883 Lauren Bartholomeusz: Co-Founder of KeraFactor

0:00Kara Goldin:I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Golden Show.

0:44Kara Goldin:Why is hair loss still one of the most frustrating and misunderstood challenges in healthcare? Millions of people experience hair thinning every year, yet the market is filled with products that promise results without much science behind them. So today's guest is Lauren Bartholomew, who's the co-founder of an incredible product called Cara Factor. You can't forget it with my name, Cara, of course, but also keratin out there leads to Cara Factor, the brand name. So after six years of research, Cara Factor was developed to bring evidence-based innovation to hair restoration through a proprietary blend of biomimetic growth factors, skin proteins, and advanced compounds designed to support healthier, fuller looking hair and improve scalp health.

1:39Kara Goldin:I'm obsessed with this product, this slew of products that they have. I guess there's 11 products now in total and really incredible. One of the fastest growing areas of aesthetics and wellness and Cara Factor is definitely on its way to becoming a household name for those who have not heard about it. You must, must, must try the product. So Lauren, welcome to the Cara Golden Show. I'm so excited that you're here. Thank you for having me and how perfect of a product to be on your show. Cara and Cara. This message is a paid partnership with AT &T Business. Hey everyone, Kara here. Let's get real about those early days of building a business.

2:29Kara Goldin:Not the highlight reel, the actual day-to-day, the friction, trying to manage everything across time zones, across teams, across locations, and realizing how much depends on staying connected. I remember those days at Hint, a retailer call, an order, a decision, all of it. And you realize quickly, connection isn't a nice to have. It's the lifeblood of your business. As a founder, you don't want to think about your connectivity. You just need it to work every time. That's why AT &T Business matters. AT &T Business is the reliable provider for small business owners. And when you have that kind of reliability behind you, you can focus on what actually moves your business forward.

3:18Kara Goldin:Powered by AT &T Business, built to work. Get AT &T Business at business.att.com. Exactly, exactly. So, okay. So for listeners who are just discovering Cara Factor, what is the company? How do you describe the brand? So we are Biometic Growth Factors coming from South Korea. We have a bio lab there where we We grow our own growth factors and we nano-encapsulate them and put them into a topical formulation that's drug-free and hormone-free. And then we use light activation to photoactivate a compound called nanofluorizomes that's in our product. So it's not just putting any old thing into a bottle.

4:06Kara Goldin:I mean, there's a lot behind Cara Factor, which I love. Yes. So how did you get involved? I know you have two other co-founders. How did you get involved in co-founding this company? So my husband was actually losing his hair back in 2012. He had worked on some of the first laser hair removal devices. He's a particle physicist creating energy-based devices. After creating some of the first laser hair removal devices, he then started to thin himself. And he went to his good friend and colleague, Dr. Amy Foreman-Todb, who is our co-founder, and asked her, what are my options? At the time, there was only minoxidil, finasteride, and PRP.

4:51Both of them felt like there weren't enough solutions on the market. They were intrigued by PRP, but wanted to create something that broke through the limitations of PRP. So the limitations being it's only as good as the growth factors that you're expressing at the time of treatment. If you are thinning, then you are most likely deficient in a growth factor that you would need for a positive outcome with your hair. And also being able to eliminate any of the inhibitors that come with PRP as well. So you could go in one time, have a wonderful treatment, and then a month later come in and have another treatment and your growth factors that you need for hair could be deficient.

5:36and then those inhibitors could be quite high in your PRP. So it's a bit of a gamble. And James and Dr. Taub, they don't really like the guessing game. They want to be specific. And so James was like, okay, what if we could make growth factors synthetically and then put them into a topical formulation? But they took it one step further. They found this incredible delivery system. So we wrap each of the growth factors individually in a nanoliposome. So they're under 200 nanometers. And that's what really makes us unique versus other products on the market. There's many products on the market and they have growth factors, skin proteins, copper tripeptide, but these particle sizes are very, very large.

6:25And so they can't be absorbed in. With Cara Factor, we at Nano encapsulate them. So think of this Nano encapsulation, almost like a little car, getting the growth factors and skin proteins to where they need to go and then releasing them when they get to their ideal location. So with Cara Factor, we're very specific with the growth factors that we select and then very targeted by getting them to where they need to go.

6:50Kara Goldin:This episode of the Cara Golden Show is brought to you by Third Love. One of the things I love most about talking to founders is hearing about the problem they set out to solve. The best companies don't create products just for the sake of it. They make everyday life better. That's one of the reasons I've admired Third Love since they first launched. They looked at something millions of women had simply accepted, that bras are supposed to be uncomfortable, and decided to change that. I've learned over the years that when something fits well, whether it's a great pair of shoes, a favorite jacket, or a bra, you don't think about it.

