In discussion with Lily - VC raising? Breaking the beauty industry? NYC?

Lily is an Adelaide-born beauty industry insider who cold-emailed her way into Sydney, built a market research agency while finishing a computer science degree, and then turned a two-week business trip to New York into a full life pivot. Now she's four months into building Unfiltered a beauty social platform and app described as "Letterboxed for beauty" and she's raising her first real round in Manhattan.

In this episode, Lily and Kaarme get into the wild, unfiltered reality of being a first-time female founder in the US venture world, why fundraising is literally just dating, and what happens when you delete your entire codebase in week four of your accelerator. They talk about the beauty industry's data problem, why big brands win on distribution not innovation, and how a viral TikTok about blush hex codes led to 100 women in a WhatsApp group which led to a complete pivot.