Glossier killed its tech-platform bet and cut a third of corporate staff (interview)

Glossier launched in 2014 as a direct-to-consumer cult brand that often described itself as a technology company, raising more than $260 million at an estimated $1.8 billion valuation. In January 2022 it laid off one-third of its corporate workforce — primarily the technology team — as it shut down its 'longstanding, but reportedly unfocused' efforts to build a tech platform. 'We have had moments where we've lost our focus and pursued different initiatives that maybe didn't support and drive [our] positioning,' new CEO Kyle Leahy told Fortune in her first interview since taking the job.

The tech bet was the second 'more than a beauty brand' expansion to fail. Glossier Play, a separate colour-cosmetics line launched in 2019, was scrapped by early 2020. The same year the company laid off its entire retail staff and closed all its physical stores, and retail workers in New York and Los Angeles went public about racist experiences in-store and management's failure to address them — prompting new policies before any reopening.

The reset moved founder Emily Weiss out of the CEO seat in May 2022, with Kyle Leahy — chief commercial officer since 2021, ex-Cole Haan and Nike — hired to build 'operational excellence and discipline and rigor' to match the brand. Glossier resumed store openings (four in recent months), signed its first celebrity spokesperson, Olivia Rodrigo, in April, and prepared to enter wholesale with department-store partners — a reversal of years of direct-to-consumer orthodoxy.

One-third of corporate employees laid off, mostly tech; the second scrapped expansion bet after Glossier Play, at a $1.8B valuation

The platform effort ran for years without focus — technology as identity rather than a service to the core business.

It followed Glossier Play, a 2019 side line that was dead by early 2020, the same pattern of ambition outrunning positioning.

'More than a beauty brand' pulled cash and attention from the core products that carried the $1.8 billion valuation.

Retail expansion outran the company's own people systems, and the public blowup with store staff came before any fix.

'More than a beauty brand' is a mission, not a product roadmap. When the adjacent bets are unfocused, the story doesn't end with a pivot — it ends with a layoff notice and a CEO change.

Weiss stayed on as executive chairwoman, focusing on product, brand and retail; Leahy is rebuilding operations discipline, reopening stores and taking the brand into wholesale. Glossier had already reversed its August 2020 retreat from retail, planning permanent stores in Seattle, Los Angeles and London and reopening its New York flagship, per TechCrunch. Whether an operations-first CEO can keep a viral brand focused remained the open question of the interview.