Habits and Hustle - Episode 291: OneSkin Founders: Do this to reverse the signs of aging…

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

In this episode of Habits and Hustle, I chat with OneSkin co-founders, Carolina Reis Oliveira and Alessandra Zonari, who share the revolutionary product ingredient that they basically founded that truly does help reverse aging. Carolina and Alessandra bring a unique perspective to skincare, with their impressive academic backgrounds in stem cell biology and tissue engineering. This episode is filled with insights into the world of anti-aging skincare, the science of skin aging, and the role of senescent cells in aging. We dive deep into the effectiveness of skincare products and the journey of transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship. This includes the challenges of securing funding, finding the right investors, and bringing a product to market. Additionally, it underscores the importance of staying connected with customers and shares useful skincare tips. Carolina and Alessandra are co-founders of OneSkin, a biotechnology company developing disruptive rejuvenation technologies. Carolina, with a Ph.D. in Immunology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in collaboration with Rutgers University, and an IndieBio alum, relocated to Silicon Valley from Latin America in 2016 to co-found OneSkin and spearhead the development of groundbreaking rejuvenation technologies. Alessandra, the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, holds a Master's degree in stem cell biology and a Ph.D. in skin regeneration and tissue engineering from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in collaboration with the 3B’s Research Group in Portugal. She is also credited with co-inventing three patents and publishing 20 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals. What we discuss: (01:50) - Carolina and Alessandra share their academic backgrounds in stem cell biology and tissue engineering and how they transitioned from academia to entrepreneurship (14:27) - Exploring the science of skin aging, explaining the role of retinol and its impact on skin appearance (21:12) - The concept of senescent cells and their contribution to aging, exploring research on how to reduce the accumulation of these cells in skin tissues. (37:43) - The effectiveness of One Skin products, their approach to skincare, and the science behind their Eye Cream product. (43:15) - Carolina and Alessandra share their entrepreneurial journey, from securing funding to finding the right investors, and the challenges they faced in bringing their product to market. (52:19) - The importance of staying connected with their customers, how their product works, and tips on skincare. Thank you to our sponsors: Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to greenlight.com/habits Go to dailyharvest.com/hustle to get up to $65 off your first box. Go to www.hbr.org/subscriptions and enter PROMO CODE: HABITS right now to take advantage of this great offer. Greenfat: Head over to Greenfat.com and use code Hustle20 to save 20%! TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Pendulum: Head over to www.pendulum.com and use code JENCOHEN for 20% off. Find more from Jen:  Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen  Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Learn more from OneSkin: Website: https://www.oneskin.co/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oneskin.co/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I got this Tony Robbins you're listening to Habits in Hustle, Crescent. Today's podcast we have two beautiful Brazilian ladies who are not just beautiful but super smart and they're going to tell us all about this extraordinary product ingredient that they basically founded that truly does help reverse aging. And this is the whole purpose of why we're doing this podcast. You guys is because, again, these are all very, like, hashtag-friendly trending things, like the word longevity, anti-aging, like, you know, how do we live forever, basically?

And how do we look like we're 30 when we're, like, 80? And so when I find something that is revolutionary and that really does work in terms of helping you with your skin, your anti-aging, whatever it might be, I want to really kind of promote it and really kind of expose it and give it some awareness. So these lovely ladies created something called one skin. One skin is a brand.

And I wouldn't call it just a skin health. And, right, would you say skin health? Yeah, we actually say skin longevity. Skin longevity. And we're gonna get right, we're gonna get into it. And what it does, it basically is reversing the signs of aging from a molecular level. So it works.

And that's why I'm like, you guys have to come on this podcast. I want you guys to talk about your story. They're also like they're very entrepreneurial and they're doing something so revolutionary and so I'm very happy to have them on. So the first one is Carolina and her partner in crime. There's actually four but I only have two is Alessandra, right? And I want to talk about your background, but thank you very much for being on the podcast. Absolutely. So let's start with you, Carolina. What is your background? How did you guys even become?

You guys are obviously good friends, best friends. You can tell there's much more of a bond than just like, I work with each other. We work with each other. Can you kind of just tell us the origin story of who you both are, what your backgrounds are, and how you even, you know, came up with the idea of developing this whole line? Yeah, sure. So we are both, as I said, originally from Brazil, we met in 2009 when we were doing our masters and PhD in the same lab. And so I got a PhD in STEM cell biology and tissue engineering. I was always...

What was that to me? Like an STEM cell biology and tissue, I didn't even know there was a PhD in that. Yeah, so basically what we were doing at that time, we were replicating human tissues in the lab in order to develop new therapies, new treatments. So my PhD, for example, was focused on this disease called macular degeneration. So I was replicating like retina cells derived from stem cells. So stem cells is a type of cell

that can generate any kind of cells in our body. So I was basically generating retina cells from stem cells in order to use them from transplantation in humans. This was still in the research side, but potentially it could become like a therapy to treat this disease. That's molecular degeneration.

And Alessandra was studying skin regeneration. Yeah, I was already very interested on special wound healing, how we can promote a better wound healing. So I dedicated my PhD on replicating skins in the lab, like using stem cells at that time to help maximize the wound healing in big, large burns and big wounds. Wow, okay, and how long is that program? You guys look like you're 12. The product works because you guys look so young. I mean, how old are you guys?

I'm 37. I'm 36. Wow. And so how long were these, so you said PhDs? So how long were you in school for? So the PhD in Brazil is four years. We did masters before that's an initial two years. So we were studying at least like six years

before we started to translate the science that we were doing academia to create something out of it. Basically, you know, our first like entrepreneur project back in Brazil in 2014. And then eventually in 2016, we got the opportunity to come to the US to join a biotech accelerator. Oh, okay. Yeah, so basically the first project that we started in Brazil didn't work out. We learned a lot, but we saw that we needed to be in a place that would really support innovation and disruptive technologies. And San Francisco was the best place to be.

