Qure Skincare - Lost $5M Overnight. Then, Built a Skincare Empire

Ramon Vela (00:02.21)
Welcome back everyone. This is Ramon Vela and I've got an amazing guest today that I will love to dive into their brand. also has an amazing experience and I want to tap into some of that as well. Please welcome Matt Orlich, founder of Cure Skincare. Welcome to the show.

Matt (00:38.012)
Thanks Ron, I'll be here.

Ramon Vela (00:40.014)
Well, I appreciate you making time for us. know you're busy, so thank you. And I think there may even be a time difference, right? Is there a time difference? Okay. Wow. Okay. Well, thank you so much for making that effort, uh, waking up early for us. Um, well, I want to dive into your story. I want to dive into the brand before we do that. I have a, uh, a signature question and basically, um, it's a gratitude question for those who are new listeners.

Matt (00:47.078)
Yeah, it's like 7 a.m.

Ramon Vela (01:08.768)
I like to ask this question for a couple of different reasons. One is I'm just a big believer in gratitude and I think it's a great tool for meditation, for journaling, whatever praying. It's just a great way to relieve stress and anxiety and put things in context. But I also like to ask it because I really want the listeners to know that there are real people behind the brands that you see featured on this show. It's so easy for us to see brands and products online or on a retail shelf.

And just think it's some faceless corporation. But I want you to know that there's real people who care deeply about their products, about the quality of their products, their consumers. And a great way of getting to know someone and sort of humanizing the brand a little bit is getting to know that person by what they are grateful for. so with that said, Matt, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful?

because it meant that they believed in you, your vision, or your potential.

Matt (02:09.158)
Yeah, it's a great question. 100%. So when I was 18 years old, or actually I 17 years old, I used to work at a call center. We used to do like lead generation for business coaches. And I was at that firm for about six months and I wanted to go out on my own. And the manager at the time, which was like a mentor of mine, he left the company with me and we both started our own business. And it wasn't...

for his belief and his guidance and him taking that step because the only reason he really did it was to help me, then I don't think I would be today. So that was, he was the reason that I started my first business because of his support and because he actually believed in me. So that was probably something that I'm extremely grateful for because that changed the whole trajectory of my life.

Ramon Vela (02:51.084)
Wow. And what was that business that you guys started?

Matt (02:54.364)
So we started the same business, we did lead generation for business coaches. So we would like cold call people and set up appointments for consultants to come in and we would sell those appointments to different business coaches around the world.

Ramon Vela (03:04.558)
Wow, that's a tough business. A lot of rejection, a lot of follow-up. But I appreciate that example because there are times where people believe in you and do things and have faith in you. Sometimes when you may not have 100 % faith in yourself.

Matt (03:08.326)
Yeah, it is, yeah, a little. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (03:27.988)
and they believe in you and because of their words and their actions, it really gives you that confidence that, wow, somebody is really, you know, believing in me. And to have a mentor that you were already looking up to and learning from to be a part of what you're doing and do it together, I think that's pretty cool. I mean, that's a big confidence boost. And so I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. So let's...

Matt (03:49.351)
Yeah, definitely.

Ramon Vela (03:55.958)
Let's segue that into understanding a little bit about where you were and what you've done before Cure. And then we'll get into the Cure in a second. But I'm just curious. I know that you have this really interesting background working with brands, starting them. And I'm wondering if you can share a little bit of your journey and then I have some other questions.

Matt (04:20.05)
Yeah, sure. So since then, from that business onwards, I've probably started about 25 different brands or businesses in the last 20 years. And majority of those brands lived in retail land. So I used to develop brands for mass retailers around Australia, New Zealand and the UK. And that's how I got started until one night, a billion dollar retailer in Australia called Dick Smith went bankrupt and I lost almost $5 million literally overnight.

because I had a lot of concentration risk by supplying that one retailer and I didn't diversify enough. So I almost lost everything overnight and that forced me to really pivot and start taking my brands online. That's where I started learning the of digital marketing. And because of that journey, I created a digital agency that specializes in helping e-commerce businesses scale. And that off the back of that, we built Cure Skincare because all the lessons we learned in the past and all the skill sets we developed.

Ramon Vela (05:14.574)
Well, and that's an interesting story. And I actually found myself in a similar situation back in 2008 when I had a sort of a boutique marketing agency that worked with enterprise companies in that I had too few, few customers. It was very concentrated, just a few companies that were bringing in a lot of revenue, but there were just few of them. So when the recession hit,

Um, and they stopped working with me. was like, Oh crap. You know, that's all my revenue out the door. And of course in hindsight, think, Oh, I should have done things differently. But for me, it was a difficult moment. I'm wondering for you, you know, whether it's 500,000 or $5 million, that's still a lot of money. Uh, how did you get over that? Like, did you, well, first of all, emotionally, mentally, how did you get over that? And then.

Walk us through like, you know, how did you go about getting off the ground and starting the next venture?

Matt (06:17.074)
Yeah, I think I was fortunate enough that I always had an interest in psychology and I was always, you know, reading self-development books and I was always working on myself. And at that time, I understood that you can't control what you look at, but you can always control what you see. And it's all about perspective. So sure, when the moment happened, I started going with that victim mentality, why me, why is this happening to me after so long? And all those narratives started to play my mind, but...

I mainly knew I had to stop that and try and find a new narrative and a new perspective in the situation. So what I started doing was Googling like, what are the other founders that almost went bankrupt overnight? And I had a whole list of them that were extremely successful. So then at that point, I became extremely grateful for that loss because I understood that, you know, this was like my path. This was my piece of debt to the success I was gonna have.

