helped put us on the map. |
The highlight for me on a personal level is that I'm constantly surprising myself in terms of how much I've learned, and how much I can do. I think for founders in general you have to keep going no matter what, and it becomes easier. The initial days are literally the hardest. Another highlight is having somebody building with you - it's very different than having to build something alone. You have somebody to talk to and to solve problems with - they get it. |
One of the challenges was building remotely - we started Volv during Covid so it was hard to build a team or network. Then there’s fundraising!... |
S: The biggest challenge has definitely been raising [funds] and talking to investors, especially when we don’t have a tech background. We came both from a finance/law/consulting background and came into this space without the required network. We built everything from scratch and cold emailed a lot of people! Getting into this new industry from ground zero was just very intimidating at first. Now that we know how it works and now we have connections we’ve kind of figured out how to navigate the entire scene. It was a challenging journey but we’ve learned a lot along the way. |
One more highlight was we were on a billboard in Times Square! I didn’t think in a million years that that was a possibility. Everything we’ve achieved, and being recognised by Snapchat and Forbes, we’ve worked really hard for it. We didn’t pay for any of those things and it makes me feel good because no one can take that away from us. |
Your top tip(s) for blazing your own trail? |
P: Network, a lot! Once you start networking and making friends with people in your industry, they can support you so much. They’re either in the same boat or they've done something that you want to do. Whatever you're facing right now, they've already gone through that so they can literally help you and they will help you because they want you to succeed. |
S: Be confident in who you are, and no matter who is in the room. I’ve always been pretty confident in who I am, but when we were fundraising and talking to investors I thought I had to act and look a certain way. I got to a point where I realised I should just be myself. I don't really care if it makes anyone else uncomfortable. |
Download Volv here. |
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Start Therapy With BetterHelp |
Millions of people have joined BetterHelp to find the right therapist for them, without having to leave home. |
The affordable online platform offers access to a diverse group of therapists, live video and phone sessions, plus unlimited messaging. Start with 25% off your first month.* |
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Lioness Thoughts |
Don't wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you've got to make yourself. | | | -Alice Walker
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Nominate A Shoutout |
Tell us about someone doing cool shit. |
It can be you, your friends or family or someone else you know. Whether you’ve just started a book club, are creating artistic makeup looks for fun, or are doing some research and want to hear from women of colour. We want to share thing cool things you’re doing with a community shoutout! |
Please send your nominations to hello@glowreel.co or DM us on our socials :) |
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This week's email was brought to you by Shilpa Bhim, founder of Glowreel. You can see more of her work at www.shilpabhim.com or follow her on Instagram @shilpa.bhim |
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