Augustinus Bader Co-Founder Charles Rosier

I've heard about it through celebrities, I've heard about it through editors, but not until I actually tried it did I, you know, really fall in love with it. Even my future daughter in laws, who are thirty, say it's the best thing they've ever used on their on their skin. So I'm really excited about talking to Charles because it is an amazing product, an amazing idea, and I just want to understand what the company is about. Here's my

conversation with Charles Rosier. So, Charles, I'm so excited to finally meet you. I can't believe we have never actually even done a zoom together. That's true, that's true. We had done install room dialogues email text emails, text, It's true, I feel like I know you though, same, same, same. It's been one of those weird, weird friendships. So where where are you right now? I'm in Paris right now, And how is it? Listen? We have officially is curpew

at six. We authorized to work, to eat, to sleep and then go again. But no no social life whatsoever, no restaurants open. It is what it is. I was more optimistic about two one, but I guess we are. We're all in the same boat. We are are. But since we're here talking about your business, it's kind of

crazy how your business is flourishing during this pandemic. Yeah, yeah, I mean we happened to be on a on a sector that seems to maybe due to those zoom school you know, we we still want to look hydrated, having skin moist. I guess the skin care sector has been a little bit privileged compared to two others. So so that's that's one of the privilege of that pandemic is

that we've been busy. So time is flying, which is good and and and one of my biggest problems is anyone that follows me knows how much I love this product. I have such trouble pronouncing the good doctor's name. So if you can help me, please, because David laughs at me all the time pronounced the name of this company, so I would pronounce it Augustine's batter. That's that's my way. But I'm French again, so you know it's German. So I guess everyone you know it's good. Everyone can take

ownership of the way to pronounce it. So Augustus, Augustin, Augustine News, Augustine News, butter, yes, and the American way we call it a b or Augustine better. It doesn't matter. It's what matters. And I'm I'm not someone I don't get paid a penny. I absolutely believe this product has changed my skin. I will never use anything else, and

it's it's remarkable. Thank you so much. No, but it means means a lot to us because again, you know, coming from industry experts, it carries some way because obviously you have tried and you're trying, and you, I mean, you get gifted a lot of products to try. So for us, it's an endorsement coming from someone like you, is is big because that that's again a testimonial that the concept which was kind of translated Agustin's research into a skink care product worked, you know, because it was

a nice concept, but it could have failed. Right. Well, well, let's talk a bit about your story and how you even met the good doctor and started this company, because you're not from the beauty space. No, neither him, nor nor nor me. Absolutely no. We we met through a common friend who is passionated about stem cells science. And he he used to be, you know, he used to be the kind of group of Steve Jobs at Rid College.

He that comment from Robert Finland. He used to he was actually the guy who taught him yoga and brought him to India. So and he was part of that same hippique community. And he became, like Steve Jobs, a self made billionaire. And and he's based out of Singapore, travels a lot, you know, like three continents in the same week. So he didn't want to, you know, to suffer from jet lag. He wanted to stay young and healthy and was very interested into the stem cells science

in in that kind of anti aging implications. And he introduced me Agustiness one day, telling me he was the best brain to day in stem cell research. And because he was himself so obsessed about that sector, and he was a very demanding character. He's very similar to the personator you can imagine of Steve Jobs. So his endorsement meant a lot to me. I thought, wow, so if he's saying that, that's probably true. And I took really

his word very seriously and philanthropically. I was funding the research of a French professor called e tenemibou And and he was basically very advanced on research on trying to find a soution for spinal cold injury. And so I stayed in touch with Augustineis for the stem cell implication of spinal cold injury treatment because my professor I was founding in France had another approach um and I wanted

to put them in contact and keep the dialogue. And I visited Augustus in Leipzig, because you know he's the still today the head of the stem seve research at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Cluse to Berlin and he showed me the picture of a four year old girl that was burned second third degree and was scheduled for skin graft and after four days after applying a wound jail he created in two thousand and eight, the skin of that of that child started to heal and

after two weeks it was like visible. And so, to cut a long story short, she didn't have to go through skin graft and she didn't have to any scarring after just a few months. And I was shocked by the fact that such a treatment existed and the public

