Founder Feature Series: Aliett Buttleman & Nina LaBruna - Fazit

Welcome to the second installation of the Capital Innovators Founder Feature Series, where we interview successful startup founders and Capital Innovators Accelerator alumni. The Accelerator is a 12-week intensive program specifically designed to meet the needs of early-stage startups. It utilizes a hands-on approach to mentorship and company building. These founders have successfully built a strong foundation to scale their companies. In this series, we explore the stories of these founders and their path to making their ventures successful. Read the first post in the series here.

Today we are highlighting Aliett Buttleman and Nina LaBruna, Co-Founders of Fazit and Fall 2022 Cohort alumni. Aliett is a graduate of Columbia University and previously founded a consulting agency for DTC brands, Alouet & Co. Nina is an NYU graduate and previously founded a luxury skincare brand, LaBruna Skincare. While working in the beauty and skincare industry, Aliett and Nina identified the opportunity for their current company, Fazit. Fazit is the first dermal skincare brand that uses patches to deliver targeted treatments for acne, acne scars, ingrown hairs, nail growth, and more. Fazit fosters a skin positivity community, which embraces and normalizes skin concerns.

Q: What is the story behind the company?

A: We were introduced by a mutual friend in college in New York City. Aliett was at Columbia, and Nina was at NYU. At the time Nina had started LaBruna Skin Care, a natural luxury skincare brand. And Aliett had started Alouet & Co, a consulting company for DTC brands.

Aliett ended up coming on as a consultant to help Nina market and rebrand. After we rebranded, we launched LaBruna Skincare at Nordstrom and Anthropologie. It was really successful and self-funded.

So we’ve been working together in the beauty space for quite some time. And it's funny. I feel like partner stories start with two people being friends and then thinking they want to work together. But we had a working relationship first then the friendship developed later.

Then last year, we saw this huge opportunity to innovate and offer never before seen dermal patches in this rapidly growing space. We officially launched Fazit in September of 2022. Since then we have been growing rapidly and it's been a very exciting last few months since we got our first investment.

Q: What do you understand about your industry that many do not?

A: We speak to our customers very differently, and our messaging is very direct and relatable to our demographic. Right now, many acne-focused companies or skin care companies glamorize the beauty industry. They say, use our products and you'll get clear, perfect skin. But ultimately, that's not realistic for somebody who's struggling with acne or different skin concerns, skin care is a journey. For us, it is really important to build the support of a community and uplift people through that journey. Because ultimately, your skin and acne impact your mental health.

And we’ve built an online community, that is forming before our eyes, on TikTok with over 100 million views. It's really pretty amazing to see people sharing their own stories or experiences with their skin and people relating and replying back, creating this dialogue, because we envisioned it and now it's happening.

Q: Where was the company before the start of the accelerator program?:

A: We were fostering traction in the beginning. We were posting on TikTok and starting to generate a following and go viral. We even had interest from retailers like Walmart and CVS. So we knew we were definitely onto something, but we had no funding. So we focused on building the brand, our vision for the company, and our product roadmap. We knew we could get to that next level once we received funding, and that’s where Capital Innovators came in.

Q: What growth did you see during the accelerator program?:

A: First, we saw personal growth as founders. We have always worked long distances from one another and that certainly presents challenges. Now I think we have more structure in how we operate, work together, and allocate tasks. Secondly, we started seeing sales immediately after we got an infusion of cash. Our sales grew 10X during the program.

Q: What was the most helpful aspect of the program that helped you achieve that growth?:

A: The program lit a fire under us. We felt a sense of accountability to achieve and grow with a support network that was helping us with everything from finance and operations to digital marketing. We felt like we weren't alone anymore, that there was more to Fazit than just the two of us. Our team grew overnight in a sense. It helped us become scrappier and learn how to do pretty much anything we wanted and needed to learn.

Q: What part of the program did you most enjoy?

A: The in-person portion of the program for sure. Bonding with the other founders in the cohort and seeing everything everyone has been working on come alive on demo day was pretty special. It gave us confidence that we belong in the same space as successful founders.

Also, we really enjoyed the workshops. We both have our areas of expertise and it was fun to feel like we were back in school honing our skills. Even learning more about areas that we have experience in like marketing and branding was a lot of fun.

The program also gave us the space and resources to be creative and strategic. As early-stage founders, we often have our heads down, focused on executing. It can be hard to step away and be creative, but the workshops focused on creativity and innovation allowed us to do that.

Q: How have you grown since the conclusion of your cohort?:

A: Our revenue has grown 15 times what it was when we entered the program. All of our channels, Amazon, DTC, and Live Stream Shopping have all grown. And it was funny, on the last day of the program at Demo Day, we had one of the largest VCs in CPG reach out to us. They found us on TikTok to set up a meeting.

So it's been really incredible to see the brand awareness of Fazit grow and expand. We were just featured in Glossy, a prominent beauty business magazine for the skincare industry, they wrote an article about one of our competitors exiting and mentioned Fazit as one of the top dermal patch brands in the space right now. It feels incredible to get that notoriety, we always believed in Fazit, but it's nice that the world is starting to see its potential.

Q: What achievement are you most proud of building the company?:

A: One year ago we were sitting in a coworking space with a friend talking about this idea. The next week, we had a brand, a logo, and a packaging design. Then we contacted a manufacturer and quickly went from idea to product to funding to $15,000 in monthly revenue all basically within nine months. A lot of people have an idea and sit with it for a long time. The fact we took a leap of faith and executed our vision so quickly is something we’re really proud of.

Q: What is the craziest story you have from building the company?:

A: One of the skills we’ve developed as startup founders is the confidence to contact anyone. And I found the founder of Dollar Shave Club on LinkedIn and just looked at his profile. And then a few minutes later, he looked at my profile. I was like “Woah” and got the confidence to slide into his LinkedIn DMs. I asked if we could set up a time to talk and learn about his fundraising process and just get to know him. And now we’re meeting him for coffee this week in LA.

So that was a surreal experience for us. To be able to connect with the founder of such a prominent consumer brand, that has been in our shoes, and exited for $1 Billion dollars was pretty cool. The community of startup founders really is something special. The fact that you can go out on a limb and reach out to someone you don’t know and they’re so willing to help is very unique. Especially someone extremely successful like him who we aspire to be like in many ways.

Q: What’s next for the company?:

A: We have new SKUs launching this spring. We're launching an ingrown hair patch for the bikini line area, and an acne scar patch with a silicone base. Both of these products have never been seen on the market before, and we’re very excited to see them come to life. We think it's going to skyrocket our sales.

We’re also working on a retail partnership that fits our mission. Fazit is going to be a mass-market brand. You're going to see it in drugstores, grocery stores, and beauty stores. Fazit will be in personal care sections everywhere.

If you’d like to learn more about Fazit visit letsfazit.com. If you’d like to connect further with the Co-Founders you can reach them at info@letsfazit.com or connect with Aliett and Nina on LinkedIn.