7:25Kara Goldin:And honestly, that's exactly the point. You're free to focus on your day instead of constantly adjusting something that should have been comfortable in the first place. Third Love has spent more than 13 years obsessing over fit. They offer 78 sizes from AA to H, including exclusive half cup sizes. And their fitting room quiz built using insights from millions of women makes it incredibly easy to find your best fit. It's one of those small upgrades that can make a surprisingly big difference. Head to thirdlove.com and use code CARA15 for$15 off your first purchase. Again, that's thirdlove.com, code CARA15 for$15 off your first purchase.

8:12Kara Goldin:So let's say you're the average consumer who is losing their hair and they are trying to figure out what do I do? Is Cara Factor the right product for me or some other product out there? What's the first thing that you'd advise somebody who's in that situation to do in trying to figure out what's best for them? First thing I would advise is for them to go in and see their dermatologist and have a scalp analysis done. There's many, many reasons why someone could have thinning hair or be experiencing hair loss. And so finding that reason is number one. Once you find the reason, then you can create the treatment plan, the protocol.

9:01all. What's nice about CaraFactor is that we are drug-free and hormone-free. So you could start the product, try the product, and then for whatever reason, if you ever went off the product, you're not going to have that dreadshed that you would with other products that have a drug or hormone. Something else that's nice with CaraFactor is let's say you're already on minoxidil or finasteride, you can stay on those and then add CaraFactor to your routine. So either you're not getting the results that you like or you feel like you've plateaued, you can create this ultimate hair stock.

9:36Kara Goldin:I love it. So let's talk about the actual product. So what did you launch with and how has that changed over time? So this year's 10 years for Carefactor. We are skincare for hair. Just recently, I would say the skinification of the scalp has become very, very popular. But for 10 years, we've been saying you need to boost your scalp environment. If you boost the environment, that's your first place to start to then rejuvenate the hair. So with Cara Factor, we started with an in-office serum that now is the Cara Factor MD in-office. It used to come in a vial form and now we've created it into this very easy applicator for providers to use.

10:25inside the serum you have six biomimetic growth factors two skin proteins pdrn and nanofluorosome so it is invigorating it is scalp stimulating it is regenerative and it can be used with many different modalities inside the practice as well and for the patients it's painless so that was the first product that was created, the first generation didn't have the nanofluorizomes. That was something that we created in 22. And then from there, we had the scalp-stimulating shampoo and conditioner, which is still the same formulation. And we have the solution, which is in a dropper form. We started with a spray in the beginning.

11:14And as we were able to innovate and then add the nanofluorizomes, then we went to the dropper.

11:20Kara Goldin:This message is a paid partnership with AT &T Business. Hey everyone, Kara here. Let's get real about those early days of building a business. Not the highlight reel, the actual day-to-day, the friction, trying to manage everything across time zones, across teams, across locations, and realizing how much depends on staying connected. I remember those days at Hint, a retailer call, an order, a decision, all of it. And you realize quickly, connection isn't a nice to have, it's the lifeblood of your business. As a founder, you don't want to think about your connectivity. You just need it to work every time.

12:04Kara Goldin:That's why AT &T Business matters. AT &T Business is the reliable provider for small business owners. And when you have that kind of reliability behind you, you can focus on what actually moves your business forward. Powered by AT &T Business, built to work. Get AT &T Business at business.att.com. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Momentus. I have become much more intentional about what I put into my body, and that includes supplements, because it is not enough for a product to make big promises. I want to know what is actually inside and whether I can trust it. The reality is the supplement industry can be confusing.

12:52Kara Goldin:Labels can look impressive, but without the right testing and transparency. You may not know what you are taking every day. That's why I'm excited to share Momentus with you. They built the Momentus standard focused on trust, quality, and transparency. They use high-quality ingredients, science-backed formulations, and they rigorously test every product. Most supplement brands talk about quality. Momentous actually proves it. Every product is NSF certified for sport, which means it's third-party tested for contaminants, heavy metals, banned substances, and label accuracy. The test results are even right on the product page.

13:36Kara Goldin:For me, that matters. Whether it's fiber, protein, or creatine, I want to know exactly what I'm putting in my body. With Momentus, I trust the standard behind it. Invest in supplements that you can trust with Momentus and get up to 35 % off your first order at livemomentus.com, promo code Kara Golden. That's livemomentous.com promo code Kara Golden for up to 35 % off. Livemomentous.com promo code Kara Golden. And you've continued to add, as you and I were talking about, your terrific brow serum and also lash serum as well as the hair ties. How did you decide to get into that business? So lash and brow, we were actually noticing a lot with patients and their scalp.

