Happy National Women's Small Business Month!
In honor, we're partnering with Fast Penny Spirits to tell the wildly under-told story of the 1988 Women's Business Ownership Act: A landmark bill that strengthened protections for women in commercial lending, created the National Women's Business Council, required the federal government to actually count women-owned businesses, and more.
Part one is up on our Instagram, and we'll drop the rest of the series every few days through the end of the month. It's a juicy story, that doesn't get nearly enough credit, so we hope you'll follow along and share it far and wide!
A few other top-of-mind items for this month:
💰 There's money, honey! We found more than 8 different grants closing on October 31st, AND, our friends at Tory Burch are looking for their next cohort of fellows. Which ones are you getting after?!
💥 5 Power Picks this month. We've found 3 articles, a podcast, and a quick, short-form video to inspire and empower you through these last couple weeks of October.
🩵 Meet Shay: One spoonful of matcha peanut butter at a London flower market this summer led us to Shay Xiao, the lawyer giving a very beige category some muchhh-needed personality.
To your success!
The Ladies Who Launch team
💰 GRANT DEADLINES
For any questions about the below grants, including eligibility, please reach out to the granting organization directly.
[$10K] Three Monthly Amber Grants. October's business category grant is for those businesses in the Creative Arts space, but there's 2 other grants up for grabs! Deadline: October 31, 2026
[$10K] Hey Helen Grant. The Hey Helen Grant is a privately funded initiative by Visionaries that invests in women entrepreneurs building impact-driven, for-profit businesses in the U.S. Deadline: October 31, 2026
[$5K] Women Founders Grant. We love the story & gumption behind the Women Founders Grant. Put simply, women deserve more. And we wholeheartedly agree. Deadline: October 31, 2026
[$3K] Outta Excuses Grant. This organization gives out $3K per quarter, and an additional $10K in November. Get after it! Deadline: October 31, 2026
[$1K] The Awesome Foundation Grant. Nearly $8M has been given away to ambitious founders just for having a really awesome idea. You've got nothing to lose! Deadline: October 31, 2026
[$1K] HerRise Microgrant. If you're generating less than $1M in gross revenue, this grant is a quick one for you! Deadline: October 31, 2026
Tory Burch Fellows. A number of our LWL Launch Program Grantees have been accepted into the Tory Burch Foundation fellowship! Could you be next? Deadline: November 17, 2026
💥 POWER PICKS
Your monthly shortcut to better decisions. Handpicked listens, curated reads, and expert events that will level up your thinking and skills.
🎥 Giving Credit: Part 1. Did you know a woman with a Harvard MBA once had to have her teenage son co-sign for her small business loan?! True story. And it's the start of our series on the 1988 Women's Business Ownership Act. Check it out!
📚 I started doing less with AI and found myself more productive than I’d been in years. Aussie educator, Tayla Burrell, advocates for leveraging AI to do the right things, not all the things.
📚 Speak Your Customer's Spending Language. As we barrel towards the Q4 spending rush, the team at Contrarian Thinking reminds us to consider the story we're selling, not just the product.
📚 Why Your Reviews Section Is Costing You Sales. An interesting take on BrandTribe about how to design your reviews experience to convert (especially heading into the high-spending part of the year.)
🎧 Starting a business in midlife? Here's where to find the money. Personal Finance Expert, Farnoosh Torabi, interviews Trae Bodge of Threadneedle Alley Foundation about where entrepreneurs can find funding, the power of grants, and how to build your own personal board of advisors.
🩵 LAUNCHER SPOTLIGHT
In celebration of all women who build. Be sure to give your fellow Launcher some love online... It's easy, free, and means the world!
Meet Shay Xiao
We met Shay on a Sunday afternoon in June at the Columbia Rd. Flower Market in London.
A serious peanut butter devotee, Shay started Nutty Belly Gal after growing bored with a category where smooth or crunchy seemed to be the extent of the excitement. She wanted bold flavors that could be eaten straight from the jar, so she leaned into her Asian heritage and began experimenting with ingredients such as matcha, Sichuan chili oil, and seaweed.
She also gave every flavor a role in the brand’s dating narrative: think First Dates, Dark & Handsome, and Perfect Matcha. Frankly, this peanut butter has more romantic range than several apps we could name!
Shay began by making eight jars at a time in her kitchen and posting them on what she calls her “shabby little Instagram page.” About a month later, a Selfridges buyer reached out! And while it had all the makings of a shiny founder story... Shay just wasn’t ready.
After the first order, she pulled out. Trade volumes, delivery mishaps and the stress of making everything herself became too much. When Selfridges later offered another chance, she returned with a manufacturer and a business better equipped for wholesale.
The stretch between those launches was less tidy. Shay bounced between growing the brand and keeping it small because she wasn’t sure what she wanted from it. “There’s often a lot of expectation, both internal and external, that you want to grow big,” she says. “It’s important to stay true to your own desire and journey.”
She has navigated all of this alongside a full-time legal career. Training in big law left her feeling that success meant surrendering more of her life to prove her dedication, and she often worried she wasn’t giving enough to either role. Now she’s learning that “working on multiple things at a time can be a strength, not a conflict.”
After years of calling Nutty Belly Gal an “expensive hobby,” Shay is ready to be more audacious. She wants to build a business for good, with a focus on supply-chain sustainability, community events and collaborations. She’s also looking for someone to join her in running it because, as she admits, “I think there’s a lot of potential here and, truthfully, I’m the one holding it back!”
(So if you're keen... send her a DM?!)
Her advice for other women founders is refreshingly free of hustle-culture nonsense: “Focus on your own growth and pace. This is your business, your project, your passion.”
We’ll be taking that advice straight from the jar. 😋
Photos from @nuttybellygal