was not aware. I thought, you know, this is so incredible because obviously burned child, they have to sometimes be reoperated up to ten times as they grow, they have to reopen the scar so you have the psychological trauma and the pain, but avoiding scarring is actually huge in terms of consequences, and obviously such a that can have you know, a big impact on in war zone, for the Red Cross, even for every I guess mother going

with their children on holidays. And so I was really again shocked that that was created, that that did you know, existed and seemed to work, and the pictures were there to show that it worked. And I discussed with another professor that has been collaborating with Augustinus and and treating more than fifty patients on different types of wounds and burns, and confirmed that in every single case, it worked, and because I helped that other professor, I did not have

any liquidity to help Agustinus. And my mind was saying, okay, but how can we help that guy get that research out, you know, because as a university professor, he didn't have the fancial means to fund it. And apparently, as he told me that day, from a city group, because half of humanity used fire to cook and get hitting. But it's in developing countries, and therefore burn accidents are in

major every in developing countries. So it's not that interesting to fund the research of someone on burns because it's not such a big thing in developing countries. I mean, thankfully it's not just big things in developing countries, but but it's so unfortunate that in seeing the risk reward for pharmastical group to be so interesting, and therefore my mind was, okay, burn skin to perfect skin, so I thought, wrinkle to perfect skin, and that he was during a dinner.

So at the end of the dinner, I very candidly asked him if you could do an anti recal cream that worked, and he said yes, why And it took me two years for him to take that idea seriously, So what experience did you have to say I can do this and this could be something. I mean, talk a little bit about your career beforehand. I mean the number one quality I had is I was a naive. I was totally enthusiastic by by the concept and I was hardcore believer and I went all in and I

stopped everything I was doing. I had a flat in London that I sold to find the beginning of it, and all my savings from twenty years were putting the project, and everyone around me thought I was completely crazy, and I was convinced it would work, not having even a prototype in the hand. So that, yeah, that's so so naive was was the word. Um No. I had the past as a as an investor, I was, I was a partner and I worked at women Sacks. I worked

in a Brasidan investment bank as a partner. So but again, nothing really prepared me to be an entrepreneur. But but when when I was about to study at university, I was passionate about medicine. So in some ways that project reconciled too of my passion because I had the dream to be an entrepreneur one day and I always was fascinated by biology and how the human body was working. And suddenly I had a project that reconciled the fact of being an entrepreneur and dealing every day with great

minds in the medical field. Because Augustinus and his colleagues are just genius, and they are genius about how marvelous is the body as a machine, because everything about obviously this discovery is really about the inner doctor, because it's about triggering your own stem cells to work and not actually manipulating or cultivating stem cells and injecting them from outside. It's really about, you know, empowering your body to works

at its best. So I was crazy naive according to my entourage with hand side, I think they were right, and luckily I did not listen to anyone and I was crazy enough to go for it. And I guess a little bit of you know, mix of luck and hard work. And obviously, the the invention of agushness is amazing because, as you said, if the cream didn't work, it would not be a fan the only reason that's also something fair to recognize that the product is amazing.

And did the doctor need convincing to go into the beauty industry like yeah, absolutely, I mean I think he had. I think he never used himself like a scheme are beauty cream, and his wife is a doctor and probably never used one either, So I I really think they did not understand the concept of financing a medical project, a research project with a skincare product, because they had no idea of you know, the dynamics and the demand for this type of product in this type of industry.

So I really per severed and went back and went back. But but the last time, at the time I decided, this is really the last time I go there. I very bluntly told that since I said, listen, if we would have studied two years ago, we would probably have a product in the market today. So what is holding you back? Because I was again offering to provide you know,

the financing, the structuring, putting the team together, etcetera. And so there was no kind of risk according to me, to to him, a part of course wasting a bit of time, which is which is relevant risk. And that day when I was really about to it up, he kind of confessed to me that in the last three months he was giving to his patience prototype of the cream, and that those patients after one month, instead of calling him back to talk about their treatment and how they felt,

they were calling him back to have another cream. And so in a very candid as well, and since your wig, he said, you know what, people seems happy about that cream, so let's do it. And it was really like that. It was really get people seems to enjoy it, So

