Podcast
Tash Insights
Hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith · EN
Tash Insights brings you inside the minds of female brand founders and the leaders of the UK’s fastest-growing e-commerce tech companies.
Hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith – serial entrepreneur, investor, NED and fractional Head of Growth – each episode dives into the strategies, challenges, and breakthroughs that have shaped the futures of some of the UK's leading founders.
Whether you’re a founder, investor, tech lover or you just love hearing the growth stories behind top brands, this is the podcast for you.
26episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How Wonderskin built a real brand after going viral | CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026
3d ago00:25:19Tap to summarizeTash Insights presents a live conversation from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.In this session, Wonderskin co-founders Michael Malinksy and Marina Kalenchyts share the story behind one of beauty’s most talked-about brands of the last three years.A viral lip stain made Wonderskin famous, but the real work came afterwards. The conversation covers how the brand moved from a lockdown-era viral product into a global multichannel business, now operating across Sephora, Boots, Selfridges, Amazon, TikTok Shop and DTC.Michael and Marina discuss what actually drove growth, how they amplified the content that was already working, why lo-fi creative often outperformed polished brand assets, and what it took to turn TikTok attention into a more durable brand.You’ll hear:How the viral lip stain started and why profitability took timeWhy the algorithm decides what makes a good adHow Wonderskin amplified organic content with paid mediaThe real channel mix behind the brandWhy DTC and Amazon still matter inside a multichannel strategyHow raw, lo-fi creative can outperform polished contentWhat TikTok Shop seeding really costs at scaleWhy affiliate communities work better than one-off creator postsWhere Michael and Marina would put first budget in 2026What they learned from the products that nearly cost them the businessThis is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers and operators trying to understand what happens after a product goes viral, and how to build something more sustainable from that moment.
Transcribe →The truth about TikTok Shop and omnichannel growth | CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026
1w ago01:04:37Tap to summarizeTash Insights presents a live panel from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.In this session, Tash is joined by Joe Yates of Somerce, Daisy Kelly of Glow For It, Kenny from TikTok and creator Rita Flora for a practical conversation on the future of social commerce and the real impact of TikTok Shop on beauty brands.The panel looks at why TikTok Shop should be understood as more than a direct revenue channel. For many brands, it is becoming a discovery engine that drives growth across Amazon, retail, search and wider brand demand. The discussion covers the halo effect, affiliate strategy, creator communities, profitability and why major beauty businesses are now using TikTok Shop for brand building as well as sales.You’ll hear:Why TikTok Shop can drive incremental return across other channelsHow TikTok discovery can translate into Amazon, retail and search demandWhat happens when brands pull focus away from TikTokWhy affiliate strategy depends on creator communities, not one-off seedingHow many videos it can take before creator content drives a saleWhat creators actually need from brands to make content performWhy rigid briefs can limit performanceHow legacy beauty brands are using TikTok Shop for share of voiceWhether TikTok Shop can be run as a profitable channelWhat could come next, including premium categories, subscriptions and faster shippingThis is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers and e-commerce teams trying to understand how TikTok Shop is reshaping growth beyond the platform itself.
Transcribe →Is your beauty brand AI-ready? Conversion and the future of e-commerce | CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026
2w ago00:26:59Tap to summarizeTash Insights presents a live session from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.In this session, host Tom Marco-Norel of Superco is joined by Matt Brindley of Yotpo and Emily Bloomberg of Medik8 for a practical conversation on what AI really means for beauty e-commerce.Customers are already asking AI what to buy. The challenge for brands is making sure they can be found, understood and recommended when those searches happen. The panel looks at what “AI-ready” actually means, from clean product data and syndicated content to reviews, UGC, customer service and the rise of agentic commerce.Emily shares how Medik8 is balancing automation with human care, using AI to reduce low-lift queries while keeping the team focused on more meaningful customer conversations. Matt explains why AI-readiness starts with your existing tech stack, structured data and internal competence, rather than simply adding another tool.You’ll hear:What “AI-ready” means for beauty brandsWhy clean, syndicated data is becoming essentialHow Reddit, YouTube and Wikipedia are influencing discoverabilityWhat agentic commerce means for ChatGPT, Gemini and future checkout journeysHow Medik8 is balancing AI automation with human customer careWhy reviews and UGC now shape conversion, visibility and product developmentHow translation and personalisation can become immediate AI use casesWhere beauty brands should focus over the next 12 to 18 monthsWhy one internal AI champion can be more effective than disconnected tool adoption across teamsThis is a practical listen for beauty founders, e-commerce leaders and marketers preparing for the next phase of AI-driven shopping.
