Podcast
Tech Powered Luxury
Hosted by Ashley McDonnell · EN
Welcome to Season 7 of Tech Powered Luxury!
Tech Powered Luxury is hosted by luxury and tech entrepreneur Ashley McDonnell. With 10 years of experience working at the crossroads of luxury and technology, Ashley carved out a career across Paris, Dublin and Geneva, working at LVMH, Dior, Google and luxury group PUIG. The podcast is also taught as a module at leading business and design schools around the world, with the goal to share insightful and actionable stories and experience from industry leaders.
17episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How Malinda Sanna Gets Luxury Brands Closer to the Women Who Actually Buy: Look Look, Crown Jewels and the New Rules of Desire
2d ago00:44:26Tap to summarizeFor this episode, Ashley sits down with Malinda Sanna to discuss luxury research, the psychology of high-spending women, the shift from status to agency, and why the next frontier of luxury might be less about advertising and more about listening.Luxury consumers are full of contradictions. A woman might put Hermès or Byredo in the guest bathroom, use Dove herself, and still have the means to buy almost anything. The why behind that behaviour is where the insight lives.The new luxury buyer wants agency. She is less defined by the male gaze or visible logos, and more focused on what makes her feel good, cared for, informed and in control.Transparency is becoming part of desire. Today’s luxury client wants to know what sits behind the velvet curtain: leadership, values, sustainability, culture and how the business actually behaves.VICs do not just want dinners anymore. These women work, lead, host, donate, travel and buy. To impress them, luxury brands need more creativity, more access and more meaningful forms of engagement.The real value of research is not confirmation. Malinda does not want a client to say, “That confirms what we already knew.” She wants them to say, “We never thought of it that way.”
Transcribe →Live from Cartier - How We Produced Live From Abu Dhabi: A Fashion Show Celebrating East Meets West
1w ago00:52:04Tap to summarizeThis week, we are back in Dublin at the Cartier Espace at Paul Sheeran Jewellers for something more candid than a recap. It’s a post game analysis of Live from Abu Dhabi, the largest showcase of Irish design in the Middle East to date, and a case study in what it actually takes to execute “luxury” outside your home market.Ashley is joined live by four women who made the project real: Lesley Keane (Ayu Cosmetics), Jess Colivet, Anne O'Shea, and Jenny Johnston (Azure Communications), covering beauty, production, styling, invites and print. The conversation is intimate, funny and specific in the best way, less about the highlight reel and more about naming the mechanics.Funding came in stages, sponsors were sequenced, and the show was built to hold a luxury standard abroad.Every seat had a purpose. Guest outreach ran like a campaign, not an invite list.Backstage was a full operations problem: 40 looks, limited models, fast changes and a house turned into a working production floor.The moments that almost went wrong are the proof of craft having 300 magazine covers reprinted overnight, a lighting issue caught just before the room filled.Day 2 was a desert shoot with Irish creatives and brands, the kind of asset most productions could never afford to build on their own.
Transcribe →How Marc Chaya Built Maison Francis Kurkdjian by Putting the Creator First: From Beirut to Paris and a Decade at EY
Apr 2800:45:33Tap to summarizeFor this episode, Ashley sits down with Marc Chaya, CEO and co-founder of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, to unpack the philosophy, the partnership, and the fight behind one of luxury perfumery’s most distinctive houses.The career didn’t start in fragrance. It started in survival, then finance, then a dinner party conversation that changed everything.The perfumer has always been the best kept secret in the room. Francis Kurkdjian was behind some of the most loved scents in the world and almost no one knew his name. That was the injustice Marc set out to fix.The dupe debate is being framed wrong. Perfumers are the only creators in the world who cannot legally protect what they make.Commercial success was never the goal. It was the consequence.
Transcribe →Forbes, Time and Sports Illustrated France Founder Dominique Busso on Building a Media Empire, Having Angelina Jolie as a Cover Star and What’s Next at the Cannes Film Festival
Apr 1400:30:55Tap to summarizeThis week, Ashley sits down with Dominique Busso, the entrepreneur behind three of the most exciting media moves happening in France right now. He launched Time magazine in France for the first time in the publication's 100 year history. He built Oniriq from scratch, a luxury and lifestyle magazine that weighs 750 grams and feels like it. And he just signed the deal to bring Sports Illustrated to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Monaco. All of this from a core team of 15 people in central Paris.TL;DR: This Week’s Podcast EpisodeHe launched the first media website in France in October 1995. Dominique has never once been behind the curve.A French edition of Time Magazine had never existed. Dominique changed that.Angelina Jolie reached out to be on the cover of Time France’s first edition.Oniriq was built because the world needed a luxury magazine that was actually made in France, by French people, about the country where luxury was born.Sports Illustrated France was discussed over lunch in Saint-Tropez. The website launched three weeks later.Follow along on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, and join the conversation.
Transcribe →Live From PFW: Discovered by CHANEL Through an Instagram Reel, From Hospital Paintings to Paris Fashion Debut, How Rachelle Cunningham Turned Art Into Wearable Fashion
Mar 3100:14:28Tap to summarizeThis week, we’re coming to you live from PFW with Rachelle Cunningham, a fashion illustrator and painter whose work has moved from a hospital room to the front rows of couture, and now into fashion you can actually wear. Rachelle has worked with CHANEL, Vogue, Vivienne Westwood, Nina Ricci, and more, but the most interesting part of her story is how it happened: through sharing consistently online, building an unmistakable aesthetic, and treating every moment as a potential bridge rather than a closed door.
