Glossier’s CEO Charts Next Chapter of Growth

Beauty company Glossier was an Instagram-fueled breakout star of the mid-2010s, winning over shoppers and investors alike with its promise to reinvent the stodgy, slow-moving beauty industry. But today, as a host of younger makeup brands made famous on TikTok nips at its heels and the trends it helped start now dominate the industry, Glossier’s CEO, Kyle Leahy, is trying to reinvent the one-time direct-to-consumer darling.

“We’re not a tech company, and we are not a DTC company,” she said in an interview. Today, Glossier is aiming to sell its products not only to the millennials that first rocketed the brand to popularity, but also to a broader range of consumers, including younger shoppers who first learn about the brand on TikTok. But it’s doing so in a way that more closely resembles the approach of the brands it once sought to disrupt, including through a wholesale deal with retail giant Sephora last year and a push to sell more to shoppers internationally.