01 — the mood
Hi divas 🤍
Every so often a week comes along that tells you exactly where a country is up to. This was one of them, and it left a dark smudge on Australia’s ambition.
For a decade, Canva has been the story we tell ourselves: a Perth uni student with an idea for a design tool, and proof you could build a world-beater from here. This week it made up to 22% of its roles redundant. A day later Heidi, one of our brightest AI darlings, cut 18% of its team, weeks after raising big. I have so many friends caught up in it, and it is heartbreaking. The mood in tech right now is survival mode: get through today, and don’t ask about tomorrow.
If you’ve been impacted by the layoffs and there’s anything a MOODY girl can do for you, an intro, a coffee, a reference, please let us know. The power of this network is behind you.
Then David Jones, a store older than Federation, went into administration with a lot of small brands’ Christmas caught up in it. I feel for the team there, who have been working so hard to turn around years and years of bad decisions. I feel it most for the founders, because I’ve been one of them (more on that below). K Juliet has been speaking out publicly after dropping $50,000 worth of robes into 18 stores right before the biggest trading weeks of the year. That’s stock already ordered and already made, sitting on floors they can’t get to.
If you’re in that position, I’ll be straight with you: there’s not much you can do about the stock that’s already there. What I’m hearing is that concessions will be back in the key stores within a couple of weeks, once agreements are done, and selling before Christmas. Until then, put every hour into what you control: your own site, your other stockists and the story you tell your customers directly.
Here’s what I refuse to let this week do: convince anyone that ambition is a bad bet in this country. Old institutions wobble, and that’s exactly when new names get made. I spoke to a talent scout at one of our top VC funds, sitting on $30 million earmarked for female founders, and their biggest problem is finding them. Women don’t update their LinkedIn titles. They don’t quit their jobs. They build in the shadows, and the money walks straight past them.
So be louder. Change the title, post the thing, tell the room what you’re building.
There has never been a better time to be ambitious in Australia. Even this week. Especially this week.
Love Brooke x
P.S. Help me build MOODY’s 2027: six minutes, brutally honest, and a $100 gift card drawn Friday. Take the survey →
MOODY sydney
Wednesday 11 November, 6pm to 8pm, Sydney. It’s been way too long since we did a good old-fashioned IRL meetup, so we’re bringing the room back to Sydney before silly season eats the calendar. It’s free, it’s short notice, and the venue drops in the chat. Bring one girl who’d get it.
02 — the room
The girls are getting things done. What 1,000 women in one group chat did for each other this week.
THE WINS
→ Two members got a soda stocked. Rach’s Smooch is in the fridge at EVRA in Newstead, Brisbane, because two Brisbane members told the manager about it. Rach: “This is MOODY at its best.”
→ Australia’s first Fashion Law Supper, built on intros from this chat. Chloe Lei and Mariah Saad of Fashion Law Lab hosted 20 women at Gracie’s Wine Room in Melbourne and launched a fashion law academy, with many of their brand partners found through MOODY. Recap → [@by.chloe.lei]
→ More from the room: a beauty strategist’s cold DM landed a Daily Mail beauty editor interview (read); a comms consultant launched a column on AI as an access problem (read); two Melbourne founders launched The Christmas Concierge (@thechristmasconcierge.au); and a Brisbane founder’s membership for women building abroad passed 19 founding members, seats open until Friday (Borderless Collective). 🤍
THE INTRODUCTIONS
→ The week’s asks, timed: a food brand wanted a PR agency and had five names, the first inside a minute; an AI phone-system build drew two developers in eleven minutes.
→Best answer of the week, to “which beauty creators actually change what you buy”: “Any influencer that’s under ‘ex Mecca employee’ when you search on TT.” A retail strategy in one sentence.
→When the Canva news broke, the first offer of help came in under a minute. A former head of marketing asked what to charge and was told, kindly and firmly, to charge more.
→About a dozen new women this week, including a comms lead at a global skincare brand and a creative recruitment founder. Say hi in General.