Transcribe →London Fashion Week's Official Street Style Photograher: From Baby Photography in Uraguay and Zara Cashier in London to Global Runways, How Romina Introini Created Her Own Fashion Destiny
Mar 1000:40:30Tap to summarizeThis week, Ashley is in Paris with Romina Introini (Romilux), one of the street style and fashion photographers shaping how Fashion Month is seen in real time. You have likely seen her work on official fashion week accounts, brand channels, and creator feeds. What you may not know is the path that built it: documenting life in Uruguay, a retail job at Zara, and a decision to keep showing up to fashion week long before there were clients attached.For Episode 5, our host Ashley McDonnell sits down with Romina Introini (Romilux), a street style and fashion photographer documenting Fashion Month in real time across NY, Paris, Milan, and London.Romina didn’t break in through a traditional route. She built a portfolio in public, then let the work create its own gravity.Street style is not just taste. It’s positioning, speed, editing, and distribution, and she approaches it like a discipline.The “breakthrough” role with London Fashion Week arrived at the last minute, but it was earned through seasons of self-funded consistency.Scaling output required structure, not hustle. She built a small team to support video, editing, and behind the scenes storytelling.Her clearest advice is the most practical: start with what’s around you and build proof of work before opportunity arrives.
Transcribe →Why Can't Consumer Brands Raise Investment? Creating a New Funding Ecosystem, with Females Top of Mind
Feb 2400:48:41Tap to summarizeWelcome back. Last week, Ashley McDonnell sat down Gordon Renouf, co founder of Good On You, to unpack what sustainability can actually be measured, what brands disclose versus what they claim, and why overconsumption keeps accelerating. If you missed it, listen here.For Episode 4, our host Ashley McDonnell sits down with Tracey Warren, CEO and founding partner of F5 Collective, a funding ecosystem accelerating women owned businesses.Consumer brands are told to raise venture capital as the default, yet the funding system is not built for how most women build businesses.The loudest funding pathway is not always the right one, and venture capital has not meaningfully evolved in decades.F5 Collective is designed as an ecosystem, not a single product, combining commerce, community, expert support, and funding pathways in one place.The hardest constraint in consumer is not demand, it is cashflow timing, especially around purchase orders, stock, and delayed retailer payments.F5 Collective reframes shopping as a form of funding, because revenue is often the best early stage capital and your wallet drives what scales.Modern traction signals like waitlists, sell out drops, and creator led momentum are real, but legacy underwriting struggles to read them.A new ownership pathway is emerging, buying existing businesses and modernising them, and F5 Collective has this on the roadmap as a future funding product.
Transcribe →Are Any Fashion Brands Truly Sustainable? In Conversation with Gordon Renouf, Founder of the World's Largest Sustainability Directory
Feb 1700:41:33Tap to summarizeWelcome back. Last week, Ashley McDonnell sat down Annabel Hay, founder and CEO of Clutch Glue, to unpack what happens after virality, from manufacturing and retail expansion to fundraising strategy and systems that scale. If you missed it, listen here.For Episode 3, our host Ashley McDonnell sits down with Gordon Renouf, co founder of Good On You.Good On You rates brands out of five using roughly 50 topics, and up to 900 data points for larger brands.The first test of “sustainable” is transparency, not intent, not values, not packaging.We spend a similar share of income on clothes as 20 to 60 years ago, but buy four to five times more garments.A “zero” score is rarely drama, it is silence, meaning near zero disclosure on basics.Regulation matters, but culture and incentives matter more than purity, and poorly designed rules can drive greenhushing.Retailers and landlords may become the fastest enforcement layer, because distribution and tenancy are leverage.
Transcribe →Shark Tank Australia’s Most Viral Entrepreneur: From Construction Site to Cap Table with Clutch Glue’s Annabel Hay
Feb 1000:43:07Tap to summarizeThis week, Ashley is in Sydney with Annabel Hay, founder and CEO of CLUTCH Glue and one of Shark Tank Australia’s most talked about contestants. Not yet 30 and already having pivoted from construction management to building a global consumer brand, Annabel breaks down what happens after virality, from manufacturing and logistics to retail expansion, fundraising strategy, and the operational systems required to scale.CLUTCH Glue started with a simple problem. A night out, failing fashion tape, and one thought: “It would be so much easier if I could just glue myself into my clothes.” Annabel built an alternative to body tape that lets you glue, rather than tape, clothes to your body.Four years of R&D later, CLUTCH is patented, sweat resistant, water soluble, hypoallergenic, non toxic, and designed to wash off when you are done.Virality came fast. A 10 second TikTok hit 9M views overnight and sold out the first 5,000 units. Then the real work began, scaling manufacturing, tightening operations, and turning attention into a repeatable business.Shark Tank was strategy, not luck. Annabel spent six months and more than 100 hours preparing, then landed the strap moment that made the product instantly click on camera. The clip later became one of the show’s most viral moments and introduced CLUTCH to a global audience.Retail came later. DTC first for margin and data, then founder led outreach to get ranged. CLUTCH hit Priceline shelves and became the number one best selling product within a week.
Transcribe →“Every 30 seconds on this planet, IMAGE Skincare sells a vitamin C product” - Building a Global Brand with Janna Ronert
Jan 2700:53:09Tap to summarizeFor our first Tech Powered Luxury podcast episode of 2026, our host Ashley McDonnell sits down with IMAGE Skincare founder Janna RonertProblem first wins. IMAGE Skincare started with rosacea and built for outcomes, not aesthetics. Relief creates loyalty and group chat recommendations.Credibility before scale. Clinical proof is real distribution currency, especially when competing with Big Pharma budgets.Luxury skincare equals results plus a great experience. If it works but feels or smells bad, people stop using it. Sensory equals compliance.Innovation and relationships are the building blocks. Constant reformulation keeps products modern, and in person education builds trust. The ultimate KPI is repeat purchase because it worked.Join the Tech Powered Luxury community via our Substack, Linkedin, Instagram and TikTok!
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