So we applied to this accelerator called Indivio. And Indivio was really typical. Indivio? Indivio is really difficult. Indivio? Indivio? Indivio? Yeah. Indivio is very special because it's the main accelerator that's focused on bio-tech. So they help scientists like us to become entrepreneurs. Because in academia, we don't know anything how to start a company.

We love the science that we are doing. Like, okay, I want to translate these science, I want to help people, but how I do that? And then in the bio-basically help you basically to tailor your ideas and find what we call like product market fit, right? Like you have so much that you can do, but how you can combine one specific, one specific like science or technology with a very clear need or demand in the market. Right. Yeah, so I moved here in 2016 and initially the goal was to grow human skins in the lab to replace animal testing. So at that point we were already like focusing on growing dishes in the lab to replace animal testing. So at that point, we were already focusing

on growing dishes in the lab, primarily skin. And we want to help basically substitute like animal experimentation, so cosmetic kind of. So you wanted to kind of take away that element. Yeah, like animal testing. Did you guys move together? Could you said you moved. I moved first and I let Sandra join me one year later.

So at this point, when you moved to the US of San Francisco, this wasn't even an idea. It wasn't even a concept. You were here doing something totally different. And then you moved out. You moved here basically to do the same thing she was doing, right, helping with eliminating animal testing. We were searched first. So when we started and Carol started here,

we had no idea that we would end having a product. Like, we were scientists and we wanted like to continue doing research and kind of like developing something that has an outcome from our research and the knowledge that we got together like from our PhDs and even like postdocs, things that we studied before. Makes sense. So in the beginning, we were like scientists researching

how we can understand the aging process of the skin and replicate this in the lab to really validate if products in the market, they are actually promoting skin rejuvenation or not. Right, so then what was kind of your findings? Like, who said, like, how did it come to be that you're like, hey, I'm going to create this skin care line. Or I'm going to find this, oh, like,

their big ingredient is called OS01, which is like a peptide that you own the patent on. Yes. And just by the way, like, even before we start this podcast, I asked you, I'm like, you guys sell that particular ingredient to other people because other people I know asked me to ask you because it is very effective, right? And you guys were able to get the patent. Is it patent pending? Is it?

It's already approved in a few countries in the UK and is there like in the last stages of, you know, approval countries in the UK and in the last stages of approval here in the US. And how did this whole happen? So tell me how it happened. Now you're both in the US. And you guys are doing your stuff with your other business. And we're inside the lab.

We are doing research. We are scientists every day going to the lab and understanding what's changing when a skin is young versus an old skin. And when I put a product on top of this old skin, what happens to this skin? Which markers like changes? This skin produces more collagen. Yes or no? This skin like reduces inflammation. Yes or no? This skin like the markers of aging, the biological age of this skin is being changed or not. So this is what we were doing, like, on our first years, the two first years of one skin. And then we soon realized that most of the products out there,

and this is a crowded market. There's so many products every day being launched, like the market is so strong on, like, this is science-backed, this has like this potential. And we were testing, and one, like, in the very beginning, like, very is science back, this has like this potential. And we were testing and one like in the very beginning, like very expensive products, we took to the lab. And when we saw the results, we were like, okay, I was doing the experiments, I was like,

I think I did something wrong because this skin looks worse than before. No way. And I was like, Carol, look at this, like, and we analyze the data. And I like, okay, let me repeat some more times. And I repeat it over and over. The result was the same. And we were like, oh, this was supposed

to be our gold standard. And then they'll just stop it. So you were testing. I just felt very expensive anti-aging product. OK, this is known to be like the anti-aging product. And then we applied it to the skin and the skin starts basically to the general rate. The formula was so bad that the skin cells start really to change the morphology and like they were dying. And then we looked to other like, this is really bad.

And then we were saying like, there are so many products out there, but none of them is really targeting aging. Like they are, you know, trying to make your skin to look better, maybe look better in the short term, but in the long term can be like compromising your skin health. So that's when we saw, okay, the main ingredient in the in the anti-aging industry is red no. Red no was not developed like to target age itself. It does have some anti-aging effects that we can talk about that but also has some side effects as we also know. And then we have all these other products that are claiming to be anti-aging and they are actually like causing more damage than good. Like what? Tell me. Well, we don't like to share like the brands, but I want to know.

I mean, I want to know what brand because to me, I can, I'm gonna guess you can, you can don't say yes or no, but everyone loves this. Oh my God. It's like so expensive. Oh God. Oh my God. It got bought by a big, a big company. No, it is a big car.

La Mare. Did you test Limer? We already test most of the products out there. I see your face. Okay, so that's interesting. So I'm gonna say it's gonna be Limer, but or whatever it is, because what I find so, this is exactly why I want you guys on,

because it is such a crowded market. And people don't know what they don't know. And marketing, like if you have a huge budget to spend, It is such a crowded market and people don't know what they don't know and marketing. If you have a huge budget to spend, you can make false claims all day. How many people are going to go and take it to a lab and check out and test it. See what actually works, what doesn't work. The reality is the majority of the stuff is garbage and nonsense. That's why when I met this product, you guys, whatever, I was like, this is actually something that is changing, that isn't ingredient that when I'm telling you other brands,

and other people are like, hey, can I, that not only can these other products, this is what I want people to know, could don't work, they actually can be doing additional damage to your skin. That's what I find interesting. And one like hint that we can give is like, check the list of the ingredients of some of these products, and go to a website like EWG,

and you are going to see the rank of those ingredients. If they are like on the red side and they are really toxic, we can clearly see a correlation in the lab. When the list of ingredients is really bad, the skin will be affected, they'll be damaged. And when the product has more clean and safe

