Dr. Amy Wechsler and Zoe Wechsler: Co-Founders of Spotless

Episode 780

On today’s episode, Kara welcomes Dr. Amy Wechsler and Zoe Wechsler, the powerhouse mother–daughter duo behind Spotless — the groundbreaking walk-in clinic transforming acne care for a new generation.
Spotless is rethinking everything we know about how acne is treated. With Dr. Amy’s rare dual board certification in both dermatology and psychiatry, and Zoe’s fresh perspective on accessibility and culture, the two have built a clinic model that’s fast, judgment-free, and actually effective. Whether you’re a teen, adult, or somewhere in between, Spotless is built for real skin, real life, and real people.
In this episode, Amy and Zoe share how they came up with the idea for Spotless, why fast, expert-led acne care was long overdue, and how they’re creating a stigma-free, emotionally supportive experience in a space that’s often clinical and cold. We also get into the future of the Spotless brand — from clinical expansion to product innovation — and what it's like to blend decades of medical experience with a new wave of cultural insight.
A must-listen for anyone passionate about skincare, mental health, or building something that truly meets people where they are.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up, that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. 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, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control, 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. Let’s go. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. I am so excited to have my next team here. Team co founders, who are a mother and daughter duo shaking up the skin care world. Dr Amy Wechsler and her daughter Zoe Wechsler are the co founders of an incredible new brand called Spotless. And you may have heard all about Spotless. It’s taking the world by storm. They have been all over media over the last few weeks, and I am not surprised, because it is such an incredible, innovative company, and not an not a brand new idea, but it’s like one of those ones where you sit there and say, duh, why didn’t somebody do this sooner? So first ever walk in acne only clinic and Dr Amy, in case you are not familiar with Dr Amy Wechsler is one of the few physicians in the country, board certified in both dermatology and psychiatry. Her expertise is unmatched, and her daughter Zoe is her teammate in this and brings a fresh cultural perspective and is helping reimagine what compassionate modern acne skin care can look like. And together, they’ve created something fantastic in New York City first, but I think you’re going to see many, many Spotlesses across the country in no time. So I can’t wait to get into how they are building Spotless from the ground up, and the gap they see in traditional dermatology and Amy and Zoe. Welcome to the Kara Goldin show. So excited. You guys are here today. Really, really excited.

Dr. Amy Wechsler 2:29
Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. We’re so excited.

Kara Goldin 2:32
So I’ve known Amy for a while, and, full disclosure, had not met Zoe before, but I said when I when she’s true, when she came on, I was super, super excited that to finally meet her, and the idea is absolutely brilliant. So Zoe, do you want to talk to us about Spotless and what makes it different from a traditional Dermatology Clinic?

Zoe Wechsler 2:56
Yes, I would love to. So Spotless is a walk in and by appointment acne clinic here in New York, on the Upper East Side, you can walk in or make an appointment, whatever is better for you. We only offer four services. So we offer three treatments and consultations. We offer acne pimple shots, we offer acne peels, we offer extractions and then a consultation. So really simple menu, just the really good acne treatments that actually work. Also, what sets us aside is that we were open nights and weekends as well as late as well as early mornings. So what

Kara Goldin 3:28
gap Did you see then? Amy, you have been a dermatologist for many, many years. Maybe you want to talk to us a little bit about your background and and share a little bit about what you saw in the space that made you feel like this is absolutely needed, outside of the fact that probably many of your patients were calling saying, Can you help me, or can you help my my family in some way?

Dr. Amy Wechsler 3:58
Exactly So, as you know, I’ve been in private practice for over 20 years in New York, it is still a privilege to take care of people for a living. It’s been awesome, and I’ve moved my office a few times, but always been in Manhattan, and I’ve always been ambitious and wanted to do more, and so in 2008 wrote my book, which is called the mind beauty connection. And I’ve been on TV a bunch. I like to do interviews. I just like to get the word out. I’ve also been on the board of public company Bauch health since 2016 I’ve been working with Chanel as their skin care advisor for 15 years, which is wild and early in the pandemic. Zoe and I had a podcast that was more of a passion project than anything else, but we loved working together, and I like to joke around that I couldn’t convince Zoe or Jayden to go to medical school, so I went to business school and got my MBA last year at Columbia with the hopes of trying to figure out how to scale something related to dermatology. I wasn’t clear what I wanted to do. When I went back in 22 and during school, I kept getting texts and emails from patients nights and weekends. Hey, Dr, Amy, I’ve got this giant pimple. Any chance you can come into the office to give me a pimple shot. I’ve got my wedding, I’ve got a friend’s wedding, I’ve got an interview, a date, whatever it was. And a lot of the times I couldn’t come, because it would be after hours or on the weekends when I could, I would. And one time I went, and then I saw zo after and she said, Mom, what are you up to? Where’d you go? And I said, told her what I had to do. And she’s like, we should just have, like, a pimple shot pop up bar. You know, that would be really popular. And I was like, Oh, my God, that’s a great idea. And then we started just riffing about, what could we do around that? And we decided, well, I think I can scale like the acne part of my business, and try to hit all the pain points, like, Why can’t someone come see me in the office? There aren’t that many dermatologists in the country, we have long wait lists often. We’re only open, typically Monday to Friday, nine to five, and we’re pretty expensive. And if we’re if we take insurance and we’re in your insurance, you’ll have to wait six months at least to see us and so and and some patients and people with acne in particular are embarrassed to go to the doctor, or they feel intimidated to go to the doctor’s office. And I try to make my office as welcoming as possible, but just walking in the door can feel daunting to people. So we decided we would be open nights and weekends. We would make the spot each spot, that’s what we’re calling each Spotless spot or clinic welcoming a cool place that’s exuding expertise, but also there’s a casualness to it. There’s colors, there’s music, there’s chocolate, you know, because we want to also just try to dispel all these myths about acne, which one of which is that chocolate causes acne because it doesn’t which is good and make the barrier to entry really low for people. Make it efficient, because so many patients with acne, if they’re in school, they’re in school till late, they’ve got practice rehearsal. If they’re a young person working, they’re kind of low on the totem pole, and they’re not allowed to leave when we’re open. So you see people walking around with faces full of acne all the time, thinking like that’s treatable. Why Is anyone still having acne these days?

