In beauty and fashion, where trends shift faster than seasons and big players dominate with global reach, smaller brands are finding new ways to stand out. 

For Margaret Coblentz, founder of sustainable knitwear label Frances Austen and now an early-stage investor with Capital F at Heatseeker, the key is learning from real behavior, not just intuition.

Before she began backing founders across commerce, AI, and wellness, Coblentz was one herself. She knows how hard it is to balance creative instinct, shifting consumer behavior, and the pressure to prove results.

“As a founder, you live or die by customer response,” she says. “You make hundreds of decisions without really knowing which ones will land.”

That’s what led her to behavioral proof: using live market data to validate creative decisions in real time.

From Founder to Investor

When Coblentz went from running her own brand to advising others, one thing became clear. Too many teams were still relying on assumptions.

“At Frances Austen, I was obsessed with storytelling and sustainability, but I always wished I could see what was working in the moment. Moving into investing, I wanted to back tools that remove that uncertainty and help brands learn faster.”

To that end, Coblentz says with a tool like Heatseeker, she could’ve gone from deciding which product to feature to testing campaign messages across markets. “What resonates in Seattle might fall flat in LA,” she notes. “Being able to see that instantly is incredibly powerful.”

What’s Changing in Beauty and Fashion

Coblentz believes the next wave of growth will be led by a new kind of customer.

“Gen Z defines value differently,” she says. “Nearly 40 percent of their wardrobes are resale. Shopping isn’t just buying. It’s self-expression, sustainability, and creativity all at once.”

They’re drawn to indie brands, personal drops, and storytelling that feels found rather than sold. For beauty and fashion CMOs, that means learning faster and personalizing deeper.

If she were testing today, Coblentz says she’d want to explore:

• Which brand stories, such as sustainability, craftsmanship, self-expression, and exclusivity, resonate by region or subculture.
  
  
• How authenticity looks different for resale-first shoppers versus luxury aspirers.
  
  
• What role trusted creators play in validating purchase intent.

With platforms like Heatseeker, those insights are no longer months away. They’re available in days or even minutes.

Lessons From Retail

After years in fashion, one principle still guides Margaret Coblentz’s work: stay close to the customer. But today that means more than ever given how the global economy is impacting consumers.

54% of beauty brands say uncertain consumer appetite or restricted spending is the great risk to growth. It means it’s critical to stay close to customers, and really lead with compassion. 

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“Empathy for what’s happening in your customer’s life isn’t soft. It’s strategic. It helps you anticipate change instead of react to it.” 

Her other rule? Keep learning from technology. Understanding new tools early. “The people who understood Facebook early had an advantage. The same will be true for agentic commerce.”

Strategic Insights for CMOs

Asked what she thinks today’s beauty and fashion CMOs should prioritize, Coblentz doesn’t hesitate.

“The brands growing fastest are the ones that test ideas in real time,” she says. “You don’t need to guess what will resonate when you can watch it happen.”

For her, the next era of marketing belongs to those who can turn behavior into strategy.

• Treat behavior as your new brand currency. It’s not just about aesthetics or message. It’s about what people actually do when you show them something new.
  
  
• Let empathy guide your precision. The most powerful insights come from understanding why people act the way they do, not just tracking that they did.
  
  
• Replace instinct with proof. Great creative still matters, but conviction comes from evidence. “Data doesn’t kill creativity,” she says. “It sharpens it.”
  
  
• Make speed your advantage. In a market that changes weekly, learning in hours instead of months is the edge.
  
  
• Stay fluent in the tools that move the market. “AI isn’t a buzzword. It’s the infrastructure for how brands will learn, adapt, and connect,” she adds.

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For Coblentz, it all comes back to one idea: understanding people faster and with more honesty than the competition.

“Empathy scales better than instinct,” she says. “And proof beats promise every time.”

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