#147 Sarah Hamilton: Entreprenurial upbringing to building Bella Box + how she's now an investor and advisor to leading companies!

The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

Sarah Hamilton is the co-founder of Bellabox, Asia Pacific’s market leading beauty box that she co-founded with her twin sister, and raised investment from leading investors including SquarePeg. Sarah is now an investor, and advisor to many of the leading companies and CEOs in the consumer and beauty industry, and a graduate of the Wade Institute VC catalyst program!

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Episode guiding points:

Learn about Sarah’s sunrise in Geelong, just outside Melbourne, Australia being one of 4 kids and the influences of her dad, who ran a carpet and furniture store and mum who worked in the business and loved the commerce and numbers.

Questions our host, Vidit enjoyed exploring with Sarah include: The role of growing up in an entrepreneurial household and how that led to her start in a career in finance roles in the magazine and advertising industry in Australia, and then London and New York, the business model of that industry and key differences between the UK and US markets, how and why she decided to come back to Melbourne and start Bella Box with her twin sister, how they outlived 11 competitors in the beauty subscription category, early days of social media and low customer acquisition cost and learnings from raising venture capital investment.

We cover her journey to becoming an angel investor and the role the VC catalyst program from Wade Institute played in providing practical learnings, and the ins and outs of investing + Vidit was fascinated by Sarah’s reflections on what she thinks differentiates venture capital and private equity, her transition from founder to an advisory and measuring times per month rather than times per week. Listen in for the full context on this one!

It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!

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The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.

145+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more.

The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz

The Wade Institute is a leading centre for entrepreneurial training based at Ormond College, the University of Melbourne and they deliver education programs to accelerate learning, creation and connection, with facilitators being many of previous guests on this very podcast!

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