Transcribe →How NARS and Space NK really work with creators | CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026
3w ago00:31:07Tap to summarizeTash Insights presents a live panel from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.In this session, Tash introduces an insider conversation on the business of beauty and influence with Joy Osinloye of CreatorIQ, Jane Harper of Shiseido Group and NARS, and Ginny Sanasi of Space NK.The panel explores how creator marketing has moved from a PR add-on into a core commercial growth channel, influencing marketing, digital, retail, commercial planning and legal. Drawing on the long-standing relationship between NARS and Space NK, the conversation looks at how major beauty brands and retailers discover, brief, vet and scale the creators who genuinely move product.You’ll hear:How creator marketing became central to commercial strategyWhy NARS built a “trend squad” to move at the speed of socialHow Space NK uses education across more than 135 brandsHow brands discover, tier and vet creators from nano to celebrity levelWhy human judgement still matters in brand safetyWhat happened when a colour-match moment hit 14 million viewsWhy EMV needs to connect to traffic, sales and acquisitionHow NARS and Space NK built a co-branded trip strategyWhere creator commerce is heading next, from community sellers to luxury on TikTok ShopThis is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers, retailers and operators trying to understand how creator partnerships really work inside major beauty businesses.
Transcribe →Building beauty content systems that scale | CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026
May 2900:31:10Tap to summarizeTash Insights presents a live panel from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.In this session, Tash is joined by Becky Watson of Absolute Collagen, Gilbert Corrales of Leaf and Sebastian Kraft of Sebastian Kraft Consulting for a practical conversation about the rising pressure on beauty brands to produce more content, faster.Every channel now demands more creative. Meta’s Andromeda update has made purpose-built assets more important across placements, personas and funnel stages. At the same time, lean brand teams are being asked to produce hundreds of assets a month while keeping quality, brand consistency and performance under control.The panel explores what a scalable production system actually looks like, why beauty brands may need to rethink the traditional social team structure, and how AI, offshore teams and human creative judgement can work together without weakening authenticity.You’ll hear:Why content demand has exploded across beauty and e-commerceWhat Meta’s Andromeda update means for creative productionHow many assets brands may need each month to stay competitiveWhy a newsroom or live-TV production mindset can help teams scaleHow offshore teams and AI tools can increase outputWhy human judgement remains essential in creative workflowsWhere fully AI-generated content works, and where authentic UGC still winsWhat the Coca-Cola Christmas ad revealed about audience response to AIWhich tools the panel actually use, and why not every new tool deserves a place in the stackThis is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers and operators trying to build content systems that can keep up with modern platform demands without losing creative quality.
Transcribe →Marketing efficiency, content factories and outcome-based growth | Tash at Built by HER
May 1500:05:29Tap to summarizeTash Insights presents a live talk from Tash Courtenay-Smith, recorded at Built by HER in New York.Built by HER, hosted by Shopify and EmpowHER, brought together founders, operators and senior leaders in commerce for a hands-on summit focused on making AI practical, tangible and operational for women-led teams.In this clip, Tash talks through the two businesses she is currently building and why both are focused on the same underlying challenge: improving marketing efficiency in a world where attribution is increasingly unreliable and the demand for content keeps rising.She shares how Transact Media Group is building a CPA-first AdTech ecosystem in partnership with Mastercard, allowing brands to pay on results measured at card transaction level across programmatic, CTV, audio and social. She also explains how her AI-powered content factory has grown from an offshore creative support team into a global production operation for brands under pressure to ship more content, faster.You’ll hear:Why attribution conversations are becoming less useful for brandsHow CPA-first media models can change performance marketingWhy transaction-level measurement is becoming more importantHow AI is reshaping creative production and content outputWhy production capacity is now one of the biggest growth leversHow digital twins can help founders scale their own contentThis is a practical listen for founders, operators and marketers trying to improve efficiency, reduce wasted spend and build the production systems modern brands now need.
