Overshoot Day was a turning point in Angela Ursem’s career.
Not the exact date, but the meaning. It’s the day that marks the moment in time when we’ve collectively consumed more resources than our planet has to offer.
In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, Angela Ursem reveals how she quit her job in the first week of the pandemic to build Food for Skin, a beauty B Corp, using financial success as the foundation for lasting impact.
Key Takeaways from the episode
Listen to the episode to discover:
🥗 How edible ingredients are transforming the beauty industry
🌿 The secrets to scaling a brand without greenwashing
💡 Why profitability drives meaningful change for people and the planet
Hit the play button below for actionable insights on building a beauty business that balances purpose and profit!
Building Food for Skin, Wallet and Planet with Angela Ursem | Ep. 77 – Women Disrupting Tech
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- Key Takeaways from the episode
- Be an ally, be part of the movement!
- The magic you can expect in this episode 🪄
- The Two Free Ways to Support Women Disrupting Tech
- What makes this episode magical🌟?
- About Angela Ursem
- About Food for Skin
- Let me know what you think!
- What’s coming up?
- More episodes like this?
The magic you can expect in this episode 🪄
Overshoot Day was a turning point in Angela Ursem’s career. She had been working for multinational companies like Heineken and Nike for a long time. Her job as a marketeer was to persuade people to consume more.
And then came overshoot day, the day that marks the moment in time when we’ve collectively consumed more resources than our planet has to offer.
Soon, Angela learned how we deplete our planet faster than it can recover. How microplastics are everywhere. That you needed a science degree to understand the ingredients in everyday products like shampoo.
And in the first week of the pandemic, she decided she’d seen enough. She felt that the beauty industry needed to change, so she quit her job and, with her sister, started building Food for Skin.
In episode 77 of Women Disrupting Tech, Angela reveals how to build a profitable beauty B Corp that positively impacts people and planet. We learn about:
🥗 How edible ingredients can revolutionize beauty products
🌿 The secrets to scaling a beauty brand without greenwashing and false promises
💡 Why profit is the driving force for creating lasting change
By listening, you’ll also discover the country where Food for Skin is about to launch its game-changing products.
Curious to learn how to build Food for Skin, Wallet, and Planet? Click the button below to listen to the episode on Spotify.
The Two Free Ways to Support Women Disrupting Tech
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- Use the share buttons below to share the podcast with friends, family, and co-workers. This way, you give the women disrupting tech the platform they need to make it happen. Use the buttons below to share.
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What makes this episode magical🌟?
This episode is full of myth-busting. Of course, the biggest myth we bust is that making an impact and being profitable are mutually exclusive. Angela does a great job of inspiring us to take a different perspective.
Then, there is the lesson about resilience and dealing with changing circumstances during the pandemic. Just when Food for Skin was about to launch its first product, the country went into lockdown. This rendered their whole retail strategy useless.
But having to focus on their online business also gave them the opportunity to get to know their customers better.
Finally, Angela’s own pivot is magical in itself. In a couple of years, Angela moved from encouraging people to consume more as a marketer for Heineken and Nike to building her own company that encourages customers to buy only what they need. Pretty remarkable, right?
Are you ready for some more myth-busting? Click the button below to listen on Apple Podcasts or click the image with the quote to watch the episode on YouTube.
“People, planet and profitability. It goes hand in hand. You need all three and then you can make a huge impact.”
Angela Ursem, Founder of Food for Skin
About Angela Ursem
Angela Ursem is the founder of Food for Skin. She spent 25 years in commercial positions for large multinational companies like Heineken and Nike.
Her journey into impact entrepreneurship started after learning about Overshoot Day. She joined Tony’s Chocolonely, an impact brand that makes chocolate, and in the first week of the pandemic, decided to concentrate all her efforts on building Food for Skin, a company she co-founded with her sister Cathy.
You can connect with Angela on LinkedIn.
About Food for Skin
Make the beauty industry beautiful again. That is the mission of Food for Skin founders Angela and Cathy. Food for Skin is a certified B Corp and a clean and green vegan skincare brand that sells 90% directly to consumers. It uses upcycled and vegan ingredients in its products and won the Green Brand of the Year award at the 2021 Dutch Beauty Awards.
To learn more about Food for Skin, its philosophy and its products, please check out its website and subscribe to its newsletter. You can follow the journey on social media on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Let me know what you think!
Do you believe that profit and impact go together? Or do you think that impact companies must never make profits? I’d love to learn your thoughts and observations in the comments below this post.
If you would like to suggest a guest that I absolutely must have on the podcast, please let me know via email or send a DM on LinkedIn.
What’s coming up?
Next week on Women Disrupting Tech, Katty Hsu of the Erasmus Center for Entrepreneurship and SheLeads+ is my guest. We will talk about new data about women in entrepreneurship and her new global initiative to build more meaningful connections in the ecosystem.
After that, Astrid Bruinsma-Eggink will be my guest to talk about the importance of financial health for your employees. This topic is near to my heart as I’ve learned firsthand how financial stress can cause people to make really bad decisions.
Later in season four, we’ll broaden our perspectives as I talk to LBGTQI+ Journalist Pim Blom and Systemic Change Guru Karim El Oteify.
So stay tuned for more inspiring Men and Women Disrupting Tech!
With that, I wish you a wonderful day. And until we meet again in the next episode, keep being awesome!
More episodes like this?
It’s always difficult to compare, but if I could recommend three episodes on sustainability, it would be these:
– In episode 61, Asceline Groot and Wyke Potjer teach us how you can live a sustainable life.
– In episode 33, Rolien Wiersinga reveals how Plants as a Service contribute to a better world.
– In episode 13, we learn from Florentine Gillis how we can get a more sustainable wardrobe by giving our clothes a life of their own.
Women Disrupting Tech | The Podcast 
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