Kara Goldin 7:27
So interesting. So the hours that you’re open again, you’re just have the the first location that’s open, but what it is, so what are the hours that you’re open?

Zoe Wechsler 7:39
So on Mondays and Wednesdays, were open from eight to eight. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, we’re open 10 to eight, and on Saturdays, 10 to six. That’s great. So we did some focus groups this summer. We at first we thought every day we’d open at 10, and then we did focus groups this summer with people of all ages, and a lot of feedback with especially from people my age, they would want to come before work. So we decided, let’s start two days a week. We’re gonna open at eight, and we’ll see what happens, and we’ll take it from there.

Dr. Amy Wechsler 8:05
So we’re using our first bot, I think of as a lab. We’re gonna learn so much. We’ve only been open not even three weeks.

Kara Goldin 8:12
Yeah, that’s so great. I think it’s really smart, and especially because those are the times people get home from school or work, or, you know, they want to jump in before they go to work or before they I bet those are kind of your busiest times. And as you mentioned, it’s also a, it’s a you could make an appointment, or it’s walk in, which is like feeds into the I need it right now fixed, which is huge. So what has been the most surprising thing that has come up along the way, maybe from consumers or patients, I guess that are coming in.

Zoe Wechsler 8:51
My most surprising, and we’ve only been open again, not even three weeks, is people traveling to see us on our first Saturday open, which was our third day of business, we had a family come in from Westchester and and a family come in from Brooklyn. It’s not that easy to get to us from either of those places, and we didn’t realize we were going to be a destination, but we’re quickly realizing that we are. And since then, we’ve had mothers and their sons or young people or anybody coming from almost all boroughs already, and at least now, two families drum from Westchester to see us. So that’s been a huge difference. I thought everyone like, Oh, are you live in the neighborhood? They’re like, No, I live in the West Village. No, I live in Tribeca. People are coming to see us, even if it’s not on their way directly.

Kara Goldin 9:33
So somebody comes into your clinic and what’s kind of the first, the first thing that happens when they come in.

Dr. Amy Wechsler 9:40
So we care so much about hospitality and customer service. So we want it to be from the moment someone walks into the moment they leave, to feel really well cared for. So we welcome everyone with a big smile. We offer a water we’ve got chocolate, we’ve got a nice bathroom that’s always clean. We go. Comfortable seating, chargers, Wi Fi, all of that. And if someone is walking in, they do have to fill out some forms on an iPad. We’re still streamlining that, but it’s pretty good. Now. Got a lot of feedback about just doing that. So we’re paperless. If they’ve booked online, then they could just be all set to go. And then we have nurse practitioners and a physician’s assistant as our clinicians. They’ve all trained with me in my office for a few months, and sort of my way of treating acne. And they’re brought back into, I suppose we’re still calling them exam rooms, but they’re not classic exam rooms. They’re not four wall white, you know, sharp edges. We care a lot about the feeling and the experience. And so we thought, let’s round things out. So we’ve made round walls, but not walls. So we’ve got drapes instead of doors. They absorb some of the sound in our when we get our better runs, it’ll be even better, but you it’s private on the inside, but not sealed. We got, we ordered comfortable exam chairs that are not white. They’re blue. You know, our stools for the nurse practitioner are purple. And what one of the things that’s really important is that I’m having each of the clinicians sit with each patient, no matter if they’re only there for five minutes. They just want a pimple shot. You’re getting to know someone for the first time, you sit with them, which just tells the patient, I’m not rushing you. I’m here to listen. And we just ask open ended question, how can we help? You know, whatever or whatever in the clinicians words, and take it from there.

Zoe Wechsler 11:35
Yes, the patient experience is our one of our number one key values of Spotless is patient first patient experience. So that comes through in everything we do.

