Inspirational Woman: Anna Marcovici | Founder, Manifesto Nutrition

I am the Founder of Manifesto Nutrition, an edible beauty supplement with an advanced formula, that also tastes amazing and is great for the planet.

I am a beauty industry expert who has lots of years of senior leadership experience at global brands, including L’Oreal, NARS, MAC, Bobbi Brown, Estee Lauder and Clinique.  In 2018, I left the corporate world and launched Impact Beauty Group, to mentor and help grow the businesses of premium, mission-driven beauty brands in the UK and Europe. At the same time, I also started working on Manifesto Nutrition.

What does your business stand for?

The name Manifesto indicates the strong value system that this brand is built upon. It seeks to challenge the norm; to deliver an efficacious supplement that is also luxurious and comes with full green credentials. This brand won’t peddle toxic messaging or make unachievable claims and aims to champion my lifelong belief, that feeling good from the inside out is the highest beauty ideal.

Did you ever sit down and plan your career?

Sort of. When I was trying to figure out what job to get after graduation, I looked through all the job adverts and thought about what sounded interesting. Then once I found it, I looked at what type of experience they required for those jobs and then looked at building that experience.

Have you faced any challenges along the way?

So many, but then they are the ones that really shape you as a person. To begin with, no one wanted to hire me despite graduating with a 2:1 from LSE. It took me a while to get that first job. Throughout my career the people I worked for and with had a massive influence on me. Sometimes I had terrible bosses and that taught me valuable lessons about leadership and how not to manage people; I also had some amazing bosses and mentors along the way, whose leadership style and behaviour I tried to emulate.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

My kids and launching my own businesses.

Do you have any advice for those looking to start their own business?

You really must do it for the right positive reasons. I hear so many people say they are “bored of corporate life” and that they want to be “independent” but you really need to have a clear “why”. This will drive you through the inevitable ups and downs, that running your own business will be. Also, just to be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster, that will ultimately be a most rewarding journey.

If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for Gender Equality, what would it be?

Well, we are still paid less than men for the same jobs; female entrepreneurs get something like 2% of all VC funding out there; and women of colour even less than that. So there needs to be an urgent re-balancing of funding available to female entrepreneurs, as well as entrepreneurs of colour.

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self what would it be?

To trust my own instinct more and overthink less.

What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?

I am so excited about the future. My next big challenge will be to be able to ship globally and to successfully launch refills. Also, I would like to launch more products and to achieve zero net.