14:33And we kept having more and more providers saying, why don't you make a lash? Why don't you make a brow? And they kept putting the serum on the brow. And the issue with that is once you've opened that serum and practice, that then now is that patient's serum. So we're like, why don't we make a specific serum for brow? Then we started looking into lash and brow products, seeing on the market what the feedback was and what was happening. And there was a lot of products out on the market that had prostaglandin analogs, PGAs. And with PGAs, you get quite a few side effects. And from the beginning, Dr.

15:11Taub has been adamant about, you know, patients first, make sure that we create products that are very safe, fit into the clean beauty movement. So we don't have sulfates, we don't have parabens, we don't have fragrance, we're gluten-free. So we're not going to make a product that has PGAs. And we're drug-free and hormone-free, truly. So with that, we started looking into, okay, with our current technology, with the growth factors that we're able to synthesize, what can we make? And we started putting them together. And then we were like, okay, we really need to add in folistatin. This was a growth factor that James had wanted since the beginning.

15:51It took us nine years to synthesize. We had it in our in-office theorem. So we added in folistatin. And then we also added in stem cell factor. And stem cell factor is actually known to restore pigment in hair. So you have both of those in there. Then you also have the PDRN as well. So really great for healing, cell regenerating too. So we're PGA free. You don't have to worry about the orbital fat breakdown. You don't have to worry about that irritation red line or I have light eyes. So I don't have to worry about my eyes turning a different color. I can keep my blue eyes pristine. So able to use the lash and brow every single day.

16:37The brow product, by far, my favorite. I cannot start my day and like walk out the door without using the brow product for two reasons. One, the formula goes on so easily. It's very hydrating. I'm quite sensitive. I never have any issues with our products. And then the second reason is the applicator. I am able to actually like shape my brow. I'm using less brow pencil as well. So it saves me time in the morning, which a CCO, I need as much time as I can get. And I'm able to get out the door very quickly. It's also a product that you can put in your bag. All of our products are TSA approved, so you can travel with them as well.

17:23Kara Goldin:So go-to-market at strategy when you were getting this product out? I would imagine it was in Dr. Taub's office to start, but also where else did you want it to go and where has it gone since then? So with the Lash and Brow in particular, so it took a while to formulate and then we were going back and forth. And originally I had thought, okay, I'm going to make a formula in the center. I'm going to have one wand on the other side and the other wand on the end. And Dr. Top was like, no, if you're putting anything around the eye, you cannot touch anywhere else on your body. And I'm like, but the brow's right there.

18:05She's like, absolutely not. Like it can lead to eye infections. We can't do that. So that's why we then made two products. Same formula, two products, two different applicators. And I'm so thankful that we did this because the brow, your hair life cycles faster on your brow. So you're at 45 days on your brow. Lashes is at 60 days and 90 days for hair on your scalp. And with that, you'll see that you start to pick up brow hair. They've gone through their phase, the telogen phase and resting, and then it's time to shed for then the new hair to come. And with that, the brow brush seems to pick up more brow.

18:43Also, I'll do a double cleanse and I still feel like it picks up some of my makeup. These are some of the only products on the market that you can truly see into. So you can see where you're picking up debris. And the brow for me always seems to get like a tinge of my color. And then the lash product stays like very pristine the whole time. And they last for two months. So we started honestly with education. We are a bootstrapped business. Every dollar that we make, we put back into the business and we build brick by brick. So we don't have the largest marketing megaphone because our ad spend goes pretty quickly.

19:24And then when you put the ad spend across 11 products with your audience being anyone from, I mean, really 18 and up, but we target like 25 and up to 80 male and female. And then there's so many different reasons that you could be losing your hair. That's where I would say care factor struggles just because we aren't VC backed, but we really, really push through education. So we are in about 3 ,000 practices nationwide. We're also in Canada, EU, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. And we have a small but mighty sales team. And we always educate first because we look at every time that we get to talk to a provider or a patient, time to really explain the science in our product and then in hopes that they then speak to their patients or their friends and say, I've discovered this amazing product.

20:24You should hear about it. So it's really been like word of mouth and then building a larger footprint through social media as well.

20:34Kara Goldin:This episode of the Cara Golden Show is brought to you by Momentus. I have become much more intentional about what I put into my body, and that includes supplements. Because it is not enough for a product to make big promises, I want to know what is actually inside and whether I can trust it. The reality is the supplement industry can be confusing. Labels can look impressive, but without the right testing and transparency. You may not know what you are taking every day. That's why I'm excited to share Momentus with you. They built the Momentus standard focused on trust, quality, and transparency.

