Promotional feature
Alongside Laetitia Raoust, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer for L’Oréal UK & Ireland, Marie Claire’s Editor-in-Chief Andrea Thompson spoke to Michelle Kennedy, of parenting app Peanut, and Josephine Philips, of the tailoring platform SOJO, for a Power Summit of fearless female founders. Here’s what they had to say about their careers, the challenges they’ve faced to achieve success, and the advice they would give to women hoping to break into this male-dominated industry.
A dogged sense of determination is ultimately what unites these women. Michelle Kennedy worked as a corporate lawyer before running dating platforms Badoo and Bumble. She later went on to set up the motherhood app, Peanut. “Work[ing] hard, then work[ing] harder” is, she says, vital to achieving success as a tech entrepreneur. This discipline, coupled with her “natural nosiness”, meant that after an encounter with the founders of Badoo in 2010, she seized the opportunity to begin working with them.
DIRECTOR: ELIZABETH HERRIDGE Producer: daniel gould Project manager: LUCY WHITE
ART DIRECTOR: Oliver bourne WRITER: HARRIET CORNS PHOTOGRAPHY: MADDI KNIGHT HAIR & MAKE-UP: JIMENA LEMCk
FILM CREW: PRAXIMA production manager: matt gibbs
D
espite women accounting for almost 50% of the global workforce, just one-third of roles in the tech industry are held by women, with even fewer holding leadership positions. More shockingly, female founders are getting just 2% of venture capital in tech start ups. However, there are glimmers of hope. One
iconic beauty brand is bucking this trend. In 2023, 50% of L’Oréal’s global tech and data recruitment comprised female talent – and the company is committed to driving this figure further upwards. Through its Bold Female Founders initiative, L’Oréal is investing in female-led startups across tech, biotech and green science in the beauty industry. In fact, 45% of its portfolio now features female founders or co-founders, compared to just 2% in the industry as a whole.
It’s impressive stuff – and the reason Marie Claire, a platform that proudly champions women’s equality, decided to host the latest Power Summit in partnership with L’Oréal Groupe, celebrating three inspiring female entrepreneurs.
Power Summit: shaping the future of tech
‘Think like a challenger; act like a leader.’
- LAETITIA RAOUST
- JOSEPHINE PHILIPS
‘If I'd been at another stage in my life, I might not have taken the jump.’
Laura
From securing investment to taking risks, three trailblazing women discuss success in a challenging industry
WATCH VIDEO
“They were building something really changing the world and I didn’t know about it,” she says of the Badoo founders. “Tech really wasn’t a thing in London at that moment in time – not like today. It was really exciting.”
Similarly, L’Oréal’s Laetitia Raoust didn’t begin her professional career in tech. In fact, she started out at L’Oréal. “It wasn’t a tech company at all. It was a beauty company; it was a marketing company.” Having self-professed FOMO, Raoust watched the tech industry begin to flourish and became increasingly intrigued.
“I joined Google quite early on, after a couple of years at L’Oréal, and that’s where I really discovered the tech world: different people, different talents, different ways of working – I was really excited by it.”
Raoust later rejoined the L’Oréal family and used her newfound knowledge to accelerate the brand’s tech transformation. “I was in New York when I got the opportunity to return to L’Oréal. Everything I had learned from my years at Google, I was able to bring to L’Oréal.”
Josephine Philips, on the other hand, founded her company SOJO fresh out of university. Powered by a great idea and the “bravery and naivety of being so young”, Philips believes her lack of formal experience is now her “superpower”.
“Ultimately I came across a problem in the sector of clothing repairs and tailoring, and noticed it was totally non-digitised. If I had been at another stage of my life, I might not have taken the jump. But I was in my final year of university, I had nothing lined up and no responsibilities. This was my time to go for it.”
Her drive is thanks to the “entrepreneurial gene” – it’s something that you either have or you don’t have, she muses. “Having said that, I’ve witnessed some incredible founders who have maybe taken 20 years to get there. They’ve got experience in a career and then they’ve seen a problem and thought, ‘I’ll solve that’.”