let's let's do it. And that's how it started. So I don't know how much of the story is in your marketing of the product, because I think most people see this beautiful bottle, this very high price point, and they hear celebrities like it, they hear all sorts of things. So do you have a strategy in your marketing, like is this something that you talk about telling the story or is it more just this beautiful blue bottle with

this magic dream. Personally, when when I try to to share that story, I show I show the picture of that of that little girl, that four year old girl,

and that's enough convincing about you know the project. Now when it comes to communication to the outside world, Yeah, it's a debate I'm having with the team all the time, and I keep telling the team, we need to go back to science, you know, we launched in much two thousand and eighteen, so that we're very new brand, we're very recent brand, and and therefore our story becomes what people make out of it because we don't have As

you know, you've been part of a big group. You were collaborating with this the order at some point in your life, and those guys have incredible means, financial means when it comes to marketing. When you're an entrepreneur like you are today and I am today, you hustle with the financial means you have, which are completely different than

those guys, than the big groups. And therefore, the celebrity endorsement was to us an incredible tool, as well as the journalist endorsement, like the beauty journalists who try the cream and then put black and white their own experience with the cream and endorsed it. It was this kind of you know, cross references of journalists and awards and celebrities, etcetera. I don't think what I've discovered is I think for a premium product, people need to understand the reason why

to buy, it's not enough. Celebrities are not enough. They might be enough for a ten year, ten dollar limbo, but they're not enough to buy a moisturizer that is supposed to have an impact on the health of your skin. I agree with you because it's your. The true story, the authentic story, is your point of difference. It's your above everyone else. You know, it's not just here's another cream.

So did you launch with one product? Yes, so we launched with one product and to texture, you know, the rich texture, the lighter texture, and and that was you know, out of like I guess, we have now nearly three years of life. I'm out of those three years of life. Nearly two years was just with those like two creams, the rich cream and the creat You're you're expanding like crazy,

which we'll talk about. But the out of the cream and the rich cream, which one out cells because I know my favorite, Yeah, the rich cream out sails the cream globally. But but again, you know, it's like it's like I guess, colors and preference depending on your skin texture. You know, one could think that the cream could be used the day on the rich cream at night. I guess it's a combination of that and the climate for example in l a is very dry and the winter

in New York is very dry too. Now I I think I heard the rumor, has it that you're in Florida. I guess in Florida. Maybe the cream during the day is more relevant than the rich I don't know. You know, I love the rich cream just because I'm very dry, and I think I told you this. I really swear that my eyebrows have grown in because of it. Have you tried it for hair growth? So yeah, yeah, it's

it's something we're thinking about. Yeah, because the science behind you know, again, nourishing the environment of your of yourselves so that they work at their best. That philosophy works for your skin, but it does work as well for your hair. So you know, hellos is multi factorial. It can be linked to hormone stress and sterrustle. It's um it's a complex issue, but I think we do have a potential to contribute positively to that that issue. Yes,

it's very exciting. So tell me about your pipeline, because you started with these two amazing products, and now how many sks do you have? So I'm not even totally sure, but I guess around nine something like that. Must be around nine, maybe between eight to ten. I'm guessing that's it. It seems like more you think. So we have the hand cream, the moisturize, is the body cream, body lotion, body oil, face oil, cleansing, bol cream cleansing, gael expoliating, torner,

all the essence. So we are at nine. So if we consider that the cream that have to texture, we are ten. I guess we have launched certainly a lot of products this last here two thousand twenty between July and September. And the reality is it's not that we suddenly wanted another Nuncher of product. Is that some products that were supposed to launch in February got delayed. I mean, we all had to reinvent ourselves due due to the pandemic.

And you know, some of our suppliers are were based in Italy, and you know Italy was hit very hard from the beginning. So so it's not that we certainly wanted to create this concept that we were going from two to three products to to ten in the space of you know, four months. It's just that we don't

have such a corporate planning, you know. We we we have Augustinus and the New Product Team, etcetera working on the formula and then and and we work on different projects that we think from from talking to the consumers will receive feedback, you know, the same way when we release the face cream, people were saying, oh, I love what I see on my face. Can I have that the same for my body? So we decided to do

the body cream. And but but we don't kind of planet a precise data where to launch, depending on the strategy of season or whether it's like when something is ready, we get it out. And I know it can seem a little bit unconventional in some ways, but but why not. At the end of the day, the main criteria for

