We recently connected with Brian DeRosa and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brian , thanks for joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

One of the most exciting trends in consumer broadly is the evolution of health & wellness to much more evidence based & science backed modalities. Today’s consumer is unbelievably sophisticated and is changing behaviors rapidly, informed with data & deep research as wellness has become pop-culture. Great examples of this are the rise of Athletic Brew being the no.1 beer in Whole Foods as consumer wake-up to the detrimental effects of alcohol on sleep and the massive rise in discourse surrounding MAHA with particular focus on processed foods & seed oils. Yesterday’s consumer was far more passive v.s. the pro-active one we see today. These themes led to building CLEO, as we expect consumer habits to evolve rapidly in the beauty space over the next couple of decades.

Brian , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been involved in building and investing in next-gen consumer businesses for the lion’s share of my career. My current focus is CLEO, which is an aesthetic dermatology business focused on next-gen laser treatments. I started the build roughly one year ago around the heretical thesis that “laser is the future of beauty”. We have two units today and are rapidly expanding into three new markets over the next 6 months. Prior to CLEO, I was a founding team member and the first investor in Blank Street Coffee, which operates close to 100 coffee shops across the US and Europe. Blank Street is really where I built my love for four-wall consumer service businesses and the learnings from 0 to 1 there have informed so much of the build at CLEO.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my co-founder Amber through a mutual early in my ideation of CLEO. Building a next gen cosmetic laser business wasn’t immediately clear to me when we first connected so it was great to be able to slowly build the thesis together over several months of collaboration with no real commitment. Amber and I have very different backgrounds and specializations which I believe is ideal for a co-founder relationship. You do not want a carbon copy of yourself in the startup world when resources are scarce. Identify your weaknesses and recruit accordingly.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

A year or so into my time as VP, Business as Blank Street Coffee, I led our acquisition of a coffee business in London called Over Under. Amid frothy capital markets, there was a strong impetus for us to grow quickly and launch new markets. In retrospect, the acquisition was a mixed bag but arguably not worth it on a build vs buy analysis basis. For first time acquirers, integration is a lot more challenging than you think it will be when you’re looking at a business behind your screen in excel. Business’s are living breathing organisms and you can’t expect to know them super intimately during 2-3 months of DD.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cleoskinandlaser.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cleoskinandlaser
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cleo-skin-laser