And I was so grateful that happened at age 25, not 35, when we were at a family and other things that, you know, could potentially impact my life. So that's kind of how I rewired and refrained my mind. So look at this scenario from a positive perspective. And I just became really grateful. then from that moment, I always, always had had more belief that I was going to make it because of that happened. Cause that's a huge, tragic incident. Like that would happen to anyone. I mean, this is, this is part of my movies, part of my story.

And yeah, that's how I kind of got through it.

Ramon Vela (07:37.206)
Wow. I love that aspect of it. that it's such a, it's a simple thing to understand, but it's hard to put into practice, right? Like in the middle of that disaster, it's so easy to feel like the victim or feel like you are to blame, right? And start to really feel guilt and shame. that's the part that stops a lot of people. But

Getting out of that really is what you just said, which is that reframing aspect of it. I remember hearing something from someone that I had heard it a long time ago, but I didn't quite understand it because I had to do the same thing you did, which is to kind of look at the situation differently. And it was the line was when you look at, when you change the way you look at something, that's something you look at will change. And I didn't understand it.

Matt (08:32.43)
Mm. Like... Mm. Right. Alright.

Ramon Vela (08:35.21)
until later, right? Like I knew it, but I didn't understand it. And it's one of those big lessons in life that, where, you know, you, it's hard to, it's easy to understand, but it's hard to put in practice. But when you do it, it really is life-changing. And it sounds like that's what it was for you. And, you know, learning that, and by the way, that was,

Matt (08:55.292)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (09:00.61)
That was a good thing you did, which is, and it didn't occur to me when I was doing this, which is to look to see how other people had, had come out of it. actually when I think about it, I actually looked at Steve jobs a little bit. don't know if that was someone on your list because you know, Steve jobs started Apple of course, and then was eventually kicked out of his own company. And to me that seemed like that, man, that would, that would just devastate me if you, if you were pushed out of your company.

Of course, you we all know the story. You know, he eventually came back triumphant and then turned Apple around. And then now it's like this monster of a company with like $300 billion in just cash. You know, it's like, it's pretty, it's pretty freaking amazing. and so rebuilding that, what were, what were some of the actions that you took, into that? Was it an immediate thinking like, okay, I was.

Matt (09:40.284)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (09:58.806)
I was at the mercy of these retail outlets now and there's nothing wrong with retail, but right, like it's the concentration and the amount that, that killed you. But what was it that at that point, you know, made you decide a D to C, not having that experience already. was there a product, a particular product that you had in mind? Because some products are easier to do D to C and some are not right. Like some that are

cold chain and you know that you require freezers and food and beverage and things like that. Did you strategize and think first what is the best product and then decide, okay, I'm gonna now take this DTC or what was that process look like?

Matt (10:40.818)
Yeah, I think I was consistently spinning up brands. I kind of had a knack for knowing what's going to be trending. That's why the retailers like to work with me. So I just said to myself, the next brand I do, I will do online. I'll do online first. So that was a brand called Skywalkers. We actually went from zero to $2 million in the first three months.

And that kind of validated, you know, this whole concept of going online first with brands before we went to retail. So it wasn't, yeah, there's no real strategy besides, know what, I'm not gonna spin up another brand and go direct to retail, let's do online first.

Ramon Vela (11:11.79)
And then in terms of learning the whole process of direct to consumer, what was that like? I mean, obviously it could be overwhelming, right? For all I talk to founders all the time, know, first, you know, their focus on product development, then their focus obviously, whether that's a viable product for the market, you know, so they, can get lost in certain areas, right? There's all these different

phases and areas of the business that you have to focus on and there's only one of you. So what was that learning curve like? Did you bring in people? Did you learn on your own how to do ads and how to do all this other stuff? What did that look like?

Matt (11:56.018)
He had a good point, like I remember being extremely overwhelmed. It was just a whole different world. And I remember thinking that I'm never gonna understand this like landscape. So what I did, I went and found the best Facebook ads, let's say guy on the internet and his name was Jason Horning. And I paid him to consult myself and my team. And it was really expensive. It was like $10,000 a month, but.

I knew that would be invaluable once we learned that at the level that he did. And I've been getting coaches since then for my whole life. think if you're looking to learn anything, it's probably the quickest way you can accelerate your growth.

Ramon Vela (12:34.159)
And by the way, because of this vast background that you have, do you do coaching?

Matt (12:40.08)
Yeah, I definitely do. I do a lot of coaching with founders on a one-to-one basis to help them scale or operationalize the business or help them build the team. That's probably one of my passion projects that I do.

Ramon Vela (12:51.598)
And what motivates you now? Because I read that you said actually to also that you had 25 different brands and products. What's that motivating factor for you right now? Is it finding a market that has a problem that needs to be solved or demographic or whatever? Or is it just now the thrill of creating something from an idea to some product that's selling on the marketplace now?

Matt (13:20.934)
I think what's motivating me at the moment is really trying to grow QoS skincare to like an industry leader. You we want to be known for the most innovative products in the world and creating new innovative products that don't exist in the market is what motivates us, you know, and seeing the results and seeing how we help the consumers because the whole mission of QoR is to try and democratize these clinics and try to make sure that skin, like clinical skincare treatments are accessible to everyone because beauty is not a right.

luxury, should be a right for everyone to feel confident in own skin. So that's kind of the mission of CURE and I think that's what motivates me today to consistently create these innovative products so we can help people feel confident in their own skin.

Ramon Vela (14:01.216)
And what was it about skincare or were some of the other brands that you dealt with a part of in the skincare world?

