Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in skin care but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Patti Pao, CEO of Restorsea, located in Houston, TX, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Restorsea is the only clean physician-dispensed skincare line. Our patented technology fulfills an essential skincare need by providing healthy and glowing skin without irritation. As a result, our products are currently sold by over 100 MDs for their patients who have sensitive/reactive skin and cannot tolerate any other active skincare ingredients. All products are formulated with naturally-derived non-toxic ingredients and contain NO: parabens, phthalates, sulfates, silicones, alcohol, PEGs, or mineral oil. Our customers are affluent working mothers aged 40+ who care deeply about their appearance. They travel to their aesthetic physicians, often paying cash for their treatments.

Tell us about yourself

Since graduating from Harvard Business School, I have always wanted to work in the beauty industry. My strength was product development, and in my 30+ year career have been fortunate to have created and launched over 400 products for top brands, including Avon, Elizabeth Arden, Guerlain, and Peter Thomas Roth. I had no desire to start my own skincare company, but by accident, I found the greatest ingredient I have seen in my career. While hiking through the pure fjords of western Norway, I toured a salmon hatchery and became transfixed by the hatchery workers' hands. While their faces betrayed their age, their hands looked much younger. Because the workers' hands were consistently submerged in water, I found out that their secret was a novel enzyme hidden in the post-hatching water. This enzyme dissolves the eggshell membrane, creating an opening that enables the salmon fry to swim through unharmed. The workers' hands looked so young due to the enzyme that, when exposed to human skin, only dissolves dead skin cells leaving the living cells intact. Their youthful hands benefitted from continuous exfoliation without irritation or skin thinning.

This inspired me to create an innovative anti-aging skincare line around this hatching enzyme that provides the same benefits as other leading anti-aging superheroes without harsh side effects. Fast forward to 2023, and all of the Restorsea products are anchored by this hatching enzyme. Restorsea has a strong intellectual property portfolio with 35 issued patents and clinical studies that have been published in major dermatology journals. I am motivated every day to build awareness and trial of Restorsea. I never wanted to get married or have children. I always thought this was odd until I started Restorsea at the age of 50 year's old. Restorsea is my family.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I thank the universe every day that I am able to realize my dream. Very few people are able to do this. I don't take it for granted. I tell everyone when someone gives you your shot, you take it and run as fast as you can.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Taking other people's money. We raised $56 million in three weeks. We needed this money to support our clinical studies and patents. That being said, it is very hard to take other people's money. I feel responsible every day.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

I like to write in blocks of eight. In Chinese culture, the number 8 stands for good luck and good fortune. So, I try to incorporate it in everything I do, including Restorsea's fish logo.

Here are eight lessons I learned on the way to launching Restorsea:

  1. Don't Get Stuck in the Box - I develop beauty products for fun. I found the greatest ingredient I have ever seen, literally by accident.
  2. [Politely] Stalking is OK - I am wired to be bossy (which I guess is a good thing because Harvard Business School screens for bossiness). When I first started my consulting firm, the Pao Principle™, I thought good client service meant not being bossy. I quickly learned that people LIKE to be stalked, just politely. This is because people, including myself, appreciate being pointed in the right direction. Everyone is doing a million things at warp speed. As an entrepreneur, time is your enemy. You can't afford to wait around for someone to get back to you.
  3. Don't be Afraid to Put It Out There, Even if It May Be Half Baked - I am a perfectionist. Prior to starting Restorsea, I would never put anything out unless every "i" was dotted and every "t" was crossed. I learned that this is wrong. I spent one year developing a Day Cream and Eye Cream formula. When I finished, I sent the lab samples—which were untested, packaged in generic white plastic containers, in a Ziploc® bag—to the Beauty Divisional Merchandise Manager at Bergdorf Goodman. A month later, she called me to say she would take my brand (which, by the way, still had no name). Because of her endorsement, we received multiple distribution offers. Restorsea started with fantastic formulas, and that was it. From that point forward, I realized that you could wait forever to be perfect and not go anywhere, or you could just figure it out as you go along.
  4. But, You Still Need to Write Your Business Plan - Once I secured distribution, I needed to raise money which necessitated writing a business plan. I always cringe when I hear people saying, "I don't have to write a business plan. It's in my head." I want to be clear that writing a business plan is not for your potential investors it is for you. Writing everything down helps solidify your ideas so that you can answer their questions concisely and gracefully in extremely pressure-filled environments. Interestingly, my co-founder and most of my investors never even read the Restorsea business plan until AFTER they committed to funding. Tip: Read the Harvard Business Review article: "How to Write a Great Business Plan" by William Sahlman.
  5. Be Ready with an Elevator Pitch Prospective investors are usually financiers, and financiers, by nature, are always in a hurry. They HATE idle chit-chat. They want you to make your point and move on. While having a well-thought-out and concise business plan with a supporting financial model will enable you to do this, I found it helpful to write out the highlights and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
  6. Know that Your Business Plan Will Be Wrong Business plans provide general direction, but because startups are ever-changing (the only thing you can count on is change), I make it a practice to rewrite our business plan every four to six months. While very thorough and comprehensive, we use it as a guide, recognizing that daily circumstances evolve, and we need to be able to react quickly.
  7. It is VERY HARD to Take Other People's Money. The one thing they don't tell you in the entrepreneur's handbook is how HARD it is to take other people's money. Or rather, it is easy to take other people's money, but it is VERY hard and stressful to lose it. For Restorsea, I have two goals: 1) to make Restorsea a self-sustaining brand and 2) to deliver all of my investors a great return on their investment. If you have to raise outside capital, try to raise it from private individuals. Unlike institutional funds from venture capital and private equity firms, they are not pressured to deliver a short-term return.
  8. Help People Just Because... I believe you need to help people without expecting anything in return. We found our lead investor as a result of this philosophy. One of my interns was looking to secure an interview for a summer job with a major consulting firm. I asked one of our investors to introduce her to a friend who was the head of a Chicago firm. As an aside from her email, she mentioned her investment in my company. Her friend immediately wrote back and said he would help secure an interview for my intern, expressed interest in finding out more about my company, and referred us to a fellow Harvard Business School classmate. The email exchange was fast and furious, and I met him for lunch the next day. During a two-hour lunch, he asked me to fly to Chicago with him to meet his wife and daughters. I flew with him to Chicago and had dinner with him and his wife. During dessert, they committed to funding the entire company.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.restorsea.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Restorsea
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/restorseaskin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Restorsea
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-pao-5b060262/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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