In a fiercely competitive beauty market where retailers are battling Amazon, TikTok Shop and one another for relevance, retail-readiness accelerator programs have become strategic pipelines for forging early relationships with emerging brands and helping guide them to success.

Launched in 2016, Sephora’s Accelerate was among the first retail-readiness programs of its kind focused on female founders, and in its 10th year it’s evolving to keep pace with the changing realities of beauty retail. The updated curriculum centers on brand launch fundamentals and scaling a business for long-term success, spanning operations, finance, media training, team building and strategic planning. Participants also receive personalized mentorship from Sephora executives, industry leaders, brand founders and program alumni.

Carolyn Bojanowski, EVP of merchandising at Sephora in the United States, describes the revamped program as part of a broader support network designed to extend beyond the curriculum. “Our updated curriculum recognizes that no two brands or founder journeys are the same,” she says. “It takes a holistic view of brand building, equipping founders with the tools to define, own and refine their unique point of view while building toward scale.”

Sephora previously modified Accelerate in 2021, when it concentrated the program on BIPOC-owned brands as part of its diversity efforts and commitment to the Fifteen Percent Pledge. To date, 41 brands have graduated from the program, with more than half launching at Sephora, including Topicals, Fara Homidi, Eadem, Kulfi, 54 Thrones, Basma Beauty and The 7 Virtues. Sephora Accelerate exists within a wider group of retail readiness programs, and Ulta Beauty’s MUSE, Walmart Start and Target Accelerators are among the others.

As Sephora adapts Accelerate for beauty’s next era, we were curious to find out what beauty industry insiders think about the best moves for the program. In our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked eight former Accelerate graduates, consultants and investors the following question: How would you change Sephora’s Accelerate program to provide the most value for founders operating in today’s retail landscape and in the future?