03 — MOODY spotlight
She gave herself 30 days, $5,000 and no team. Then she hired nine AI agents to argue with her. Ex-Tesla marketing lead Amy Ross built By Limen, a copper-infused silk pillowcase, with nine AI agents briefed to push back, including a “CFO” who asked why she was gifting stock she was short on. Her line for every founder using AI to go faster: “we’re standing next to a car and asking it to be a faster horse.” Read it →
she gave herself 30 days, $5,000 and no team. then she hired nine ai agents to argue with her.
MOODY SPOTLIGHT, the interview edition. You know girl of the week, where you meet the girl. This is where we open the books: one woman, one real business decision, and the actual mechanics of how she made it. This week: Amy Ross, founder of By Limen.
Nominate who you want us to Spotlight next: reply to this email or DM me.
04 — the read
The RBA hiked to 4.85%, and three of nine board members wanted to hold. The fifth rise this year, and the highest cash rate since 2008. Home values fell 1.2% in October, a seventh straight month, Brisbane down 2.0%. Three dissents make a sixth hike a harder sell. RBA · Savings.com.au · Cotality
Canva is cutting or reshaping 1,271 roles, 22% of the company, and calling it a refounding. Redundancies, changed roles and relocations, after growth slowed for the first time in a decade. Perkins: “without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history.” The exit package is the bit to study: six months’ pay minimum, a year of healthcare and a US$10,000 grant to start something new. B&T · Forbes Australia · AAP
Black Milk, built on one of fashion’s most devoted communities, is in administration. Founded in Brisbane in 2009 by Linda and the late James Lillis, it moved production offshore this year and dropped “Made in Australia”, and the Sharkies pushed back. Still trading while a sale is explored. A community carries a brand a long way, and it remembers every promise. Inside Retail · Black Milk
An AI start-up raised US$80 million. No round this week named a woman founder. Future Secure AI builds AI “co-workers” for banks and law firms, now valued at US$1.2 billion; every other round in the week’s wrap had an all-male founding team. Meanwhile Antler opened applications with up to $60,000 of non-dilutive money for women founders, backed by Coaxial. A sign with a cheque attached. Startup Daily · Overnight Success · Antler
A friend beats an ad six to one. Social Soup asked 850 Australians why they tried a new grocery product: 27% named a person, 4% an ad, and buying on special barely moved repeat purchase. “Recommendation gets people to pay full price in the first place.” See Smooch, in THE ROOM. B&T
Skims sold a US$148 advent calendar of hair ties. TikTok did the rest. Scrunchies, bobby pins and keychains, no clothing, and one unboxing passed 13 million views. Now a customer's TikTok shows an email from Skims apologising and offering a full refund, or the full price back as store credit while she keeps the calendar. Skims hasn't commented publicly. An advent calendar is 24 promises in a box, and the apology is the part worth copying. Complex · NY Post · Fashion Times
Dior's "hand-drawn" Christmas film is being accused of AI. Prada's isn't. Dior's six-minute short, directed by Sylvain Chomet with Robert Pattinson narrating and Rihanna in the cast, was sold as drawn by hand. Animators online spotted a six-fingered hand and stiff movement. Chomet says "everything was drawn by hand", though software filled some in-between frames. Prada's hand-drawn film, by Disney veteran John Pomeroy, landed a week earlier to applause. 45% of Australians say they'd trust a brand less if its ads were mainly AI-made. Craft is the new luxury, and the internet is counting fingers. Inc. · Creative Bloq · Fashion Times · Variety, Prada · Campaign Brief, YouGov
Rhode carried e.l.f. to a 51% quarter. e.l.f. Beauty's sales jumped to US$520.8 million, and Rhode drove about 16 points of that growth. Its Sephora Europe launch was one of the retailer's biggest, and 75% of Rhode's social audience lives outside the US. A founder with a following is the asset on the balance sheet. Inside Retail · NewBeauty
Princess Polly's owner now makes most of its money in America. A.K.A. Brands' US sales grew 14% to US$112.6 million in the quarter while Australia and New Zealand fell 6.7%. Princess Polly has 15 US stores and plans at least six more next year. More and more, the Aussie DTC playbook ends offshore. Ragtrader