Transcribe →Why AI fluency is becoming a founder muscle | Tash at Built by HER
May 1300:01:42Tap to summarizeTash Insights presents a live talk from Tash Courtenay-Smith, recorded at Built by HER in New York.Built by HER, hosted by Shopify and EmpowHER, brought together founders, operators and senior leaders in commerce for a hands-on summit focused on making AI practical, tangible and operational for women-led teams.In this clip, Tash makes a different case for AI adoption. Beyond productivity, she argues that AI is changing how founders process problems, make decisions and move from idea to output.Using the analogy of training for a marathon, Tash explains why AI fluency needs to be built through daily practice. The founders who gain the most advantage may not be the ones with the most advanced tools, but the ones who get used to solving problems faster, producing work faster and operating at a new pace.You’ll hear:Why AI adoption is becoming a daily operating habitHow faster output may change the way founders thinkWhy AI fluency works like a muscleHow AI can compress the gap between idea and executionWhy mundane work can be reduced to create more space for creativityWhat founders should be practising now to prepare for the next five yearsThis is a useful listen for founders, operators and leaders who know AI matters, but have not yet made it part of their daily way of working.
Transcribe →Why every founder needs to build a personal brand | Tash at Built by HER
May 1200:03:33Tap to summarizeTash Insights presents a live talk from Tash Courtenay-Smith, recorded at Built by HER in New York.Built by HER, hosted by Shopify and EmpowHER, brought together founders, operators and senior leaders in commerce for a hands-on summit focused on making AI practical, tangible and operational for women-led teams.In this clip, Tash makes the case for personal branding as one of the most commercially valuable things a founder can build. Drawing on her background as a journalist, author and growth advisor, she shares what she has learned from helping female founders build some of the most recognisable personal brands in the UK, before finally applying the same playbook to herself.Tash explores the early discomfort of publishing, the awkward middle phase of finding your voice, and the long-term commercial value that comes from becoming known in your category.You’ll hear:Why personal brand is a growth lever for foundersWhat holds founders back from publishing consistentlyHow visibility pre-qualifies you before you enter a roomWhy finding your voice only happens through repetitionWhat Tash learned from DRock, the videographer behind Gary Vaynerchuk’s personal brandWhy building a serious personal brand is a multi-year projectThis is a practical and honest listen for founders, operators and leaders who know they need to become more visible, but are still waiting to feel ready.
Transcribe →AI, content factories and founder-led brands | Tash at Built by HER New York
May 700:13:11Tap to summarizeTash Insights continues with a live panel conversation from the Built by HER summit in New York, hosted by Nicole Harvey, founder of EmpowHER.Tash joins Gina Perrelli, co-founder of Stay AI, and Kait Stephens, co-founder of Brij, for a practical discussion on AI, content production, personal brands and the future of building in public.Tash shares how she is building across two fast-moving areas: Transact Media Group, the outcome-based AdTech ecosystem powered by Mastercard data, and an AI-enabled content factory helping brands produce more creative, faster and more efficiently. She also opens up about using digital twins, building her own personal brand after years of building them for others, and why founders need to get comfortable publishing before they feel ready. This is a candid conversation about what AI is really changing for founders, operators and modern brand teams.You’ll hear:How AI is changing content production and creative outputWhy content factories are becoming essential for growth teamsHow digital twins can help founders scale their presenceWhy personal brand building is a long-term growth leverHow outcome-based marketing is changing media measurementThe simplest ways founders can start using AI this weekIt’s practical, honest and highly relevant for anyone building a brand, scaling content, or trying to understand where AI fits into the future of commerce.
Transcribe →The Truth About TikTok Shop Profitability
Apr 2400:26:46Tap to summarizeTikTok Shop can drive explosive growth — but that does not automatically mean easy profit.In this honest panel discussion, founders, brand operators and TikTok Shop experts unpack the real economics behind the platform: margins, fees, ad spend, affiliate costs, operational pressure, and why revenue growth can sometimes hide how much is actually being spent.The conversation also explores the wider halo effect of TikTok Shop — from boosting Amazon and DTC sales to attracting interest from major retailers such as Boots, Sephora and John Lewis.In this video:Why TikTok Shop growth does not always equal profitHow brands should think about margins from day oneThe hidden costs behind affiliate seeding, ads and fulfilmentWhy omnichannel brands may need different profitability thresholdsHow TikTok Shop can drive retail interest and social proofWhy many buyers now ask about TikTok Shop presence firstWhy founders should avoid becoming too reliant on one platformHow to treat TikTok Shop as both a sales channel and a marketing investmentThis is a practical discussion for founders, marketers and brand leaders trying to understand the balance between scale, sustainability and long-term brand value on TikTok Shop.If you are building a beauty brand, managing an omnichannel business, or thinking about launching on TikTok Shop, this is essential viewing.
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