Matt (14:07.602)
So my sister, she's my co-founder in Cure Skincare. She was always obsessed with skincare and she always wanted to start a skincare brand. And that's where it started because she used to give me these like little post-it notes. I used to live in Croatia and she used live in Australia. She sent me all these products to use and say, do this in the morning, do this one, two, three step routine, whatever. And then she came to Croatia, she saw my skin and it was noticeably better.

And then she was like, oh, it's because of the products I gave you. go, no, it's not. It's because I haven't been using them because I'm a guy and I can't follow any of that stuff. But I use this massive LED panel that I bought from China. And then she immediately looked and there was an aura of it. And she said, like, I want one. go, yeah, it'll cost $5,000. And then her heart sunk. And that's from that moment we realized, OK, maybe now there's an opportunity to create this technology of a different format that makes it more accessible to everyone at home.

And that's where the mission of Cure was born from that moment. So I started the brand with her and she went and developed that first product and that's how we all started.

Ramon Vela (15:07.598)
Well, and so you're combining her passion and knowledge of the skincare world with your passion and knowledge with building brands. And then of course, all the things inside of that. And for everyone out there, if you want to take a look at what we're talking about and the company CURE, you can go to cure skincare.com and CURE spelled Q-U-R-E and then skincare.com.

Matt (15:19.374)
Exactly.

Ramon Vela (15:37.31)
Skincare.com. Now, in terms of the marketplace, obviously it's very competitive and there's lots of different brands. What are some of those things about Cure that you feel are very differentiated or that you try to make sure that customers know about so that you differentiate yourself from the marketplace?

Matt (16:01.062)
Yes, our face mask is the world's first customizable face marks. We have an app that connects to it and you can literally like customize different treatments on your face. So that's a very unique selling point, which no other mask in the world can do. And then, you know, we have for our water filters, a faucet filter, we have a patented utility where it has like a 360 degree nozzle on it. So all of our products have some level of innovation tied attached to it that, that, you know, makes it unique. And we believe it makes it better than everything else on the market.

Ramon Vela (16:30.926)
In terms of that innovation, I'm curious, because of your background in terms of building brands, mean, you've built enough to that, know, obviously there's new situations and not every situation is the same, but you have patterns that you've built up over the years, I'm sure, like, you know, what works, what doesn't work, and you have some ideas. Was when you were building Cure, when you were strategizing or building the plan out,

where you was innovation going to be a component that you said, okay, this is gonna be our innovation stack. This is gonna be our sort of differentiator in this very competitive market.

Matt (17:10.748)
Yeah, most definitely. think that's what I've learned in the past is that we need to differentiate products. need to have a unique selling point. We need to have some uniqueness to the product because that will help in all the marketing activities that we do. When I look at these E-Com businesses today, we try and acquire four different leverage points and one of them is product.

We wanna make sure the product has leverage that we can create some sort of different product in the market that we can then also approach influences that wanna be tied to this product because it's not a me to product. And then the marketing also goes along with that in terms of this leverage and things we can speak about and where we can present the product. And then also there's operating leverage, which we focused on and that's how we try to keep our costs down by having office in Croatia and like location arbitrage. And then we also look for audience leverage, which means that we try and get

There's influence on board that are part of the company that could promote organically our product and we can have a negative customer acquisition scenario. And then the last one is margin leverage. We have to make sure that whatever we're developing, there's enough margin in there to let people know about our products. have budget to market the product and we try and aim for at least 70%.

Ramon Vela (18:19.21)
And of all of those, and thanks for relaying them out, I think those are great. Of those given, I guess, the current environment, which ones are the most challenging from those leverage points?

Matt (18:33.01)
I think the most challenging would be... They're all pretty challenging. But definitely I think product leverage and also the audience leverage. They're definitely the most challenging.

Ramon Vela (18:44.024)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and from that perspective, are you seeking out, I don't know if you wanna refer to them as influencers or ambassadors or whatever those might be, is it finding those people who have the audience and or who have the trust of the audience or who believe in your product first? Because I talked to some founders or some brands and they...

You know, everyone has sort of like a different strategy. People want first, that person has a huge market. Let me, let me pay them to, to share, you know, or not market, but, know, followers or whatever. Let me pay them in to announce this. And then some others say, well, I prefer to find someone who actually really likes our product, tries it. And as a believer and you know, because they're a believer, they're happy. They're more, I don't know, trusting or more passionate about it.

their conversations with their followers around their product. Do you have a formula or do you have a strategy around that?

Matt (19:47.516)
Yeah, I mean, if we want to find an influencer that has a lot of authority in the space, like a key opinion leader, that's what we kind of look for. And that's what's more important to us than maybe size or yeah, more than anything else. It's like, why are people following this influencer? Is it coming from a place of entertainment or is it coming from a place of education? And how much influence and authority do they actually have over their audience? That's kind of the main thing that we're looking for.

Ramon Vela (20:16.622)
And everyone out there, just another, in case you're driving or whatnot, and you want to take a look at what we're talking about, you can go to CureSkincare.com, Cureskincare.com, we're gonna have that on our podcast description. So in terms of the business, as we talked about, it's a very challenging business, but every sector seems to have some challenges nowadays. Obviously, the consumers, it's a little harder now and so forth.

Lots of talk of financial difficulties or at least holding back a little bit. What are those things like if I'm a founder and I'm starting a brand and I came to you in terms of like a coach and I asked you, hey, could you help me strategize and get started? What are those sort of insights or those lessons that you've learned that you would share with those people?

Matt (21:11.548)
think if they're just getting started I would push them to really humanize the brand from day one and go organic first and share the story of the journey of starting a business.