Honey Birdette grew 12.1% at full price. The Aussie-founded lingerie brand made US$18.4 million in the quarter with a 62.2% DTC margin, and a paid-vote model search drew 48,000 entrants and over US$1 million on its own. You don't have to discount your way into Christmas. Ragtrader
Meshki cast like a global house for Christmas. “The Invitation” stars Gizele Oliveira, Gabriella Brooks and Cindy Bruna, with a 12-piece Atelier capsule and Meshki Lingerie back. A Sydney brand playing at the top table, and it’s hiring (see Classifieds). Retail Boss
Chemist Warehouse opened in London, and 700 people turned up on day one. Its first UK store is in Harrow, months after owner Sigma walked away from buying Boots. If you're stocked there, a UK door just opened. Inside Retail
Fragrance grew 20% at Estée Lauder. Sephora wants nine new stores here. Fragrance led the group’s quarter worldwide. Here, Sephora is taking its 37 stores towards Mecca’s 110, shooting its first local campaign and stocking Hourglass after 16 years as a Mecca exclusive. Scent is the treat that survives a rate hike, and Mecca’s grip on the counter just loosened. Estée Lauder · Inside Retail, Sephora
Visa sent 22 AI models shopping and they failed 43% of the time. In more than half the failures the agent still bought something, often the wrong thing. Google’s and Meta’s agents scored 82%, Anthropic’s Claude 76%, OpenAI’s 64%. A bad agent doesn’t stop at the checkout. It hits buy, and the return lands on your desk. Fortune · Visa
AI is sending Shopify stores a different kind of shopper. AI-referred orders grew 3.3 times in a year, and 74% came from outside Shopify’s top 100 categories. Search rewards the biggest catalogue; an agent rewards the most specific answer. Good news if you make one very particular thing. Shopify Q3 · Earnings call · TechCrunch, Muse
Three in four Australians say AI makes it harder to know what’s real. Deloitte found 84% want AI content labelled by law and 71% would leave a platform that doesn’t disclose it. If you use AI in your content, say so first. Mediaweek · Deloitte · Mumbrella
Instagram’s Edits app is on the Mac now, and AI agents can drive it. Free, multi-track, 4K with no watermark, and built so AI agents can work it. The day you spent editing one video becomes the hour you spend briefing it. MacRumors
05 — the deep dive
David Jones isn’t over, and neither is your Christmas
If your stock is caught up in David Jones right now, this one’s for you: what’s actually happening, what it means for your brand, and how to make the next seven weeks count anyway.
I’ve been where you are. I once had a D2C brand in women’s wellness tech, and getting into David Jones was the biggest goal we had. We spent more than 12 months working on that deal. I still remember the first purchase order, 100 units, and how excited we were. It only ever went online, because they never ended up stocking the sex category in store (ask me about this over drinks). So I know how much of yourself goes into getting on that floor, and how rough it is when the ground moves under it.
What’s actually happening. On Thursday 5 November, David Jones’ directors appointed McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators, and its lender appointed FTI Consulting as receivers. It sounds final, but administration is a pause button: it gives a company breathing space from its debts while independent professionals work out the best path forward, which here means finding a buyer or new investment. At the time of the appointment, all 38 stores were open and online was trading. The receivers put it down to rising costs, “a significant and outdated retail footprint, and supply chain challenges”, and called this “an opportunity to restructure the business”.
The numbers behind it. The AFR reported this week that David Jones' unpaid bills have risen to around $100 million as prospective owners circle. Retail strategist Brian Walker put that in perspective: against roughly $2 billion in annual sales, it's about 5%. His read is that the real weight is the property and financial structure, not the shop floor: a potentially viable retailer carrying a footprint that's too big. The restructure being discussed reportedly keeps 12 stores, renegotiates seven and exits 19, and he estimates 20–23% of sales are already online. That's why I don't think this is the end of David Jones. It's a reset, and online is a bigger part of the deal than ever.
