Why I almost killed Business Class
And why I didn't
In today’s issue: The naming tricks behind viral products like Hot Cakes and why Reddit is the new brand strategist’s playground.
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Notes from a messy desk
I almost killed Business Class.
Not because it wasn’t working – it is. Students are launching real businesses, getting out of survival mode, and finally seeing traction. The course works.
But I was standing at a fork in the road.
One path glittered with shiny opportunities. Big ones. A return to the brand that built me (and broke me). A podcast with my voice in your ears every week. A tell-all that might impress my therapist and terrify my PR team. All of them came with money, visibility, leverage.
But also a cost: my time, my energy, my alignment.
And behind the scenes? I was exhausted. Not by anything in particular, but by trying to be everything at once — teacher, marketer, founder, investor, inbox whisperer, self-soother. Business Class is personal. It’s me, distilled. And that kind of energy isn’t something you can fake.
So I hit pause. I needed space to ask the hard questions: Is this still worth it? Is this still helping people? Is it still helping me?
And then the messages kept coming. From students who launched six-figure businesses. From alumni who finally built something sustainable — on their terms. From people who said, “You helped me believe I could actually do this.”
That’s when I remembered who I built this for.
Not for the tech bros flexing their fundraising rounds. Not for corporate execs playing founder cosplay with a golden parachute and twelve assistants.
I built it for the outsiders. For the ones with vision but no roadmap.
For the ones building something real – not just profitable, but personal.
That’s who I show up for. And this spring, I’m showing up again – with Business Class reimagined, refined, and more aligned than ever.
Wheels up!
Sophia
🫖 Tea with GPT — This Week’s Uses
This week I used GPT to…
Figure out whether I should learn to draw before I consider taking up painting
How much light a ficus needs
Help me (unsuccessfully) resolve ongoing email deliverability issues
Research how to grow my hair back after pulling it back too tight for too long
Research hair extension options in London
Choose a Dyson floor fans, since leaving my window open means waking up to construction noise
Tell me whether or not subscribing to Lime Prime is right for me
A/B test email subject lines for the upcoming Business Class launch
Collabs on my radar
Birkenstock and Staud… summer is near. I have no doubt the Starbucks collab with Farm Rio is going to sell out fast. LA-based interior design studio Pierce & Ward dropped a collection with West Elm. It’s lovely. Look at this burl wood vanity and matching swivel stool. The designer who worked on The President’s Guest House now has a Pottery Barn line. Of course Tibi’s tote with L.L. Bean is sold out. Again. Burberry just dropped a botanic fever dream collection with Highgrove Gardens – King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s countryside estate with sprawling gardens open to the public. Into this nutmeg trench and this gorgeous fountain silk men’s shirt. Nobody’s Child collection with Poppy Delevinge is inspired by “vintage glamour” and “free-spirited boho style”, which tracks – it’s very festival-ready meets Reformation wedding guest. This orange midi is a fun carry-on addition to a last-minute weekend in the Italian countryside. The AURALEE x New Balance sneakers drop tomorrow, and they’re cute. Also kind of cute – the TOMS x Jamie Mizrahi suede slip-ons in mulberry. Finally, Limited Too and Vita Coco partnered on a Y2K mall pop-up. It had everything – a claw machine, photo booths, a 2000s playlist, and Brenda Strong.
Collab report: Last week, subscribers were most into the Gap x DÔEN collection, the ROKSANDA collab with & Other Stories, and the Hiking Patrol x KEEN sandals.
Shop my favorite brand collabs.
Links to make you smarter and more interesting
Snif’s pancake-inspired perfume got 10M impressions with one sticky name: Hot Cakes. Naming products is part instinct, part strategy (and heavy on the trademark). Business of Fashion talked to founders and creatives behind some of your favorite iconic brands (with iconic product names) on what it takes to come up with a product name that’ll sell itself.
Layer in double meaning. Choose names that hit on both the literal product and a clever concept to drive memorability.
→ Hot Cakes by Snif captures both the scent and “selling like hot cakes.”Stay close to the brand story. Great names reflect product feel, look, and mood.
→ Cloud Paint evokes texture, color, and Glossier’s signature sunset aesthetic.
Let your community weigh in. Bring customers into the creative process to build hype and land on something that resonates.
→ Tart Deco, Snif’s cherry scent, was inspired by audience responses to a social media moodboard and email survey.Create word banks, not just word lists. Organize naming options into things beyond just the features of the product. Think – cultural markers, how it makes you feel, how it literally feels to verbalize.