I think we're moving into a world where it's going to be more AI driven and that human connection element is going be missing. And any brands are able to integrate their whole story in terms of the founder story as well as the brand story, why the brand exists and has a good way to have a storytelling arc throughout their social media content. We'll be able to acquire customers at a very efficient rate and also build a brand equity at the same time.

Ramon Vela (21:46.574)
And how about, you know, what I've noticed in the last few years, and that's great advice, by the way. I love that idea about everything is AI driven. And so the more human or authentic approach is great. In the last few years, obviously funding has changed. You know, there was more capital.

around two years ago or whatnot. And now it's a lot tighter. Last couple of years, it feels like a lot of people have had to change and really focus more on the operating side of it, the operating leverage, as you mentioned. Is that something you, from a young startup, do you have them focus more on the operating side of it or on the growth side of it?

Matt (22:39.73)
Definitely growth because sales and profit solves all problems. Yeah, so we definitely need to focus on the majority of the time on growth and creative strategy and trying to kind of attention online because attention, you know, is the new oil. So that's what I definitely lead the people that I work with here to focus on that.

Ramon Vela (22:59.244)
I mean, I think ideally you probably want both, right? You want someone who has some hold or some understanding and understands the unit economics of it and the margins and everything else and is striving for efficiency, but also at the same time, you it's, you can have both, if you, but I think if people, if they are looking for investment or whatnot, they definitely probably want to have that growth story.

be a bigger part of it, right? And I think that investors wanna see that. Which leads me to ask you, you, is CURE and any others, are they outside funder, investors in it, or is it all bootstrapped? And is that a strategic decision, or is that just a decision?

Matt (23:42.525)
World bootstrap.

Matt (23:48.53)
Yeah, I'll be honest, I didn't really know anything else but bootstrap. They're being bootstrapped. Like, I mean, this whole VC world and stuff like that, I learned about that a lot later. I was like still shocked that anyone will give someone, know, whatever seed money or whatever, millions of dollars just from an idea. Like I couldn't even comprehend that in my mind, you know what mean? So I think for me, it was just never an option. I never even thought about it.

And I had the cash, fortunately enough, know, for the business that I built. I always saved money for new ideas. You know, I never wanted to invest in property or any other investments. The money I made was saved there for my next bigger and better idea. And that's why I always look at it, because I know that, you know, business is more of a personal development growth vehicle than anything. And that's all I was interested in how quick I can grow and how much I can grow and the person I was going to be. So, yeah, all my cash reserves are always saved for the business.

Ramon Vela (24:24.654)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (24:39.818)
Interesting. And do you think that's a matter of, because of the part of the world you were in? Because, you know, do you think your thinking would have been tainted if you lived at, let's say in, I don't know, San Francisco versus where you live?

Matt (24:57.846)
think so because I lived in Sydney until 29 years old so I think Sydney's a similar I guess environment to San Francisco and stuff like that everyone he's talking about diversifying and investing and that nature

Ramon Vela (25:12.204)
Yeah. And I'm kind of curious, did you ever take Slack because your bootstrap? Because, know, at one point it was a matter of comparison of, you know, of how much did you raise? and I'm just wondering if your friends ever gave you Slack for that or other founders say like, Hey, what are you doing? You should be diversifying and getting more money.

Matt (25:28.826)
I'm sure it's here.

Matt (25:39.172)
No, I think it was the opposite. think they're all jealous that I was self-funded because, you know, there are constraints in, having, you know, being funded by people and you can't do things the way you want at times. And yeah, there's people looking over your shoulder. So I think everyone's jealous if anything.

Ramon Vela (25:54.446)
Wow. And by the way, I did also want to mention what you described a second ago about the different leverage points. I think that's a great way to describe it and to have that structured. I'm just assuming, is this something you sort of like have thought about and developed across all the different businesses you've created?

Matt (26:17.554)
No, that came very, very late into the piece. I definitely wasn't that tuned in to understand this type of economics, but I think just lately of cure and also, yeah, probably the last four five years that really only came to my mind.

Ramon Vela (26:23.054)
Thank

Ramon Vela (26:35.438)
Well, I you know, there's a lot of things. mean, I think time, experience and age have, you you gain, I mean, it's a truism, right? It's like you will hopefully gain some wisdom as you've had all these different experiences. you know, especially, you know,

Matt (26:56.018)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (27:00.59)
in the very first one where we talked about you, know, $5 million in the whole, those type of experiences, you really teach you a lot, especially if you can get past the emotional aspect and kind of see it for what it is and reframe it. They can teach you a lot in terms of, you know, the future. you know, you know, having that, you know, is, like I said, it's just a great experience. I remember I heard someone say something like,

And I kind of see this as interesting is that you haven't really lived until you've, you you haven't really been an entrepreneur and you haven't lived until you've lost everything at least once. You know what mean? Yeah. And it's true, right? Go ahead.

Matt (27:43.768)
Yeah, so yeah. And I think people today just don't spend enough time thinking about what products sell because what I've learned after starting on these different businesses, I was horrible at putting myself in good opportunity vehicles because it doesn't matter how hard you row, it matters what boat you're in. And I learned that very late in life. And if I took the time to carefully decide what product I would sell, what brand I would

create based on certain frameworks or a certain methodology or whatever I would have been far far far far better off.

Ramon Vela (28:21.742)
Hmm. I actually, I've noticed that with some, some products where I will learn about them. And I think to myself, like, it's a good product, but I often think like, is this something people are going to actually like, is there big enough market and is this like, there's a saying and I know I'm going to mess this up, but, a founder once told me this, that it's better to have, what is it?