21:13Kara Goldin:They use high-quality ingredients, science-backed formulations, and they rigorously test every product. Most supplement brands talk about quality. Momentus actually proves it. Every product is NSF certified for sport, which means it's third party tested for contaminants, heavy metals, banned substances, and label accuracy. The test results are even right on the product page. For me, that matters. Whether it's fiber, protein, or creatine, I want to know exactly what I'm putting in my body. With Momentus, I trust the standard behind it. Invest in supplements that you can trust with Momentus and get up to 35 % off your first order at livemomentus.com promo code CARAgolden.

22:05Kara Goldin:That's livemomentus.com promo code CARAgolden for up to 35 % off. livemomentus.com promo code CARAgolden. This message is a paid partnership with AT &T Business. Hey everyone, Kara here. Let's get real about those early days of building a business. Not the highlight reel, the actual day-to-day, the friction, trying to manage everything across time zones, across teams, across locations, and realizing how much depends on staying connected. I remember those days at Hint, a retailer call, an order, a decision, all of it. and you realize quickly connection isn't a nice to have, it's the lifeblood of your business.

22:53Kara Goldin:As a founder, you don't want to think about your connectivity. You just need it to work every time. That's why AT &T Business matters. AT &T Business is the reliable provider for small business owners. And when you have that kind of reliability behind you, you can focus on what actually moves your business forward. Powered by AT &T Business. Built to work. Get AT &T Business at business.att.com. I love it. Have you found that, I'm so curious, is the U.S. a little bit ahead in terms of the conversation around hair loss and kind of that community? Or do you feel like the international community is also talking about this?

23:46Kara Goldin:Or is there as much competition internationally as there maybe is in the U.S.? I'm so curious about what is the conversation. So in the U.S., the conversation is big. I mean, by 2030, the hair restoration market is going to triple from where it is today. You also have the introduction of GLP-1s. And in GLP-1s in the U.S., by far, we're using them more than any of the other markets. And this is actually going to be five times the amount by 2030. and a side effect from GLP-1s can be hair loss as well. So I would say from the education, skinification of the scalp to now the introduction of the GLP-1s is what makes the U.S.

24:37such a big market. Ingredient-wise, I would actually say the U.S. is a bit behind EU and UK just for like safety on ingredients. So each market has something a bit different. And then our products being made in South Korea. So the conversation around skin care for hair and scalp health has been going on for quite some time in South Korea.

25:03Kara Goldin:So in terms of the 11 products that Cura Factor has, is there one product that is just kind of the runaway bestseller or the biggest conversation that people are really talking about? I would say our hero product is the scalp stimulating solution. So what sets us apart with the scalp stimulating solution beyond our growth factor technology is really that nanofluorosome. So that's what gives our products that fluorescent hue. It's a proprietary blend of curcumins and then we nano encapsulate it. So it's able to be absorbed in without staining the patient's skin or their scalp. The last thing you would want is to walk around with like a neon orange scalp if you had thinning hair.

25:54So we're able to get that absorbed in and then we use red light to then photoactivate it. So the scalp stimulating solution with our CaraFlex or CaraFlex Duo, these are like the perfect pair. But the solution is by far the hero product. You have to use it every single day, one dropper a day, and it dries like water. So you don't have to worry about anything that's like glue-like, tacky, greasy, oily. For myself, I wash my hair two times a week. I don't have time to wash it more. So I wouldn't want to use a product that is leaving my hair looking greasy.

26:33Kara Goldin:And you're actually using it on the scalp when you're putting the solution on? Yeah, so think of your scalp like skin on your face. Every single day, hopefully, when you come home, you're washing your face, then you're using your serums, your moisturizers, your eye cream, your decollete creams. But are you putting your serum on your scalp? Most are not. And your scalp skin is actually aging faster than the skin on your face. So it's very important that we use a serum on our scalp to make sure that we're taking care of the environment and then anti-aging our scalp. Because as your scalp ages, then your hair starts to thin.

27:17And then us women, as we go into perimenopause and menopausal years, our antigen phase shortens, which is the growth phase. And then the telogen phase actually extends, which is the resting phase. So our hair is not growing as fast or it's growing in a shorter cycle. So then you notice your hair start to really like kind of cut off at that shoulder length and then you're thinning out here. So if we can do things to be preventative, to really use this serum ahead of time, so that way we can be truly anti-aging.

27:50Kara Goldin:This episode of the Cara Golden Show is brought to you by Momentus. I have become much more intentional about what I put into my body. and that includes supplements because it is not enough for a product to make big promises. I want to know what is actually inside and whether I can trust it. The reality is the supplement industry can be confusing. Labels can look impressive, but without the right testing and transparency. You may not know what you are taking every day. That's why I'm excited to share Momentus with you. They built the Momentus standard focused on trust, quality, and transparency.