What it means if you’re a supplier or concession brand. In an administration, suppliers and concession partners are what’s called unsecured creditors. In plain English, you wait while the administrators work out a deal, and what you’re owed depends on that deal. Some of the bigger concession brands were reported removing stock from some stores in the lead-up, and Country Road Group had already announced it was pulling back from nearly 100 concessions in October. As I said up top, the word is that concessions will be back in the key stores before Christmas. Your own position depends on your contract, so treat this as general information and talk to the administrators or your own adviser about the detail. Two practical things in the meantime. If you’re owed money, lodge a proof of debt with the administrators and follow the creditors’ meetings: the first happens within eight business days of the appointment, and the second, usually a few weeks later, is where creditors vote on what happens next. Keep talking to your buyer, too. The people inside David Jones are working incredibly hard, and good relationships tend to outlast moments like this.
The machinery, so it doesn’t catch you twice. A department store usually takes your stock on terms, sells it, then pays you 30, 60 or more days later. That gap is the store’s working capital, and it’s why a big retailer’s cash flow becomes your cash flow. Two things protect you next time, with any retailer. A retention of title clause in your terms of trade keeps the stock yours until it’s paid for, and registering it on the PPSR, ideally before you deliver, is what generally makes it count. A credit limit per account, set at what you could afford to wait on, stops one stockist becoming your whole Christmas. (General information, not legal advice. An hour with a commercial lawyer on your terms of trade is money well spent.)
How to have a strong Christmas anyway. The good news is that the things you control are exactly where the season is heading.
→ Own Black November. Black Friday is 27 November and Cyber Monday 30 November, but as last week’s deep dive said, the season started this month. Give your list early access before the crowd, run one clear offer rather than a sitewide code, and keep your hero product at full price. City Chic pulled back on promotions this year, and while total sales dipped 1.7%, its margin rose and comparable full-price store sales jumped 19.6%.
→ Get recommended, not just advertised. In this week’s Social Soup research, 27% of people who tried a new grocery product credited another person and 4% credited an ad, and buying on special barely changed whether they came back. Ask your best customers to tell one friend, send product to the creators who actually buy in your category, and make it easy to gift.
→ Tell the story. If you’re a small brand affected by this, say so, kindly and plainly, to your own customers, and keep it to your own experience rather than commentary on the process. People shop small at Christmas when they know why it matters.
→ Be the specific answer. Shopify’s AI-referred orders grew 3.3 times year on year last quarter, and most came from outside its biggest categories. Write your product pages like you’re answering one exact question; that’s closer to how AI shopping tools find products.
→ Spread your stockists. Use the next fortnight to pitch two or three independents or boutiques in your best city. Ask for shorter payment terms while you’re at it; smaller stockists often know your customer by name.
My call. First, David Jones will still be trading on Boxing Day. Second, concession brands will be back on the floor and selling in its key CBD stores before Christmas. Third, by the second creditors’ meeting, expected around mid-December unless extended, the plan on the table will be a smaller David Jones built around its flagships, not a closing-down sale.
MONDAY
If David Jones owes you or holds your stock, lodge a proof of debt with the administrators, diary the creditors’ meeting, and call your buyer.
Lock your Black November plan: the date your list gets early access, the one offer, and the product you won’t discount.
Ask five customers to tell one friend. Make it a referral, a gift note or a code they can share. It’s the cheapest marketing you’ll do all year.
Sources: ABC live blog, 5 Nov · ABC consumer explainer · The Nightly · Inside Retail, what it means for suppliers and staff · ASIC, voluntary administration guide for creditors · PPSR, retention of title · Inside Retail, City Chic · B&T, Social Soup · Shopify Q3 call · AFR, unpaid bills rise to $100m · Brian Walker (Retail Doctor Group), LinkedIn
06 — the diary
No link means she’s in the chat; ask and someone will introduce you.