- MICHELLE KENNEDY
‘Not investing in women is just bad business.’
Laura
It’s not just about repairing the gender disparity – it’s about making intelligent business decisions, asserts Kennedy.
“Women are getting 2% of venture capital and that’s just not acceptable. We are contributing to the economy in a way that we have never contributed before. We’re responsible for 85% of decisions on household spend” – and that’s worth trillions of dollars.
“Statistically, women make better businesses,” she half-jokes. But Kennedy’s right: data by management consulting group BCG reveals female entrepreneurs consistently outperform their male counterparts. It’s a point not lost on L’Oréal Group, which launched its Bold Female Founders initiative to address the tech industry’s gender-based investment bias, and promptly funnelled €25 million into female-founded companies.
In addition, L’Oréal has committed to providing specific training for its internal female leaders, too, enabling them to progress to senior positions within the company. It may be 115 years old, but L’Oréal is a beauty brand that’s firmly focused on the future.
- LAETITIA RAOUST
‘It was really interesting to mix the creativity of the beauty industry with the constant change of the tech world.’
Thanks to this future-facing ethos, L’Oréal is now a pioneering tech powerhouse, developing boundary-breaking innovations for the beauty industry. Lancôme, for example, is set to launch a new handheld make-up applicator in 2025 that will adjust movements in real-time and stabilise unsteady motions for those with arm-, hand- and wrist-related mobility conditions.
Then there’s the Water Saver – a shower head created in partnership with Swiss sustainable tech start-up Gjosa that aims to save energy and reduce up to 69% of a salon’s water consumption.
It’s these innovations that have seen L’Oréal evolve from a business that sells beauty products to a brand that delivers personalised experiences, too.
“Tech can empower companies to go into more accessible, inclusive and sustainable experiences,” says Raoust. “A lot of these innovations come from listening to the consumer. Beauty is very personal, so you have to get very close to consumers to address their unique needs and desires.”
- JOSEPHINE PHILIPS
‘Just get started. Be bold and be brave.’
Whether it’s finding community among the customers or finding community with other women in the field, for women to succeed in this industry it’s all about support.
“It is one of the hardest journeys,” says Philips. “Finding people that are at a similar stage to you is unbelievably impactful.”
Kennedy agrees, adding: “Be the connector. If you see two people, connect them. If they get on, amazing things will come from it.” It’s all about building the right network around you. “Find someone a bit ahead of you and someone a bit behind you and, between you, you’ll cover the journey.”
“Just get started. Be bold and be brave,” Philips says. “At the very beginning, SOJO was just a Google form. That’s as easy as it can be to get started. That first step is really, really important.”
Raoust admits that the tech industry can feel like a daunting space to enter, but says perseverance and clear communication is key. “Keeping things simple for others will go a long way, and get a lot of people on board.”
Of course, that’s why Bold has proved to be so successful. “We’re here – come to us and show us your ideas,” encourages Raoust. From mentoring and pitch advice to resource and investment, the initiative aims to encourage and support female-founded companies in whatever way they need. Ultimately, as well as moral and emotional support, it’s financial investment that really counts when women are hoping to found their own tech business.
Watch the full discussion here, and find out more about L’Oréal Groupe’s Bold initiative at www.lorealboldventures.com
espite women accounting for almost 50% of the global workforce, just one-third of roles in the tech
industry are held by women, with even fewer holding leadership positions. More shockingly, female founders are getting just 2% of venture capital in tech start ups. However, there are glimmers of hope. One iconic beauty brand is bucking this trend. In 2023, 50% of L’Oréal’s global tech and data recruitment comprised female talent – and the company is committed to driving this figure further upwards. Through its Bold Female Founders initiative, L’Oréal is investing in female-led startups across tech, biotech and green science in the beauty industry. In fact, 45% of its portfolio now features female founders or co-founders, compared to just 2% in the industry as a whole.
It’s impressive stuff – and the reason Marie Claire, a platform that proudly champions women’s equality, decided to host the latest Power Summit in partnership with L’Oréal Groupe, celebrating three inspiring women who are leading the charge for female entrepreneurs.