and more efficacious ingredients, then we see the opposite. So the skin reacts really well to those ingredients and we can really see this correlation. So that's one hint that we give to our customers or to anyone out there. If you're in doubt of the product that we're using, check the list of ingredients and see what they score. Because you guys don't have the tool that we have that's really like seeing how they can react and we can see the levels of inflammation. We can see the levels

of genes related to aging and it's pretty interesting. Those levels go up when they should go down. And it's just like a little bit surprising. And it is surprising. Tell me about retinol, though. You're going to say that retinol, because everybody uses the OG, like everyone thinks that that's like the answer, the panacea at an anti-aging. Yeah. So basically how retinol works is inducing like cell-rendial, right right? So it's gonna cause a little bit of a burning to your skin, so it

removes like the upper layers of your skin. You're growing like a newer, a fresher skin. Not necessarily a younger skin, but you are inducing like that cell ring new. In this process, when we test in the lab in a lesson, it has like beautiful histologist that we can see like the upper layers coming up. We see In this process, when we test in the lab and a lesson that has like beautiful histologist that we can see like the upper layers coming up, we see that Unfortunately a lot of the genes related to inflammation and aging goes up. So this could be like temporary in terms of there is an acute phase of the red now when your skin is like reacting to it acute face of the red now when your skin is like reacting to it. But obviously we also know that red now works by causing some damage, right?

They basically insult your skin, so your skin will react and it will be like kind of fresher. It does induce collagen production, so there is this benefit that comes with the potential side effect of inflammation, redness, and all the peeling that hole uses red nose. I was using red nose for years, first like to treat acne that I had a lot of acne when I was younger and then for its anti-aging effects until my test in the lab and I was like, okay, this is supposed to be anti-aging, this is inducing aging, I'm gonna stop using this. Wow, and how long does it take for those induction of aging to take place right away?

It's 24 hours, the first use. Yeah, so it could be that if you use red now today and you stop like tomorrow, if you alternate like two, three days a week, that those genes can go down. So it could be that you can find a way that you combine red now in your routine that you are not always causing too much damage and you get like the best of it. But if you use consistently and if you're always like causing this, you know, make your skin more like susceptible because you're basically removing your skin barrier, right? When you're removing the upper layers, your skin is kind of naked for, you know, a little bit and then it will

regrow that skin barrier. So our usually are recommendation either like you use like in a very sparse way or if you are sensitive and you can't tolerate red note, you can find other options like one skin that can do the same or better without the side effects. What we see it's kind of like the red note can improve the appearance of the skin, but it actually like the aging process that's occurring on your skin, this is not being changed. Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing however you are. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your own online shop stage to the first real-life store stage all the way to the, do we just hit a million order stage? Shopify is here to help you grow. Whether you're online courses or a physical product,

Shopify helps you sell everywhere. From their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system, wherever or whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with their internet's best converting checkout. It's actually 36% better on average compared to any other leading commerce platform. And sell more with less efforts, think to Shopify, magic, which is your AI-powered All-Star. Sign up for $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash hustle.

That's all lowercase. So go to Shopify.com slash hustle. Now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in, that Shopify.com slash hustle. I want to tell you about masterclass because I am such a fan of all the various classes that they offer from Entrepreneurship to business strategy and so much more whether you're watching masterclass on TV Listening and audio mode in the app or on their site the quality speaks for itself It's like masterclass instructors are your own Personal mentors that are going to help you reach the next level of whatever it is you're trying to do. How much would it cost to take a one-on-one class from the world's best?

You tell me, right? Easily tens of thousands of dollars, but with a masterclass annual membership, it's only $10 a month. There are over 180 classes to pick from, with new classes added every month. Like Sarah Blakely's self-made entrepreneurship to Richard Branson's disruptive entrepreneurship. Boost your confidence and find practical takeaways you can apply to your life and at work. And if you have a business and are a team leader, use Masterclass to empower and create future ready employees and leaders. And right now, our listeners will get an additional 15% of annual memberships at masterclass.com slash habits. Get 15% off right now at masterclass.com slash habits.

You will thank me later. So that's what I don't understand. If it looks younger, why, but how can it look younger? Still the surface. Because it's on the soil. I've seen people that done a lot of treatment and they feel that their skin is like thin and a little, it's very like kind of, it could be like wrinkle free,

but this skin is not healthy. In turn, it's not younger, you know? So I guess my question to you is, if it looks healthy, that's like, it's not younger, you know. So I guess my question to you is if it looks healthy, that's like, it looks like younger and not necessarily healthy. That's what I say. This is kind of the same analogy as like, you can look fit and strong, but really be unhealthy inside. Like you can have like lots of different ailments

and sicknesses or whatever, but you can but you may look thin and you may look like you're no muscular. So it's the same thing. But then does it catch up with you eventually? Is that what happens? Like you can only look young for so long because I'll take it if that's the thing. I mean if it's gonna like make me look good, I'll do it. I mean I'm going to put a hand on both of like, yeah if you can look younger and be younger biologically, that's like the goal of that. Yeah, that's the goal, Sam. And this is what is start to happen.

Like we start doing this research, testing products, seeing what was happening, and realizing that they were not targeting what's causing the aging process of this skin. And because we came from this background of science and research, we were like aware of like what's causing skin aging and not only skin aging, what causes aging on our whole body.

So, understanding that. What is it, tell me. I want to know. So, there are like actually 12 hallmarks of aging. 12 changes that happens in the cellular and the molecular level of our body that makes the deterioration of each tissue and we start like declining like the good aspect of our body or the functionality of our tissues with time. So what age do we start that our skin starts to decline in health and aging?

Like when does it actually start to age? From a molecular perspective we see a huge shift around the age of 30. Yeah, 30. Yeah, but this is basically a result of damage that has been accumulated like over like 30 years. And it depends on the lifestyle. And it depends on the lifestyle. Some people can get this a little bit earlier, but there is an average if we look like to the DNA of skin samples from very young to old, there's the shift around 30 years old.