It's better to have like something that solves a problem, solves a very strong problem versus just having like a vitamin, right? Like just like a nice to have. if you, if you have the cure, well, no pun intended, you know, if you have a cure that's so much stronger than providing someone like a vitamin. And it sounds like that's a little bit of what you're, you're talking about right there, making sure that the product is actually a solid problem that solves the problem, right?

Matt (29:21.19)
Yeah, for sure. Exactly.

Ramon Vela (29:23.276)
Yeah, this is fantastic. I love that. I, I, I, I'm probably going to ask you more questions about your past, but I want to get into the, into the product a little bit. So in terms of creating the product, do you, is there, do you have a, maybe we start off like high end and then we will talk more specific about products, but is there like an overarching ingredient or ingredient or formulating philosophy around.

creating these products? Like is there a place that you start like, don't know, clean or organic or whatever it is, but is there an overarching philosophy on in terms of when you create the product?

Matt (30:05.596)
So we're kind of looking for what are the most ethical products in the market in terms of, you know, ones that delivering the best results. And we're looking at what are people using in clinic that we can bring home at a more affordable price. That's kind of the model that we're looking at and seeing how, what can we change and what can we innovate to make, you know, the product substantially better than what's out there. And that's really it. There's not much more intricate detail than that. So.

Ramon Vela (30:32.835)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (30:34.842)
Yeah, combination of studies, what's in clinic and what can we actually bring home and innovate from the clinic.

Ramon Vela (30:41.462)
And so walk us through a little bit about what are those problems that you solve in terms of cure skincare.

Matt (30:50.342)
Yeah, so I think we cover a very wide range of problems because we have a wide range of product categories in our business. But everything from fine lines and wrinkles to skin rejuvenation, dark spots, pigmentation and acne. They're probably the main ones.

Ramon Vela (31:10.225)
And when people look at think of, you know, wrinkles or I don't know what the phrases anti-aging or, you know, people use a couple different phrases. You think of older individuals. But I was reading something interesting not that long ago that

younger people or people, you like you think of anti-aging, you think, okay, people in their 40s and their 50s and, you know, beyond wanting to take better care of their skin and get rid of wrinkles or lessen them, et cetera. But I read that more more people in their 20s and 30s are using some of these creams and so forth. What has it been your experience and who's that marketplace that you guys are speaking to?

Matt (31:59.9)
think our consumers are definitely majority of them are 40 plus, but there is a spectrum of younger demographic people who are doing treatments from a more preventative perspective. So they're doing it early so they can prevent these things occurring onto the skin.

Ramon Vela (32:16.718)
And walk us through some of the products that you guys have. Like for instance, if you go, everyone out there, you go to CureSkincare.com. And again, Cure is spelled Q-U-R-E, skincare.com. You'll see there's lots of different products. I'm looking right now at some of the best sellers. You've got this micro-infusion facial system. You've got the Rejuvenator facewear. You have the only one.

face serum, you've got micro-infusion targeted patches. These are your best sellers. I'm wondering, I want to start talking about some of these. Is this a good place to start, like some of these products? Walk me through some of these.

Matt (32:57.746)
Yeah.

Yes, we have the LED face mask, which I think is gaining a lot of popularity in the market now. LEDs is a technology that I think NASA invented years ago. And what it really does, it helps stimulate collagen, helps revitalize the skin, and starts healing the skin from underneath. And that's where all the magic happens. It goes where creams can't.

And similar to that philosophy, we have the micro-needling, is the micro-stamping device which taking in clinic micro-needling and bringing it home with a more safer mechanism attached to it. So in the clinic, they can go very deep. this now unit doesn't go as deep in terms of skin, but when you go deep in the clinic, it's more for deep acne scars and stuff like that. But from an anti-aging perspective, then you only need to go 0.5 milliliters deep into the skin. So these little tiny gold-plated sterile needles puncture micro-channels

into the skin and then the serum infuses through those micro channels and gets under the skin which you know they say up to 400 % increased absorption and that also simulates collagen and helps the skin repair and regenerate itself and then we have the micro you know infusion patches which work on a similar mechanism and then we also have now shower filters and fossil filters because that's like step zero in your skincare routine

Ramon Vela (34:03.576)
Hmm.

Ramon Vela (34:08.141)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (34:21.35)
That's the first thing you do is stop the contaminants coming into your skin and causing problems. You wanna make sure that these harsh chemicals in the water, especially in the US, US has horrible water, and it has all these contaminants in the skin, sorry, in the water that affect the skin. So that's like your step zero routine, and that's what we've launched recently as well.

Ramon Vela (34:39.358)
And the one that you were talking about a second ago was which one was that the micro infusion? okay. Interesting. so if I'm like, if there's, walk me through the experience that a customer might have if they go to the website, which, we want, we want them to visit. so let's say I am concerned of my skin. and I, I don't know, wrinkles, dark spots, things like that.

Matt (34:44.976)
Yeah, micro-infusion, yeah.

Ramon Vela (35:09.13)
Where do I start? Like from a customer experience standpoint, do you have a quiz? Do you have some sort of area where they start? You diagnose it, you know, where would I start? What does it look like?

Matt (35:22.45)
Yeah, I think if you go to the menu bar, there's a tab for concerns, and you can shop based on your concerns, and there's different options. Because the different technologies can help that same concern in different ways. So that's up to you to try and find which solution you're looking to purchase. Ideally, you'd probably want to stack all of them if you're looking to get the best results, because the red light therapy will help fine lines and wrinkles in a different way than the micro-needling or the micro-stamping will. So all these different types of technologies,

target these concerns in a different format. And that's why we kind of encapsulate them all into the one brand because they can all be used in conjunction with one another.

