Growth, in discrete steps.
Step Function is a boutique consultancy for beauty and wellness CPG, consumer and professional. We are operators, marketers and material scientists, backed by a global network of experts.
What a step function is.
In mathematics, a step function holds flat, then jumps. There is no slope between one level and the next.
Brands in beauty and wellness grow the same way. A retailer says yes, a formula clears its claim, a buyer signs. Each jump follows a decision about channel, price or claim.
We are named for the jump. Our work is the decision before it: we make the case, build the model behind it and stay until the step is taken.
The record.
20+
Years of experience
In beauty and wellness, consumer and professional
$20B+
In value delivered
Multiple
Liquidity events
How we work.
- Senior people do the work. One partner stays on your engagement from the first call to the last deck.
- The scope is fixed before we start: one page with the question, the team, the fee and the timeline. Most engagements run six to twelve weeks.
- Operators, marketers and material scientists sit in the same room, so the channel plan, the margin and the formula are checked against each other before you see any of them.
- We say what we would do in your position, with the numbers that led us there. If we would not take the step, we say so.
Who we work with.
Founders and CEOs of beauty and wellness brands, the investors and PE firms who back them, and the corporate strategics who build or buy them.
Consumer and professional, across skincare, haircare, colour, fragrance, body and wellness, sold through DTC, specialty, mass and the pro channel.
What we do not do.
- Creative production, media buying and PR stay with your agencies. We write the brief they work from.
- We take no open-ended retainers. Every engagement has a scope, a fee and a last day.
- Regulatory and legal sign-off stays with your counsel. Our material scientists show you where the exposure is.
- A partner does not sell the work and hand it to a junior team.