OK, that's my first question. The second question is, just in terms of when you say skin health, the health of the skin versus the way it looks, it can look healthy but not be healthy. Tell me what that means. Does that mean that you can tell me what that means? So I mean, this skin is our largest organ. It's in contact with our whole body. So it has a very like important function to protect our body from the external aggressors. So it's really a barrier that avoids that pollution, that microorganism and UV light penetrates and damage the inside of our body. If this skin starts to be too fragile, you are like increasing the inflammation that's occurring on the skin.

So with aging, like if you are accumulating damage on your skin on your whole body and increasing this inflammation level on the skin because it's the largest organ of your body. You can actually be contributing to excess of inflammation inside your body. So that to me is so, it makes perfect sense, right? Like to me, it's a common sense. If your skin is your biggest organ of your body, right? And it's the one that penetrates into everything else inside. Why has nobody ever spoken about skin health being as important as it really is? They're worrying about the minutia of things.

But at the end of the day, whatever you're putting on your skin and it's such a thin layer that's protecting, it just goes right into your dermis, right? And gives you, not just goes right into your dermis, right? And gives you... Yeah, not everything goes right in because it forms a barrier for... It's a physical barrier, so it protects off most things that you know can't get into your skin. So very small molecules can get in, for example, the peptide that we have, we can see that it penetrates, But some bad ingredients can also get in.

But we need to be careful with that, for example, with the retina. If you're exfoliating or if you're, you know, exposing your skin, then you lose your barrier and then more things can get in your skin, so your skin is more. Irritative and more. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah.

And then, because I wanted to ask you about reversing whatever damage I have tons of sun damage, can you reverse the sun damage with the product? Yes. We have data showing, Alessandra did this experience. So what's causing also damage, and especially UV light, when you expose your skin to excess of UV light, you damage cells that become so damaged that they don't proliferate anymore,

but they start secreting inflammation on your skin. This is the damage on the skin and these cells, they are non-scientifically as senescent cells or like against senescent cells. Or I can say zombie cells. So our cells that are damaged, that should like be gone red on our like eliminated from our body, but they continue there and they accumulate this damage. So why does it make a lot

of that? Okay, so why don't they why don't they leave? So usually they when we are young, like when we are on our 20s, like our immune system is very good on eliminating those damages. Okay. But they clear them up. But with time, and if your immune system is not as healthy anymore, you start not being able to eliminate those cells, as well as when you are young. So they stick there, they accumulate, and what they are secreting, it's contributing to more deterioration of the tissue.

On the skin, for instance, it's contributing to break down of the collagen. It's not like it's diminishing the replacement of the epidermal layer, so the renewal of the epidermal layer and causing inflammation on the tissue. And leading eventually to sagging, headlines and wrinkles. So if we can recap like we have been studying one of the main process that leads to aging

that's the accumulation of those damaged, also called senescent cells. Those zombie cells, they build up in our tissues as we grow older and the accumulation of those cells is associated with several age-related diseases, and in the skin is associated with the signs of skin aging. Like what? Like wrinkles, salient. No, they are individual diseases,

what are the diseases? Ah, ah. If they accumulate in your heart, cardiovascular disease, if they accumulate in your brain, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. So those damaged cells, it's a common process that's happening in

our tissue because those cells are entering the end of the cycle of their reproduction. Why do you acknowledge as a leader in business leadership information Harvard Business Review provides information, tools, and practical advice on leadership, management, and strategy to the hbr.org website, their print publication, and their podcasts. The site hbr.org is updated with great new business management articles daily, and include key insights to those interested and practical advice for better business management. Some examples of recent articles show the breadth of HBR's coverage. Plus, HBR produces a number of leading business podcasts.

They are HBR and leadership to HBR IDA cast, insightful and helpful business leadership and decision making information, and tools from the best in the business world. While much of Harvard Business Review's content is available for free after signing up on their site, subscriptions to unlimited content start at only $10 a month. Go to www.hbr.org slash subscriptions. And enter promo code Habits. Right now, to take advantage of this great offer. Again, go to www.hbr.org slash subscriptions. And enter promo code Habits

to learn more about this great opportunity to help manage your career and business. So if you guys have been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I do not mess around when it comes to anti-aging or longevity. And I absolutely love realistic things you can do every day to help support the process easily. And I've recently started taking a brand new a mega three supplement called Green Fat. Green Fat was created by the founder of Perfect Bar and he basically knocked it out of the park. They're all about anti-anti-aging or as they call it pro-aging, which of course I can

definitely get behind. And it's made a big difference in my overall well-being. If you guys didn't know, healthy fats or omega-3s are key to your everyday function, and it's also known to improve your skin, your hair, your eyes, your joints, your cognitive functioning, and your cardiovascular health. And I absolutely love the fact that it's packed with five essential fatty acids, as opposed to most omega-3 supplements only have two or three. I'm telling you guys, this is a real game changer. Go to greenfat.com with a code hustle20, and you'll get 20% off your order. And the best part is they offer you a money-back guarantee with free shipping,

meaning they'll refund every penny you paid for it. If you do not feel a difference within two weeks. So you're trying it totally risk-free. So remember, go to greenfat.com and use the code hustle20 and let me tell you, you will thank me later. American spend an average of 90% of their time indoors and take about 20,000 breaths a day. And according to EPA, indoor air is two to five times more polluted

than outdoor air. And in some cases, 100 times more polluted. And data shows that air pollution is responsible for nearly seven million premature deaths globally. I mean, it was a struggle to maintain a healthy indoor environment, given that outdoor pollutant would easily find their ways indoors.

