In 2024 e.l.f. Beauty became the company with the top-selling mass cosmetics brand in the United States, as measured by unit sales, surpassing all its legacy competitors. It was a big milestone, and in one of my weekly notes to our 500 team members, I congratulated everyone on reaching it. But we didn’t pause for a big celebration. Instead we immediately asked ourselves, How quickly can we get from number two to number one in dollar sales, as well?
A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2025 issue of Harvard Business Review.