Ramon Vela (36:00.686)
So like for instance, know, like I have, I have wrinkles, but I also have some dark spots. Is there a place where I would start? I mean, you, would you start with the, like, for instance, I'm looking at the website and looking at navigation button and it has the products and then it has a shop by concern, like you mentioned, fine lines and wrinkles. Like you said, you know, ideally you probably want to try the different, the whole spectrum of the different products.

that you have if those are what you're experiencing. And you also have, by the way, acne and breakouts. Where do most people start? With the fine line and wrinkles? With the serums? Or do they start with the mask?

Matt (36:46.834)
I think most people start with the micro infusion or the mask. They're two kind of the hero products depending on you know the consumer what they what they're looking for but there is no right or wrong way to be honest to start.

Ramon Vela (36:57.454)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (37:00.97)
And if I have, if I'm on your website and I have questions, so like let's say I'm not really sure which one I should start with. Is there a mechanism? Is there a community? there someplace where I could ask a question before I purchase or?

Matt (37:12.818)
Yeah, as a live chat function, I think we're live 24 seven, think you can even call the agents as well that are there to assist you in terms of any concerns you have and what products might be right for you to give you all the education that you need.

Ramon Vela (37:27.244)
And how about like some of the, like you mentioned, you talk about clinical type of products. Is there any place in here where I can learn more about, you know, some of the science around this?

Matt (37:39.184)
Yeah, I believe on every product page we have a link to the clinical studies that we've referenced that you can look into. And we've also done our own clinical studies on a couple of the products as well, which we link in all the PDPs.

Ramon Vela (37:53.208)
Yeah, I'm looking at it and I'm looking at like the before and after pictures, which are always really powerful in terms of, in terms of the marketing of it, right? Yeah, it's great to see people, people's before and after I'm looking at it right now. I'm looking at what product is this? This is the light therapy mask. Yeah. And something like that is a piece of hardware.

Matt (38:03.89)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (38:23.598)
and versus some of the other serums and things like that are a little bit different. When creating something like this, how difficult is it to create like a piece of hardware versus, you know, the serums and things like that.

Matt (38:39.822)
Yeah, I mean like, our product development timeline for the mask was two years. For a CMREP it might be six to 12 months. So it's definitely a lot more intricate in terms of getting approved, like FDA approved and going through all those medical loops, getting certified. Yeah, it's just a lot lengthier process and a lot more moving parts that requires a lot more attention to detail really.

Ramon Vela (39:02.882)
And in terms of like, I'm looking at this and I love how you have it all laid out. There's a lot of really great, great information and you can go through the changes in your skin. You know, there's drawings there of people and things like that. Walk me through in terms of the mask has an app that you guys use. Is that correct?

Matt (39:27.578)
Yeah, so that's the apps who schedule your treatments and also to customize your treatments. Like you might want to do anti-aging on the eyes, but then you might have acne on the skin, on the chin. You can customize the treatments. So targeting those different areas in a different way.

Ramon Vela (39:42.448)
and that's within the mask itself? interesting. So the mask itself is a solution for a couple of different problem areas. interesting. I never knew that about it. I thought it was sort of like just an overall sort of a healthier skin aspect to it. I didn't realize it was attacking several different areas.

Matt (39:44.368)
Yeah, correct.

Matt (39:55.732)
Yeah, correct.

Matt (40:06.51)
No.

Ramon Vela (40:12.11)
And in terms of like I see, as I mentioned, I see the before and afters and I also see reviews that you have in there. What are you doing? Skincare is one of those interesting aspects where it's very personal to people. know, obviously there are people who are proactive and want to, you like you talked about, like who want to make their skin healthier as they age.

avoid wrinkles, blah, blah, all of that good stuff. However, there's also people who have issues with their skin that are very emotional. they're problem areas, know, like whether it's acne or redness or dark spots, whatever, there's these things that people carry with them and they don't like them, right? They're always looking for something to cure this. And I'm curious, is there a place for your consumers, your customers to...

Congregate and talk about these issues. Have you started any type of community or anything like that?

Matt (41:13.628)
We do have a community, but it's for consumers that already bought our product. We have a private VIP community that there's probably 10,000 people in it where they talk about these issues. We don't have anything public and it might be good idea for us to actually start.

Ramon Vela (41:27.982)
In the community aspect of it, always, that's always a really interesting one. I always felt like a community is a great way to create sort of like a moat around your business. Because if you have happy consumers and they congregate together, it's a great place to get feedback, it's a great place to ask questions, it's a great place to see how people are reacting to the product. You can learn things from the product.

I remember I covered a brand called Bally Wally who created IBS tech products for stomach problems and things like that. And they would use their community to create products, ask them questions like, hey, what do you think we're thinking of creating this? they were slightly different because they could ask them questions about flavors or things like that. Are you utilizing the power of that community?

Matt (42:19.92)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, And in new products, we are thinking about launching, you know, we have a little test group of people asking them questions about the improvements they want to in the product. It becomes like a little focus group.

Ramon Vela (42:33.964)
Yeah. And, and they, even uses them to like, for instance, what should we name this? Right? Like what's the name? What's the name of the product? And, know, I know this thing sounds silly, but it's a great way also to give your consumers, sort of ownership. Like, you know, they're helping to create this product with you. And so it, and it gives that excitement in there that this is community. Was it something that you guys created?

Matt (42:53.69)
Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

Ramon Vela (43:04.11)
purposefully? Like did you guys make the effort because I know it's difficult or did it grow organically or both?