→ Wed 11 Nov · Sydney, 6pm. MOODY Sydney meetup. Free, short notice, come. Venue drops in the chat. RSVP →
→ Wed 11 Nov · Melbourne. Women in AI Mixer by Press Play Ventures and Stone & Chalk. [Brooke: confirm time] RSVP
→ Thu 12 Nov · Sydney, 5pm. The New Trust Economy, a WOW panel, WorkClub Lounge, Chifley Square. Register
→ Thu 12 Nov · Melbourne, 6pm. The Edit by Kit Media Lab, StandardX, Fitzroy. Tickets
→ Fri 13 Nov. MOODY’s 2027 survey closes, $100 gift card drawn. Six minutes →
→ Sun 15 Nov. Applications close for Press Play Ventures’ AI Pre-Accelerator for Women. Apply
→ Wed 18 and 25 Nov · Sydney, 7am. Walk & Talk with Wendy of The Messy Middle, Coogee then Maroubra, $41 (virtual Fri 20). Book
→ Thu 19 Nov · Sydney, 8am. Konnectile’s Women in Business breakfast, Vogue Café, free with code VOGUE. RSVP
→ Thu 19 Nov · Brisbane, 4pm. Currents at Convent Garden, West End, $25. Tickets
→ Tue 24 Nov · North Parramatta, 9.30am. Tech Ready Women’s FoundHER Summit, livestream $28. [MOODY 10% code TBC with Renate] Tickets
→ Wed 25 Nov · Melbourne, 5pm. Born of Ambition’s fireside with Triangl’s Erin Deering. Details
→ 25–27 Nov · QT Sydney. ENESA’s styling suite with co-founder Nat. Book
07 — classifieds
What a girl wants. What a girl needs.
→ Hiring: Head of Marketing at Fleur Studios on the Gold Coast, owning growth across Australia and the US (apply). Digital Marketing & Ecommerce Manager at Viktoria & Woods, Melbourne (apply). Social Media Manager (apply) and VP Digital Marketing & Growth (apply) at Meshki, Sydney. Head of Digital Performance & Growth at The Aje Collective, Sydney (apply). Brand & Content Manager at Grace Loves Lace, Gold Coast (apply). Performance Marketing Manager at WelleCo, Melbourne (apply). Senior National FMCG Accounts Lead (Woolworths portfolio) at MCoBeauty, Sydney (apply). bi at Ivy Social, remote from Canberra, and Talent Manager at One Daydream, Melbourne. GTM roles at an LA start-up, DM Cecilia on LinkedIn.
→ Available: Paparazzi Day, a Surf Coast photographer’s content day for Melbourne and Geelong founders, two launch spots left (details). A Sydney brand photographer with five mini-package spots (@brookedstudio). A Canon G7X Mark III to rent in Sydney (DM Genevieve). An experienced podcast producer is looking for female founders ready to go all in on content: one interview, clipped into a month’s worth of clips you can use, for $1,000 (DM Brooke for the connect).
→ Brands wanted: beauty brands (not makeup, skincare, fragrance or food and drink) for 180 goodie bags at marie claire’s Women of the Year Awards on 19 November, with a print and online mention in return (apply via HYVN, DM Orsika). Also, a Melbourne creator wants Australian brands to trade product for content (@melodyetcetera); a gifting platform has brands after UGC creators (DM Pranjal); Elwood businesses, especially on Ormond Road (DM Huda).
→ Wanted: founders to test Black Friday offers on each other before paying for ads (react to Bec’s post in MOODY ecommerce). A woman new back in Darlinghurst wants a friendship circle over Pilates and coffee; she’s in the Sydney chat.
If you don’t know her yet, ask in your city chat or General; the girls in there do.
Forward this to one girl who’d get it.
Then bring her in: the chat is here, and I’ll add her to her city.
Love Brooke x
MOODY is the intelligence, culture and network for ambitious women. Founders, operators, investors, corporates and creatives in the same group chat. These are the girls who get it.
@get__moody · getmoody.co · est. 2026
A hard week for many <3 And this Moody Canva gal was impacted! I'm a stellar Product Lead so any opps in tech product, hmu <3 xx (Or buy my fragrances to get me thru www.fleuracfragrance.com :P)