And I have so many allergies, dust mites, pollen, everything, like grass, anything you can imagine, I'm allergic to, which is why air doctor has been a total life changer. The revolutionary air purifier has transformed my indoor air quality 100-fold. It captures a staggering 99.99% of dangerous contaminants and allergens, ranging from pollen, pet dander, microscopic bacteria, viruses, and so much more. And they have these whisper jet fans operate at a remarkable 30% quieter than ordinary air purifiers. Air doctor also comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. So if you don't love it, which I'm sure you will, just send it back for a refund minus shipping. Head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code hustle. And depending on the

model, you'll receive up to 39% off and up to $300 off. Exclusive to podcast customers, you will also receive a three three year warranty on any unit, which is an additional $84 value. Lock the special offer by going to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code hustle. That's airdoctorpro. A-I-R-D-O-C-T-o-r-p-r-o.com promo code Hustle. So you're saying that how do you pronounce it sense? Sinescence cells. Sinescence. This is the accent, it's perfect. Yeah, it was eight more time. Sinescence. Sinescence cells. Sinescence. It's with the accent, it's perfect.

Say it over time. Sinescence cells. Sinescence cells. So you can have Sinescence cells on your skin or in your heart or in your brain. So it's not only for skin, just for the skin, but your product obviously is focusing on the Sinescence cells for the skin. Okay, so then walk me through how did this happen? So that you're doing all these testing in the labs

and you're noticing what's going on with people's skin that you're testing for. And then we are noticing that the aged skins, the more they are like older, the more accumulation of markers related to the senescent cells we have. We got it, okay. So after realizing that and seeing that products are not targeting those senes and cells,

we started like looking for molecules that would specifically reduce the accumulation of these senes and cells in this skin. So, we start like screening peptides because our biological molecules that can have an activity on our tissues. And we start looking like really like you have in the lab a lot of different spots with skin cells. We put one peptide in each well like and then we look okay we are able to count the number of senescent versus non-senescent cells. So I can understand okay this peptide increases senescent versus non-senescent cells. So I can understand, okay, this peptide increases senescence or decreases senescence is toxic or not. And doing this, we did this in total in over 900 peptides.

And we found this one that we called OS1 peptide that was really like very safely reducing the accumulation of this senescent cells in the skin without causing like any side effects. Oh wow, so you tested 900 peptides and this is the one peptide that was the perform the best. So just how did you find it? How did you know even look there? I mean because before you guys was this a known peptide that other people were using somewhere else that had that like so how did you even know where to like how did you even find in the first place? Yeah, so we started testing anti-microbial peptides This was an in collaboration with a research term Brazil. Okay, so he had like a library That's basically a sequence of 200 different peptides

We tested those 200s and we got like four peptides that perform really well from these four peptides. We tested those two hundreds and we got like four peptides that performed really well. From these four peptides we created 800. So basically we made like modifications on the sequence of the amino acids and then we generated like a new library of peptides and then we tested again because we want to optimize the efficacy. So after the second screening, we landed on OS one, and OS one showed like the best effect of reducing up to 50% the amount of senescent cells in the skin.

And what happens is if you have like fewer senescent cells, you allow the healthy skin cells to proliferate. So imagine that you are removing what's driving age in your skin and then the skin cells that are healthy, they can proliferate, they can produce more collagen and causes this rejuvenation effect like from the inside out because you don't have those you know, pesky cells that were like really causing the trouble and secret inflammation and collagen degradation and so on. So but why is it that a peptide would have any type of patterns?

Like isn't it a, why wouldn't it be available to everybody? Yeah, because this is a novel peptide from once we generated like this new library basically we created like new sequences of peptides that never existed. Oh so you seek the way you sequenced it together that makes it special. Yeah. So look if I was some random Joe which I guess I am in the business of skincare. So if I was somebody who wanted to just make my own line of anti-aging skincare products right and I found OS one would it be a different formulation than what you guys sequenced together? Well if you get to the aging skincare products, right? And I found OS one. Would it be a different formulation

than what you guys sequenced together? Well, if you get to the same sequence, you can't use because that sequence is already patent, because we were the first one to discover that sequence. Oh, then that's here's you are the first to discover this particular sequence. Yeah. And then we just why people can't. And for the application for this. Yeah, for the application. And then we validated that this peptide can reduce the accumulation of senescent cells. So therefore, for this specific use, use only one skin can, you know, use it.

Can someone else use it, let's say, for the cardiovascular? Can they use it for the joints in your knee? Like you're saying, can they use it for wherever? I don't know, name what name something, you know your brain like you don't have the patent on those right not Specifically on those conditions, but you know that your patent image is to have data So you need to basically, you know show proof that it works for other conditions as well So this is like a miracle in a way for skin though for other conditions as well. So this is like a miracle in a way for skin though.

Yeah, this is the first peptide that has been validated to reduce, you know, the age itself and the skin, and also to reverse the biological age of the skin that really makes the skin to behave like younger skin. Yeah, what does that mean? You keep on saying that, like a reverse and biological age.

So what does that mean? Like if I'm 39, would I then look 32? Or like what happens? Do I look, do I like Benjamin Button? Do I get younger and younger? And you're looking as I go. Or like what happens? We have this chronological age that stays

the term by the year that we were born. But depending on our lifestyle choices, like each organ of our body can be aging in different speeds. Someone at the same chronological age born in the same year, because one is very exposed to sun damage, one smoke, one have very bad habits. The skin can look like older, much older. There are tools that you can measure this biological age. That's the that's how it knows

It's not using the telomeres but reading the DNA like it's on the DNA level Yeah, oh what's it called is the epigenetic profile of the yeah, okay? So it's based with the DNA methylation And then we can measure this So it's based on the DNA methylation. And then we can measure these methylation on the DNA and this can tell us the biological age, meaning like how this tissue is functioning. So I can be 36 years old and my skin can either be functioning

younger, the same age or older than my. So this two of measuring the function of the age function of your skin, we were able to see that when you treat the skin with the West one peptide, we can reverse this biological age of this. I have much. Can you reverse it? So the test that we have done in the lab,

we reversed 2.5 years on a skin that was 72 years old. That was 72. So it looks 70 versus 72. But this is in the lab and it was a treatment over five days. So it's a very, you know, a specific kind of condition. We are running this study right now in humans. So we have like participants using the product for six months and then we need to collect biopsies.