Matt (43:10.7)
We definitely purposefully created it and we have like email series that link back to a post purchase checkout, links that drive people to it. So it's definitely something that we've created intentionally.

Ramon Vela (43:13.07)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (43:22.03)
You know, from my understanding, putting together community can be very difficult because you know, on one hand you think, I can just group these people together and the magic will happen. But a lot of times it doesn't. And so you have to kind of moderate it. You have to ask questions. You have to keep the conversation going. You have to create all these different things that keep them interested. It's hard work. I'm just curious, is...

Matt (43:34.128)
Yeah.

Matt (43:47.878)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (43:50.75)
building this community, is this a lesson you learned from previous businesses or was this community strategy something you've employed before or is this something you've learned from your past experience?

Matt (44:23.41)
No, I think it's something new that we've actually employed. A friend of mine gave me the idea and it wasn't something I really previously thought about, to be honest.

Ramon Vela (44:31.918)
Yeah, and it could be really, like I said, it's hard, but I think if you're willing to put that effort in, it really can pay dividends, right? Like it's very good investment. This is fantastic, man. What other products did you want to highlight? Is there any other products there that you wanted to highlight?

Matt (44:45.38)
Yeah, it's a ship. Yeah.

Matt (44:55.154)
I think we've done a good job, you know, crossing them all and crossing the main ones. And I think if anyone wants to go to the website, they'll definitely get a lot more information. On YouTube, I think it's best to look at all these products from a review perspective. know, lot of online dermatologists, the biggest ones in the world, you know, back our brand and our products. And that's really helped us a lot. And they talk about the efficacy of them. They talk about the quality of them.

They talk about like how manufacturing process and specifically for the micro needling is all the needles are sterile, which costs a lot more to do to make sure there's no infection on the skin, which a lot of brands, you know, miss over because they don't want to pay for the extra costs. So I think, yeah, I think YouTube is a good place to learn more about the products more so at the website, to be honest.

Ramon Vela (45:37.79)
And in terms of the YouTube aspect, are there like how-to's in there? Because one of the challenges that I've had, know women, I guess, are different because they, which is, guess, the next question, like, is there men that are consumers of this as well? Because for me, it's always a mystery to me a little bit, you know, when there's different products like serums and cleansers and things like that.

Matt (45:44.145)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (46:05.004)
I never know like which to go first, which one to do in what order and so forth. Maybe others don't have that issue, but I just find that having a good YouTube channel where I can click on it I can find out how to do this and when to do it in best practices and things like that. Is that what you'll find on your channel as well?

Matt (46:19.248)
Yeah.

Matt (46:25.926)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure.

Ramon Vela (46:27.81)
Yeah, no, I think that's great. So what does the future look like for Cure? Like you've got some varying products. You've got the hardware product, is the LED light. What does it look like for you? Where's what's the next innovation space that you guys are going to approach?

Matt (46:46.96)
Yeah, I think we just really want to anchor ourselves as a product development company and be product first. And that is, you know, trying to vertically integrate potentially and having our own factory so we can control the whole process. That's what I think the future looks like for Cure. And we'll be entering some new markets like hair growth by end of this year. We'll also be entering radio frequency, which is like another

I guess spectrum of treatments and hopefully the next following years with the technology we've been working on for a couple of years. So it's really just about yeah, simply innovating on new products that hopefully can help people feel more confident in own skin.

Ramon Vela (47:23.182)
Yeah, I love that aspect of it. And the self manufacturing is one of those things where I've talked a lot to founders and it's not easy. And some people simply don't have the funds or don't have the wherewithal to be able to create that. But the ones that I know who have sort of bitten the bullet and just said, we're going to do it, we're going to figure it out. It's really difficult at first, but eventually

Matt (47:46.641)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (47:51.466)
I think it ends up being like a competitive advantage, both in terms of quality, know, controlling quality, but also eventually controlling your cost. You find different ways to control costs when you actually control the manufacturing. Are those the kinds of things that you're looking forward to in terms of that strategy?

Matt (48:03.057)
Yeah.

Matt (48:13.03)
Yeah, for sure. Mainly quality for us, I think. That's the main thing. Because when building a brand, think as soon as you have some issues around the product, really puts a stain on the brand and the associations people make with the brand. So that's one thing we're really trying to protect.

Ramon Vela (48:16.142)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (48:28.118)
And how about availability? Like how big of market or how important is like the United States? my follow up question to that is like, the, do you have any issues or foresee issues like with the tariffs and all that other crazy stuff that are going on?

Matt (48:43.568)
Yeah, probably. We haven't thought about it too much until it's all in concrete. But, you know, US is probably 85 % of our business at the moment. We have recently launched UK warehouse and a Netherlands warehouse to try and tackle Europe. But for now, US is definitely the most dominant market.

Ramon Vela (48:50.251)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (48:59.032)
Yeah, I actually just talked to a company that was from Ireland and they do hemp CDP products for pets. And so they've decided to start a manufacturing facility in New York or the New York state area. And so that's kind of their way of doing that. Is that something that you would see in the future given your desire to do the manufacturing?

Matt (49:25.842)
Yeah, probably not. know, for us it would have to be offshore.

Ramon Vela (49:30.194)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, like we, the crazy part is that we just don't know. There's a lot of uncertainty with the tariffs and sometimes they're on, sometimes they're off and who knows. Causing a lot of issues, obviously. I understand a lot of people in other parts of the world probably are aggravated at us, but it's not all of us. You know, it's not all of us. But man, this is, love, I appreciate you making time. I want to be respectful of your time.

