- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to e.l.f. Beauty CEO Tarang Amin.
- The big story: Trump trying to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
- The markets: On hold as we await the inflation report.
- Analyst notes from Saxo, Ark Invest, Goldman Sachs.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. If you don’t have a teen in your household, the popularity of e.l.f. Beauty—No. 3 on Fortune’s list of fastest growing companies last year—might take you by surprise. Launched in 2004 by a father-and-son duo selling cosmetics on the internet for a dollar, it’s a favorite among Gen-Z consumers, has had 23 straight quarters of growth and boasts a $10 “power grip primer” — that’s “the number-one SKU in all of color cosmetics” according to CEO Tarang Amin. He also says e.l.f., which stands for ‘eyes, lips, face,’ is now the No.1 brand for millennials and Gen Alpha, too.
I spoke with Amin for Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast, which I am co-hosting this season with my colleague, Kristin Stoller. As part of our far-ranging conversation, Tarang talked about the importance of building the brand online. Its 2019 ‘Eyes Lips Face’ song was a viral hit on TikTok. Said Amin: “When we looked at TikTok, we noticed that there was a lot of dancing, there was a lot of music, so we composed our own song. We did our hashtag challenge and that ended up getting something like 2 billion views.”
“We noticed that almost 70% of our consumers play video games or watch other people play video games so having a female empowerment platform with popular female gamer Lufu on Twitch did great. We created an entire branded experience on Roblox and just celebrated our 20 millionth visit.”
He also focused on building the right team, giving them stock and creative freedom: “One of the first moves I did when we bought the company was make sure that our employee base reflects the community, so I'm very proud that 74% of our team are women, 75% are Gen-Z or millennial, 44% are diverse.” Regardless of where you stand on DEI, you have to appreciate the excellence of its “So many Dicks” campaign about the dearth of women and the preponderance of men named Richard, Dick or Rick on corporate boards.
You can listen to the full episode here, including the biggest mistake Amin has made along the way—underestimating the power of “mega-influencer brands” like Fenty, Huda, and Kylie Jenner.
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Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady, diane.brady@fortune.com, LinkedIn.