→ Billie’s Floof dry shampoo was categorized by “good mouth feel”Mine your own language. Pay attention to phrases you already use – it could be your next iconic product name.
→ Hill House’s Nap Dress started as an offhand term from the founder.Get around trademarking: Play with combinations, new words, or cultural references to sidestep trademark issues. When you find something you love, make sure it’s available and distinctive.
Ask ChatGPT to build a rolodex of subreddits where your brand’s target customers are hanging out. Tell the chatbot what industry you’re in, who your target audience is, what insights you’re looking to gather (i.e. feedback around a specific product, trending topics, pain points, competitors), and who you’re selling to (B2C vs. B2B). And then get to social listening.
Bare Minerals added the “Buy with Prime” button to their site and saw revenue per visitor jump by 40%, with shopper conversion up 60%. That aligns with Amazon’s data – the company said that brands using Buy with Prime have around a 16% increase in sales. Carney Nir, the global VP of ECommerce and digital experience at Bare Minerals’ parent company Orveon, told Glossy the boost in sales wasn’t credited to moving their biz to Amazon. “We’re actually converting more people on our DTC site, capturing that consumer data.”
AEO – “answer engine optimization” – is the new SEO. Chief Marketing Officer David Slater, who has worked at Mozilla and Salesforce, called AEO a “hot space,” pointing to 30 AEO product launches over the last few months. It makes sense – more consumers are using chatbots to discover and shop products, and brands need to figure out how they can show up in those spaces.
There’s a group chat for entrepreneurs who sold their biz for $1 billion or more. It’s called “B Boys Club.” Palmer Luckey talked about it on an episode of the “Moonshots” podcast this month. It’s all men – if that wasn’t clear by the name. A literal (billionaire) boys club.
Hinge is on Substack with No Ordinary Love, an upcoming five-part series that pairs contemporary writers with real couples to tell their stories – intimate, well-crafted, and refreshingly not AI-generated. It’s a sharp play: rather than chasing followers or dumping ads on TikTok, they’re investing in narrative, taste, and distribution. The series will also drop as a hardcover, produced by Dazed Studio, and land in curated book clubs across New York and London this summer. Substack for depth, print for permanence, and IRL for cultural cachet.
You can now download PDF research reports on OpenAI. The reports can format tables, images, linked citations, and sources.
Urban Outfitters says “the era of the follower is dead right now.” Gen Z isn’t following brands like they used to, so Urban’s leaning hard into social listening – watching for when creators mention them (even without a tag). That’s why tools like Plot matter. To meet consumers where they’re finding style inspo and talking about brands, Urban is honing in on Pinterest and Reddit.
Influencer, tastemaker, and social media coach longevity comes down to making smart pivots, like launching that Substack or starting that travel agency. You can’t rely on the algorithm or your audience’s interests to stay the same, which is why content creators are switching up their content formats, launching newsletters and side hustles, and investing time and energy into platforms that work best for their content now, not last year (or even last month.)
If your brand is using AI to generate marketing materials, don’t expect an easy copyright. IP lawyers told Emerging Tech Brew that brands concerned with people copying their AI-generated content should be able to prove meaningful human contribution. An involved prompt doesn’t count, no matter how creative you got with it. The most successful marketing campaigns are probably not going to be heavy on the AI, anyway – consumers can sniff out content lacking soul.
Business Insider just dropped a list of this year’s 100 best early-stage investors. If you’re fundraising, the list gives context on investors’ focused spaces and who they’ve invested in… which can help you with targeted outreach and maybe even a warm intro.
A gentle reminder: raising money isn’t success. I made a free guide about it.
Link report: Last week, subscribers were most into Agree.com’s funding news, an explainer on how to get started with generative AI, and how ChatGPT could influence a new era of online shopping.
More from my rich universe of endeavors
I may include affiliate links, which means I receive commission on purchases made from some of the links. But I’ll only show you stuff I really like.
After reading today's post, I asked ChatGPT if Business Class would be beneficial to a writer, not a traditional entrepreneur. All indications were a yes so I joined the Waitlist.
Business Class is a community, it’s a safe space! It’s guidance to not making your thing alone. If you ever killed Business Class I would literally cry. (And I don’t cry easily, like I can’t cry watching Titanic or any other movie…)