And from the first study that we did, we have an indication that we did, we have an indication that we can reverse 3.3 years after 12 months. And this was a very small study with only 11 participants. So now we are repeating this study with 35 participants. So we hope to see age reversion six months. We don't know for how many years, but this is coming up. But at least we showed already a trend like we can in the lab we show that we can reduce. That's good. Now we're showing humans in 12 months. We want to see how early we can actually validate that we can measure this age for us. Wow, so there's OS1 peptide.

How is it different, like, you know, in the longevity space, biohacking space, peptides are, like, it's super popular, right? You have a ton for different, for inflammation, you have BPC-157, you have all these things, right? For weight loss, is it technically, is a peptide, is it just basically instead of injecting it for whatever it is?

It's in the form of a cream, basically? Or like, because people, some people take it under the, like, you know, they have a tab. Yeah, in our case, because we wanna address skin aging, we formulated the peptide in a topical formula. And the first question that we've made was like, can this peptide penetrate the skin? Because if you can't penetrate the skin barrier, it won't function. So we did this experiment at the lab, we actually can apply the cream on top of like X-Vivo skin,

you know, pieces of human skin that we can culture in the lab. And then we can see how much it goes into the dermal layer. The dermal layer is the inner layer of the skin. So we could validate that the peptide reached the derms. And that's why this is the first peptide that's been applied on the skin to address, you know, the accumulation of senescent cells and it's able to reverse the skin to address the accumulation of senescent cells and it's able to reverse the skin.

And anytime that you either inject or take some peptide, when you put it inside your body, this goes to the bloodstream and it can get to any place inside your body. If it doesn't get digested in your stomach. Yeah, a lot. So if you take a pill, you don't even digest it anyway, anyway depending on your gut health It depends if you're biopsy Digestive system is a whole other thing. So our goal for skin and if you apply directly on the skin This can you can apply topically delivered specifically there We can have like we can guarantee that the peptide is acting where we want to act right?

You're not losing peptides to other parts of your body. You're not just going over your digestive system. So we are guaranteeing that this skin is receiving this peptide. Amazing. So with people who have been buying the product or using the product, what has been there? What was their feedback?

Like besides me saying, I like it. What has other people said that you know that you talk to, that you've been customers and all that other stuff? Well, we receive all kinds of reviews. Most people seem to be in the texture, in the overall appearance. The skin looks plumper, you decrease

like fine lines, wrinkles, people see an improvement in the skin health. So people that usually have like a more reactive skin or more inflamed redness, we can decrease that because your skin is becoming healthier. We are reducing inflammation, we are basically making your skin more resilient to deal with the day-to-day damage that we are exposing every day. So we see a lot of like you know feedback in terms of people that have some kind of you know rushes and now they don't have anymore because basically your skin is in a healthier state. It's also clean right there's no

parabens and I think like that like but everything I'll go ahead. No and one other like comment that we see a lot, because we are on this approach of treat, not only your skin of your face, that a lot of people are aware they're aware they want to treat because they want to look better, like younger, but treat the whole body. And then we get a lot of people that are already like,

okay, I can use short sleeves again, because I have less crepeness sleeves again because like I have less crepeness on my skin, I have less rushes and irritation and eaching. So every time we receive like a review like that that really like changes like how the person's feeling. Totally. It's really like we get really back in their quality of life. Again, it's like kind of those things common sense. Like the fact that you guys made a body cream, not just a face cream, because if it works on your face

to reverse aging, of course, what people also age on their neckline, or their arms, or their legs, or whatever, like it makes sense. And like to show you, I mean, if you're just listening, I actually brought down my own because it's half full, so if you're looking at it, that's why. But everything says prep.

So does everything have to work? Because the products that I have here that I've been using is the skin, like the wash, which you call is one skin prep. And then you have the eye cream, and then you have the moisturizer, which is called the face, but you call it topical supplement. So I mean, can you use one without using everything else and it's still effective?

Like, you don't have to use a whole system? So every single product was developed with a clearing tension. So the face was the first one. Obviously we want to treat our face and neck and hands. Then we want to treat the whole body. So if you care about your whole skin health, we develop this body product for that purpose. So the prep is to cleanse your skin. So prepare your skin to absorb better the face product.

And finally, we developed the eye product because we were studying the difference in terms of the skin on your face and the skin around your eyes. And we noticed, and by studying the different structure of the skin, that the skin around your eyes is much thinner. It ages faster. And actually the biological age around under your eyes,

or above your eyes compared to your cheeks or temples, is around like 20 to 30 years old there. It's shocking. I mean, we see in the mirror that's like in the first part of that wrinkles, but seeing the data that actually behaves 20 years older, that was like wow. Wow. So the skin around your eyes ages 20 or 30 years older

than the other skin, like your cheekbones, and your chin, and your wow. So knowing that we thought, okay, we needed to develop a more potent formula that has a higher concentration of the peptide and then we added like other active that really helps you know the firmness and the elasticity of the skin around your eyes. So that's why we created the eye product that was the most recent launch that we had this year. And the clinical data, because every single product, we run a clinical study, meaning that another set of professionals will test these in people, and they will validate

the improvements in the skin, both like through instrument analysis, but also through images. And the data from the eye clinic, the eye product was like the strongest one because it's a mark-point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm super excited to share my latest health obsession with you guys. It's called Metabolic Daily by Pendulum. I'm super excited to share my latest health obsession with you guys. It's called Metabolic Daily by Pendulum.

