Three former Sephora merchants are going it alone, with the launch of a new beauty consultancy.
Cassie Cowman, Gabriella Giron and Lindsay Ullman have cofounded View from 32, an all-encompassing beauty advisory firm, whose name is inspired by the 32nd floor of the former Sephora Merchandising HQ, where the trio first met and built expertise in the industry before each moving to work at different beauty brands.
While many former beauty executives have gone on to launch their own brands, Cowman, Giron and Ullman chose the consultancy route, believing that there was a gap in the market to leverage their background and expertise as Sephora merchants and brand leaders. After all, together they launched Drunk Elephant, Farmacy Beauty, Sol de Janeiro, Tatcha and Youth to the People at Sephora.
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“We always had brands either in a casual way or a formal way asking us to help figure out how to crack the Sephora business model, ‘how do we be successful’ or ‘how do we sharpen our pitch to get into Sephora,’” said Cowman, who post-Sephora had a stint as VP of strategic marketing at hair brand Briogeo, of how the business came to be. “We said we want to do something together. We know the brands are asking for this. Sephora’s asking for this.”
The consultancy plans to work with brands, retailers and investors to offer a breadth of services in a role-based, advisory and operational capacity and is launching with a client roster including Sephora, Kulfi Beauty, Caliray and Laneige.
On the brand side, it will have an initial conversation with the company and will subsequently develop a package to fit the needs of the business, from marketing to product to retail and more to help sharpen the storytelling and the positioning of the brand in question.
“It can be project based, it can be advisement based, it can be goal based, it can be a combination so we really treat the client with an individual bespoke approach,” explained Ullman, who in addition to Sephora has also worked at MAC and The Inkey List.
The consultancy’s work with investors, meanwhile, may involve due diligence and scouting brands.
And while its work with retailers will differ depending on the company, for Sephora, it will include a support-type role so it can tap the trio to cover leave, certain projects and gaps between roles, as well as training.
“The founders of View from 32 are some of the most passionate and devoted entrepreneurs I’ve come across. I’ve known Cassie, Lindsay and Gaby for many years given their active roles in merchandising at Sephora — where the initial vision and inspiration for the company was born,” said Priya Venkatesh, senior vice president, global merchandising at Sephora. “Given their rich collective experience in guiding, supporting, and nurturing some of today’s best and brightest brands, I have no doubt they’ll be successful in cultivating that success for many more to come.”