us is that the product match our standard. And I think if we're true to that, if we're true believers that the product are special and they add something, then then the day they are ready, they should be there. They should be they should be proposed to the to the consumer. And by the way, it's the new way of doing business. So you are doing not you know, you're not doing things traditionally. You don't want to be doing that. That's like that it's a beast that you

could never change. I think you're on the sweet spot. I think you're exactly where you should be. How do you take care of yourself? What is your what is your self care routine? I mean, I speak to so many women, I don't speak to that many guys, so I'm just curious. No, I've tried. I just like many people during the pandemic, I've tried to I've tried to

do sports like I've tried to impose on myself. When I was waking up in the morning the first phase of the pandemic, when we had confinement in Paris, we actually had something very weird. We had three months of good weather in a rule in Paris from March to June. And I was born in Paris, and so I've been there for quite a few years now and I've never seen that. And I'm lucky enough that i have a little bit of outdoor space. So I was every morning outdoor one hour, you know, enjoying a bit of sun.

I know it's not very good for the skin officially, but I like enjoying the sun. And that's that's where my I which is better, helps me and repair a little bit of damage I do. But that damage, it's vitamin D and I agree, I agree, And I'm in the A lot of SPF. A lot of SPF are chemicals and we need to be careful about those chemical SPF two. Um. So yeah, so I've been I've been kind of discipline about doing sports, and I like, I mean, usually I'd rather do sports like swimming and being the ocean.

But obviously being in Paris, I still I was disciplined in that, and I guess it helped me, you know. And as I said, I think we were very privileged to be busy. You know, we were in a phase

of problem solving. We wanted to contribute as well for the pandemic, so we which changed the production to create the hand treatment and to gift as well to to hospitals and frontliners the sanitizers, and so we went onto those kind of getting busy, and actually getting busy just gets through through the day because, as you know, some of the people they're based in New York. So waking up in Paris, I had my kind of morning, a

little bit free to do their sports. But then come to p M, my time the video called kicks in and that was still till dinner time, non stop. And again I feel blessed about that because I think for a lot of people that unfortunately and sadly lost their job, the pandemic was probably harder because you know, the time, more anxiety, more worries about the future. But every day I guess and and also more time to think about it,

and so I think that was part as well. You know, being busy was also part of the of the self care routine. Okay, now I have a speed round for you, and these are the same questions I asked everybody. First of all, what does beauty mean to you? What is beauty mean to me? Energy? That's a good one. Yeah, that's a really good one. What's your personal daily skincare routine?

It's been a big thing up in the in the last three months, as you know, you know, I'm I'm convinced about our products, so I add them to my routine. So Sarah steps, Yeah, what are your steps? So I do? I do cleanser, face, soil cream during the day and uh and I'm done, and then the same with maybe a return for night. And how about the last TV show or movie you binged or the Queen's Gambit? Loved it? Yeah it was, it was so good. And now you're

in Paris. What have you eaten today? Actually? Tight food? Yeah, very good, tight food. I love spicy food. And it's healthy food too, you know, I try with influence, so rich new stuff, tried to with vegetables of tried, I don't know. When I'm in Paris, it's bread and cheese. But okay, um, I know, I know, I know that. Yeah, what is your favorite cocktail recently because I've been to Mexico recently on the holidays, mescalita because I've heard that

mescal is not so processed. So I'm kind of again trying to be healthy while while being an alcoholic. No, yes, yes, yes, I believe in that. And what are you most What is Charles most looking forward to in two thousand and twenty one? I, I mean, I, like all of us, I guess the end of the end of the pandemic because the end of you know, worrying about the our loved ones, the end of seeing people losing their jobs, and you know, anxiety everywhere. We all want that kind

of me to be over for so many reasons. Yeah. Well, first of all, congratulations and everything you've done, You've only started. I know the brand is one of the fastest growing skincare brands. By the way, I hear that your online searches have jumped from five thousand to forty thousand, like it's happening. You keep saying you're a small little brand, no one knows about you. It's happening. So enjoy the journey. And I'm really excited I get to be I'm how

part of it. So nice to meet you, and so and so great to talk to you, and thank you, Thank you big. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.