Metabolic daily is a powerful, multi-strain probiotic that really improves your metabolism, reduces your sugar cravings, breaks down carbs more efficiently, and sustains your energy. I've been taking Metabolic daily for a few months, and it's unbelievable the results I've seen. Not only do I never struggle with my cravings, but I'm seeing a huge improvement in my body composition from breaking down carbs more effectively. I love penicillin because they are really disrupting the probiotic market with clinically studied strains that aren't available anywhere else. They were founded by PhD scientists and are backed by the Mayo Clinic and Halle Berry,

who recently became their chief communications officer because of the results that she's seen. They're the only company with, I think I'm pronouncing this correctly, it's called Acro-Mansia, a next generation strain that's called the Keystone Strain for Gut Health. You can get it as a single strain or in metabolic daily.

Plus you guys can take 20% off your first month of any Pendulum Product Membership with this code, Jen Cohen. So go now to PendulumLife.com and use my code at checkout. Trust me, you will feel incredible. Not indulging this time of the year can honestly feel like a crime. And if you know me at all, I'm not great at passing up

something that tastes delicious. But then there are those nights after the holiday fun that I really just need a nourishing dinner made with real ingredients. And thankfully, with daily harvest, I'm getting the best of both worlds. Daily harvest helps me keep my stomach and my freezer full, by delivering my favorite fruit and veggie pack meals right to my door. You've got to try daily harvest new addition for dinner. It's pasta. Think pesto, bolognese, and primavera, but with a lot

more veggies and a lot less work. Their pasta is gluten-free, dairy-free, and ready in under 10 minutes. And with little time in the calendar between the holiday feast and parties, and of course kids, I get easy to prep options with other times of the day too, like their smoothies or harvest bowls and soups.

I never have to think about what to cook, and I can skip the shopping, the chopping, and the post-cooking cleanup. By the way, I'm also obsessed with this herb squash and asparagus risotto delicious. Get the best of both worlds with daily harvest. Go to dailyharvest.com slash hustle. To get up to $65 off your first box. That's dailyharvest.com slash hustle

for up to $65 off your first box. Dailyharvest.com slash hustle, you'll thank me later. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. As an entrepreneur, I'm always looking for ways to optimize my time and energy. And when it comes to parenting, that's no exception. But with so many parenting hands, sponsored by Greenlight. As an entrepreneur, I'm always looking for ways to optimize my time and energy. And when it comes to parenting, that's no exception.

But with so many parenting hacks out there, it can be really tough to know which ones are actually worth trying. That's why I'm really excited to share my life-saving recommendation with you today. It's called Greenlight. Greenlight is a debit card and money app made for families that can help you raise financially

responsible kids. It gives kids and teens an easy and fun way to gain financial literacy while giving parents peace of mind. You can send instant money transfers, automate allowance, and keep an eye on kids spending with real-time notifications. Meanwhile your kids can begin their journey towards financial autonomy by learning how to save, invest, and spend wisely.

The app includes a chore-speacher where you can set up a reoccurring or one-time chore thing, customize your family needs, and reward kids for a job well done. It's really easy. It's a very convenient way to get kids on the right path. Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free It's really easy. It's a very convenient way to get kids on the right path. Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to greenlight.com

slash habits. That's greenlight.com slash habits. To try Greenlight for free. Again, greenlight.com slash habits. And trust me, you will thank me for this later. Okay, so enough of the scream and the skin health. I'm curious now with the two of you. So you guys, like you moved here to again, you guys were figuring this out. So in your research and all of that, you realized you have this great idea. So did you guys partner together and call,

like how did you build a business if you're two scientists with two other scientists back home in Brazil, how did you build an entire business without having the, you had the accelerator, right? Yeah. So did they help you raise money? Like what was the process to make this actually a legit business, not just a product?

Yeah. That, you know. Yeah, so at the accelerator, they give you like a small funding that you need to basically just survive until, either you get your cellular product or you raise more funding. Yeah.

So once we decided to embark on this journey of like finding new mollics to actually reverse aging, we got the attention of some investors. So we got some additional funding and then we spent who was it? Initially we were some investors from Brazil, like angel investors, or angel investors, and they were interested in longevity, and they were interested in the science that we were doing. And the only thing that they knew is that we wanted to find a molecule that could actually reverse aging.

We didn't know if it would create a product or a brand. So it took us around four years to get to this peptide, and to do all these studies and the validation, to really show okay this peptide is different from any other molecule in the market it's we have something special here so should we develop a product should we license this right and then eventually we saw that you know the path of like developing a brand and bringing a product to the market was more challenging. Yeah, it was new, but was exciting. Yeah, that was what I was going to say.

If you guys did the other route, which was like I said, it would be licensing out. It's a way easier business model than building a brand. Yeah, then it's done. We licensed what they thought they were doing. And now what? And will they sell a product? Will the the product will begin will people like it we got so excited about the idea of like bringing these to customers as Carol mentioned

in the beginning we coincidentally we all like join like the research and doing science as our background because we kind of had this dream of one day translating the science into something. So when we got to that point was when we realized, okay, we can make our dream come true. Like we can bring, we don't know how we will do this. It's a huge challenge, but we can finally like transform all this knowledge that we have been accumulating

all this science into a product and people will use that. Yeah, it takes a lot though, like to build a brand and also when you're developing a line of skin care, it's a biotech company. Yeah, it's a biotech company. That takes a lot of investment and funds. Yeah, so how much did you guys initially raise that we were able to? We, before we launched, I mean, by the time that we launched the brand, so mostly invested on science, we rate like seven million. OK.

And then after that, we raised an additional 13 million. So up to date, we raised, sorry, additional six million. So up to date, 13 million 20 sorry additional six million so up to date 13 million that's all you phrase okay I mean that's a lot yeah that's a lot of my yeah I mean for biotech not a lot for like a consumer brand is a lot because most consumer brands don't have a lot of science behind but it really speaks to the amount of like investment that we we put into the science absolutely well interesting as we say to say for a science back company that's not a lot.

