Launch Date: September 2023
Geography: New York, NY, US
Founders:
Executive Team: Sean Cutrona, COO + CFO
Board Member: Ken Suslow, Sandbridge Capital
Notable Investor: Sandbridge Capital
2025 Full Year Projected Revenue: Under $2M, according to industry estimates
Primary Category: Skincare
Funding: Venture Capital
Primary Distribution Channel: DTC
Other Distribution Channel: Department Store
Key Retail Partner: Printemps NYC
2025 Projected Offline Distribution Points: 25
Sweet Chemistry's mantra is “built at the intersection of regenerative medicine and cosmetic science.”
Every few decades, a significant advancement moves the skincare industry forward. Created by chemist and innovator Alec Batis and bioengineer Dr. John O’Neill, PhD, Sweet Chemistry was built on decades of life-changing biomedical research and uncompromising cosmetic science. Sweet Chemistry is evidence-based bioactive skincare that repairs and regenerates the skin by utilizing the latest innovation in tissue engineering and organ repair known as Matrikynes—a patent-pending polypeptide concentrate extracted from a natural extracellular matrix of upcycled zero-waste bovine bone. These advanced polypeptides are enveloped within proprietary formulations that incorporate dermatological and pesticide-free botanical actives at clinically tested functional levels—all housed in the first piston-on-glass airless bottle that uses 87% less plastic than traditional bottles.
Sweet Chemistry’s products form the Max Repair System that when mixed together or used separately, is a modular system of emollience, hydration, and activity, responding to your skin’s changing needs, whether from age, climate, geography, time of day, or hormones.
Insights: Alec Batis, Co-Founder + CEO
Why now and why you?
I have 35 years of experience—from R&D/QC/claims/value-analysis chemist to marketing lead—that has enabled me to apply that knowledge in creating formulations that are unique to the market. That, paired with meeting my partner, Xylyx Bio, which is successfully advancing the field of organ tissue regeneration and novel peptide technologies, have positioned Sweet Chemistry to present a uniquely efficacious product to the market.
What fuels your competitive advantage?
Our patent-pending extracellular, matrix-derived peptide technology; our patent-pending emulsion innovation that allows for 4.5X active inclusion; and the world's first airless glass packaging that boasts 87% less plastic vs. traditional airless. Lastly, having our own R&D lab within the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn NYC, where anyone is welcome to see and learn about what we do in regenerative medicine as well as cosmetic science.
What are you most proud of accomplishing to date?
As I look back on the risk taken to quit a steady job in my mid-50s, put my home and entire retirement as collateral to get an SBA loan to launch Sweet Chemistry, defend my formulas in a two-and-a-half-year lawsuit (that was recently won, thankfully), and spend years working nights and weekends to patent emulsions I’ve spent 35 years creating—I’d say I’m most proud of my resilience and deep belief that I was meant to create Sweet Chemistry and evolve skincare formulation and technology to where I’ve always known it should be.
What is the one thing you wish someone had told you?
That brand marketing is just as, if not more, important than performance marketing in this new age where brands must stand out with their messaging and not just rely on algorithms.
What would you tell your past self before starting this journey?
Be gentle with yourself.
What does success look like in the next 3-5 years?
A viable business with wonderful customers and a community that loves skincare as much as I do. To have gone from a little 20-something chemist taking the one-and-a-half-hour train to the L'Oréal labs for $27,000 a year to coming full circle and contributing to the beauty industry and to people's skin with all I've learned through Sweet Chemistry.
What's one industry trend that is overhyped, and what's being overlooked?
Exosomes—Xylyx Bio and Columbia Laboratory For Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering are amazed that some beauty companies can stabilize them when they can't. What's overlooked is the use of marketing levels to add "story" without incorporating functional levels in the product; and most founders don't even know because they just rely on contract manufacturer labs.
How do you think the industry needs to evolve?
We need to do a better job of promoting other forms of beauty. We've focused on the physical aspect of beauty but not those that make a human being grow deep self-worth. As "experts" in beauty, it's our job to help do that by promoting education and self-reflection, not just pretty skin.
If you could wave a magic wand, what one wish would you make for your business?
That I have a close-knit team that's in it for the long haul; people who love the purpose behind Sweet Chemistry—both the science and the "chemistry" between people, and who I can make sure have everything they need to support their families.