Matt (49:36.378)
Yeah, true. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt (49:47.782)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (49:56.522)
What do you want us to know moving forward? Are there any new product launches, any new events, any new promotions coming on? And then let's find out where we can buy the product.

Matt (50:08.698)
Yeah, I think we are launching something in the hair category, which should be the best product on the market. We're very confident of that. It's the next three to six months. And I think the new water filters for us are a big hit currently. if you're, yeah, if you're in skincare at all and you're not, you know, showering for shower filter or washing your face with a foster filter, then you know, you're skin a lot of harm and that's zero in your skincare routine. So you should probably check that out.

Ramon Vela (50:37.004)
You know, that's kind of interesting where you're going with that because it falls in line with the overall mission of what you guys are about. But it's also a little different. Like I don't really see that many skincare companies focusing on that component part of it.

Matt (50:47.269)
Yeah.

Matt (50:57.605)
Yeah, yeah, it's true. think we're in a unique scenario where we're a little device company. So that's why it fits into our narrative. A lot of other skincare companies don't do devices and then them to now create a device that's kind of slightly off brand for them. This is where our brand lives. So we're fortunate.

Ramon Vela (50:58.903)
I mean it.

Ramon Vela (51:16.28)
Well, I'm curious, you don't have to say anything if there's something that's real and you're holding off on it, but given your mission and given the skincare, there's a lot of also areas and trends focusing on sort of that whole aspect of inner beauty, right? And so things you consume as well. And by the way, skin is like the largest, what do they call it? Organ in the body and...

Matt (51:38.128)
Yeah.

Matt (51:42.066)
spoken. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (51:45.174)
It's really important what you put on it, obviously, and that's why deodorants and all this other stuff are really important as well. And I'm just curious, have you guys, is that on the roadmap somewhere, things that you digest, supplements, things like that?

Matt (51:58.994)
Yeah, supplements are definitely on roadmap for us.

Ramon Vela (52:03.158)
Yeah, interesting. Well, I can see it happening. And it feels like you guys are really sort of I think you mentioned it earlier and I can see it more clearly now that you've explained it. But that whole innovation aspect of it, I think it's you guys are clearly on that path because I don't see a lot of skincare companies. I think I'm beginning to see some now playing that LED face mask type of area or something similar to that.

but I don't see them all doing that. And then I definitely don't see them doing the shower products as well. That's, I think it's innovative and I think it's taking it in other places that other skincare companies don't. So I think that's really interesting. Where can people buy them?

Matt (52:35.62)
Yeah.

Matt (52:47.878)
Yeah, just cureskincare.com.

Ramon Vela (52:50.19)
Any marketplaces or any retailers?

Matt (52:53.158)
Yeah, I think we're in some retailers. I'm not sure, but they're all online retailers. Marketplaces, I don't believe so. I think it's mainly on our website for now.

Ramon Vela (53:01.92)
Okay. And that's how about what I mean marketplaces like Amazon, places like that.

Matt (53:08.518)
Amazon we have the face mask only, but not the whole range.

Ramon Vela (53:12.338)
So it's better just to go to cureskincare.com. All right. Well, this has been great, man. Thank you so much. I want to be respectful of your time. I appreciate you sharing a little bit of your background and some of your insights and knowledge. And I appreciate that whole breakdown of the leverage points. I think that's a great way to describe it. this, like you said, and we discussed, those are kind of the things that you learn from having a lot of experience, a lot of mistakes, a lot of problems.

Matt (53:14.332)
Yeah. Yeah.

Matt (53:20.54)
Thank you.

Matt (53:40.018)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (53:41.006)
and kind of eventually coming up with some sort of operating philosophy around the business. So I can appreciate that. You guys are welcome back anytime on the show. I'd love to hear later, you know, six months, 24 months, 48 months, whatever, an update into like where you guys are, maybe when you guys start those supplements, come back on, we'll talk about those. But I appreciate your time and I appreciate you sharing all of this with us.

Matt (54:04.048)
No, thank you for giving us the opportunity. Love the show. Congratulations on everything and the awards coming back.

Ramon Vela (54:09.166)
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. Everyone out there, have just had, oh, and by the way, one last thing, your social media handle.

Matt (54:17.938)
for QoS Skincare. Let's add QoS Skincare on all.

Ramon Vela (54:19.469)
Yes.

Okay, great. That's simple. All right. And everyone out there, we're going to have those links to the website as well as to their social media on our podcast description, which you can find on Apple and Spotify and pretty much anywhere you listen to your podcasts, you'll be able to find it. Simply type in the story of our brand show. We have just had Matt Orlich, who is founder of Cure Skincare along with his sister. And we appreciate you being on the show and thank you again.

Matt (54:52.434)
Thank you.

Ramon Vela (54:53.55)
Everyone out there, as I mentioned, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. One great way of staying healthy is taking a look at this product because skin, as we just mentioned a second ago, it's the largest organ. I think it's referred to as a microbiome and whatnot, but anything you put on your skin will seep through. so it's very, very important.

to know and to choose products that are good for your skin because those are gonna be good for your body as well. And so take a look at Cure Skincare. I it's a great place for you to look at. And I would go to the website and sign up for whatever newsletter and things that they have because then you'll be able to stay abreast of the promotions and the new products and anything else that they have new coming up. So definitely go check that out. Beyond that, everyone, thank you for listening, but also one last thing.

We've all been going through a lot of stuff with the pandemic and wars and politics and the economy and whatnot. Let's just do ourselves a favor and remember that everyone has gone through something and let's just try to be kinder to each other remembering that. And I know we can make this human experience a much better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.