But in terms of the fact that you guys raised that kind of money, that is a lot. Yes. And like, are people buying it? Like, how are sales? Like are people finding out about it? Are people catching on? Like, what is the, I'm curious.

Like, I know my experience. I'm not, I basically, I'm in my own style of my friends and people I know in my world, but outside, like are people finding out about it on their own? Like how are you promoting it? Yeah, I mean, since the beginning, we were always like present in the longevity community.

So we got to connect with people that are very well known in the longevity community. So for example, David Sinclair, it's obviously a well-respected researcher from Harvard. So eventually he launched a podcast and he talked about the science of looking younger for longer and then one skin was in that podcast. So we also got connected with Peter Diamandis, that's also a longevity of enthusiasm, and he wrote a book of Tony Robbins, and they mentioned it in their book. So we are very happy that people that are into longevity, that are into science, and very like disruptive technologies are getting to know about one skin and they are the main ones that are really like spreading the word about one skin. Obviously we do our marketing and we do everything that we can do to amplify our reach.

But you know all the the main I would say boost to our growth came from those organic like mentions and that's where we want to be. We don't want to be when only beauty has been, you know, it's been discussed. We're going to be when longevity's been discussed and we want to be the company that's treating your skin from, you know, that's longevity angle. That's a great answer. I appreciate that.

And I think that's, I've never, I think that just the angle you're taking with calling it skin health and science in that way, I've never heard people talk about it that way. I mean, that's how you differentiate from all these beauty brands. Even if, I mean, I can't imagine, because like you said, there must be some brands out there who are putting a lot of backing in their science,

I would imagine, but they consider themselves a beauty brand, right? Not a skin health brand or biotech brand. Like, who would you say? I'm curious. Who would be like in line with what you guys do? Like, I don't really, I can't think of them, but I don't know. Yeah, because we are so into this longevity community,

we know that okay, there are many people focusing on know that there are many people focusing on supplements, there are many people focusing on like, the diagnostics. So if you want to measure your, you know, New Coast love, yeah, or if you want to measure, even your biological life. That is sweet. Sleep. We correlate ourselves more with this type of company that like are related to wellness. Yeah, then we Do you feel like a wellness company? Yeah, which is by the way how I got to you right versus a beauty company

Because I know nothing about the I mean that's not what my space is the beauty world But you're right like if you're gonna be leveling if you're gonna be like monitoring someone sleep Their recovery their glucose their skin like it's in that bundle that you are. Exactly. And also trying to simplify that skincare routine that is so smart. Yeah, it doesn't need to have like 10 steps. It can be very lean and effective and contain like the main ingredients that are targeting the right, you know, the right process in the case of skin aging.

You know what I find interesting? I don't see a sun. I don't think you guys have a sunscreen, which I find as coming up. Thank God. I can't help it. I'm surprised I'm a skin health company. I know.

I have a sunscreen. So to develop a sunscreen, it's FDA regulated. It takes longer. So that's why like, let's say from our essential line of skin products. It's the less one to be like a launch, but it's coming up. Oh, okay, that makes more sense to me. Okay, I love it. Thank you, Garb. I mean, by the way, like I said, I'm a fan of your product. I use it as you can tell. I have a half a bottle of this stuff. I like it. It also feels like I said, it feels simple.

Yeah. Which for me is what I like. There's no heavy cookie fragrances. It's just plain and like this OS one thing, I think you're on to something girls. I think you're going to have a brand. Yeah. To tell people where they can find it, how they can buy it, it's a subscription-based brand, too, right?

You can buy either like one time or subscribe. You can buy one time, OK? Yeah, you do have a discount when you subscribe. And we recommend using the product at the least like for three months to see the results. All the clinical studies we show the Ginificant improvement after six weeks, but it gets better with like 12 weeks and with continuous use. So you can choose, but usually we recommend subscription to make sure that we are consistent. Consistency is key to see results.

I love it. Okay. Well thanks, so far. And you can find us on our website, oneskin.co, And you can find us on our website, oneskin.co, and also on Instagram, also at oneskin.co. And subscribe to our newsletter, we love sharing like, I have it, it's good, you got a new sweater, you got a good one. Yeah, we share like a lot of tips about skin health, longevity, we share a lot of the data that we generate in our labs. So it's a really good way for you know the people out there to see the behind the scenes at once. Absolutely, it is. It's actually a great newsletter, a great product and like I said I really love the ingredient. Thank you so much you guys from being on here. Thank you. This was awesome. Amazing. Okay, bye. This episode is brought to you by the YAP Media Podcast Network.

I'm Holla Taha, CEO of the award-winning Digital Media Empire YAP Media, and host of YAP Young & Profiting Podcast, a number one entrepreneurship and self-improvement podcast where you can listen, learn, and profit. On Young & Profiting Podcast, I interview the brightest minds in the world, and I turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your daily life. Each week, we dive into a new topic like the Art of Side Hustles, how to level up your influence and persuasion and goal setting. I interview A-List guests on Young & Profiting.

I've got the best guest. Like the world's number one negotiation expert, Chris Voss, Shark, Damon John, serial entrepreneurs, Alex and Leila Hermosi, and even movie stars like Matthew McConaughey. There's absolutely no fluff on my podcast, and that's on purpose. Every episode is jam-packed with advice that's gonna push your life forward. I do my research, I get straight to the point, and I take things really seriously, which is why I'm known as the podcast princess and how I became one of the top podcasters in the world in less than five years. Young and profiting podcasts

is for all ages. Don't let the name fool you. It's an advanced show. As long as you want to learn and level up, you will be forever young. So join podcast royalty and subscribe to Young and Profiting Podcast. Or yeah, like it's often called by my app fam. On Apple Spotify, CastBox or wherever you listen to your podcasts.