Alongside Laetitia Raoust, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer for L’Oréal UK & Ireland, Marie Claire’s Editor-in-Chief Andrea Thompson spoke to Michelle Kennedy, of parenting app Peanut, and Josephine Philips, of the tailoring platform SOJO, for a Power Summit of fearless female founders. Here’s what they had to say about their careers, the challenges they’ve faced to achieve success, and the advice they would give to women hoping to break into this male-dominated industry.
A dogged sense of determination is ultimately what unites these women. Michelle Kennedy worked as a corporate lawyer before running dating platforms Badoo and Bumble. She later went on to set up the motherhood app, Peanut. “Work[ing] hard, then work[ing] harder” is, she says, vital to achieving success as a tech entrepreneur. This discipline, coupled with her “natural nosiness”, meant that after an encounter with the founders of Badoo in 2010, she didn’t shy away from the challenges in front of her. Instead, she embraced them.
Josephine Philips, on the other hand, founded her company SOJO fresh out of university. Powered by a great idea and the “bravery and naivety of being so young”, Philips believes her lack of formal experience is now her “superpower”.
“Ultimately I came across a problem in the sector of clothing repairs and tailoring, and noticed it was totally non-digitised. If I had been at another stage of my life, I might not have taken the jump. But I was in my final year of university, I had nothing lined up and no responsibilities. This was my time to go for it.”
Her drive is thanks to the “entrepreneurial gene” – it’s something that you either have or you don’t have, she muses. “Having said that, I’ve witnessed some incredible founders who have maybe taken 20 years to get there. They’ve got experience in a career and then they’ve seen a problem and thought, ‘I’ll solve that’.”
It’s not just about repairing the gender disparity – it’s about making intelligent business decisions, asserts Kennedy.
“Women are getting 2% of venture capital and that’s just not acceptable. We are contributing to the economy in a way that we have never contributed before. We’re responsible for 85% of decisions on household spend” – and that’s worth trillions of dollars.
“Statistically, women make better businesses,” she half-jokes. But Kennedy’s right: data by management consulting group BCG reveals female entrepreneurs consistently outperform their male counterparts. It’s a point not lost on L’Oréal Group, which launched its Bold Female Founders initiative to address the tech industry’s gender-based investment bias, and promptly funnelled €25 million into female-founded companies.
In addition, L’Oréal has committed to providing specific training for its internal female leaders, too, enabling them to progress to senior positions within the company. It may be 115 years old, but L’Oréal is a beauty brand that’s firmly focused on the future.
Thanks to this future-facing ethos, L’Oréal is now a pioneering tech powerhouse, developing boundary-breaking innovations for the beauty industry. Lancôme, for example, is set to launch a new handheld make-up applicator in 2025 that will adjust movements in real-time and stabilise unsteady motions for those with arm-, hand- and wrist-related mobility conditions.
Then there’s the Water Saver – a shower head created in partnership with Swiss sustainable tech start-up Gjosa that aims to save energy and reduce up to 69% of a salon’s water consumption.
It’s these innovations that have seen L’Oréal evolve from a business that sells beauty products to a brand that delivers personalised experiences, too.
“Tech can empower companies to go into more accessible, inclusive and sustainable experiences,” says Raoust. “A lot of these innovations come from listening to the consumer. Beauty is very personal, so you have to get very close to consumers to address their unique needs and desires.”
Josephine Philips, on the other hand, founded her company SOJO fresh out of university. Powered by a great idea and the “bravery and naivety of being so young”, Philips believes her lack of formal experience is now her “superpower”.
“Ultimately I came across a problem in the sector of clothing repairs and tailoring, and noticed it was totally non-digitised. If I had been at another stage of my life, I might not have taken the jump. But I was in my final year of university, I had nothing lined up and no responsibilities. This was my time to go for it.”
Her drive is thanks to the “entrepreneurial gene” – it’s something that you either have or you don’t have, she muses. “Having said that, I’ve witnessed some incredible founders who have maybe taken 20 years to get there. They’ve got experience in a career and then they’ve seen a problem and thought, ‘I’ll solve that’.”