Kara Goldin 11:46
That’s awesome. So you’re focused exclusively on acne, and oftentimes people are, you know, coming in to fix something quickly, but maybe in some cases, it’s more general, you know skincare, but what do you do at that point if somebody needs more than just their acne handled,

Dr. Amy Wechsler 12:07
if they want to review their skincare products? We do that with them, their cleanser, their moisturizer, serums, all of that sunscreen. We’re happy to do that. And also we’re selling curated products in the front of the spot, which is our spot shop, until we have the products that we’re making on our own come out next year, and everything’s non comedogenic, meaning won’t clog anyone’s pores or cause pimples. Everything’s fragrance free. And we’ve got some adjacent products, like these cool, neato stress cubes that people really like to squeeze instead of, hopefully, like, picking out their skin, things like that. But if it’s if someone has an issue or problem that is not acne, like eczema, for example, or a mole they might be worried about, we are referring to local dermatologists. We have some who take insurance. We have some who don’t.

Kara Goldin 12:58
So many people, you had mentioned chocolate. So many people think that, especially with the internet, they they’ve got it all under control. They’ve figured it out exactly what it is that is causing this acne. How often are they right? I guess is, is the the key thing. I mean, obviously you’ve got chocolate in the office, you’re like, not chocolate. But what is it, typically that people are that’s causing this type of acne? Is it? You know, hormones? Is it? Is it cleanliness? Little bit of all. What is it?

Dr. Amy Wechsler 13:35
Acne is usually multifactorial in origin, so it’s a combination of genetics, hormones and stress for the most part. And then, yes, certain products can make acne worse, certain medications can make acne worse. And then things like pads for football pads or a hockey helmet, things like that, definitely can make acne worse. So we take a thorough history, like we asked family history of acne for women and girls, we ask about their periods, because irregular periods and certain birth control can make acne better, certain birth control can make acne worse. So it’s usually not just one thing. And what often happens is that people know themselves. So I always tell patients like, Listen to yourself, listen to your body. But things get blamed for acne because we can see them. So if someone comes in, they’re like, you know, I I was really stressed out. I didn’t I wasn’t sleeping that much, and then I was eating all these unhealthful foods. And so I think it’s the food, and I think you can see the food, right? You can’t see the stress you can’t see the lack of sleep, and it’s usually the stress and lack of sleep that makes someone crave those foods. So I usually say like True, true and unrelated, it’s probably more the stress and the lack of sleep, because we know we heal in our sleep and during sleep, the molecules that are anti inflammatory, like beta endorphins. Growth hormones are at their highest, and the stress molecule, especially cortisol, which is the worst, is at its lowest. And so cortisol, really, we know, causes or makes acne a lot worse. I saw someone today, a patient who’s waiting to hear early decision from college, and she’s having a very stressful semester. She just had exams, and she just broke out a couple weeks ago, and had been pretty clear, and so we talked about she she used to have acne, about the impact of stress, and one of the first studies to show that stress caused acne was from University of Michigan, where they hired grad students to count pimples in undergrads. Imagine, that’s your job, and pimple counts during midterms and finals were like two to four times as high as during the other parts of the semester. That was a long time ago, that study, but

Kara Goldin 15:47
so interesting. I’ve heard birth control too, and especially if you’re on birth control, and during that week when you don’t actually take birth control, I’ve heard a lot of people say that that typically is a time when acne comes up. Have you heard that before?

Dr. Amy Wechsler 16:06
So combination estrogen and progesterone birth control pills are often amazing at helping acne in girls and women. In fact, they’re FDA approved for the treatment of acne and that placebo week of four to seven days can definitely be a time when people break out more. So if that’s the case, you can actually skip it and go on to your next pack of pills. You know, with gynecologist approval, they usually say yes, and that can often avoid it. But birth control pills really excellent for treating acne, whereas sometimes a hormonal IUD, they secrete only progesterone can make hormonal acne worse. So it’s really very individualized.

Kara Goldin 16:44
So interesting. So Spotless is built for teens, young adults, adults. Who is it? Who is your core customer?

Zoe Wechsler 16:56
Spotless is for anybody with acne. And we really, really try to make anybody who has acne feel like they belong as follows.

Dr. Amy Wechsler 17:04
That is that’s definitely true where, but

Zoe Wechsler 17:08
I think neighborhood wise, now, on the Upper East Side, there are a lot of schools. There are a lot of young families. I grew up on the Upper East Side, so in our neighborhood, we’re, we’re seeing that demographic a lot. I think neighborhood dependent. We’ll see different demos.

Dr. Amy Wechsler 17:23
But, yeah, that’s true. But also we’re getting the moms who are breaking out as well. So we’ve we’re sort of marketing at the beginning to 13 to 29 year olds, knowing we’ll skew a little bit younger, but also wanting to capture the perimenopausal women, the women who are 35 to 55 who are coming into my office saying, Hey, I’ve got pimples and wrinkles. I feel way too old for my pimples and way too young for my wrinkles help. And so it’s really common, yeah. But you know, we like to joke around that my dad, who’s 82 is still is on a very low dose once a week of Accutane, which keeps him from breaking out. So we are. We’re open to anyone with acne. Of course.

Kara Goldin 18:03
What have you seen is, is an ingredient in some of the products that are out there that tends to clog skin, because I know, you know, shampoos and conditioners as well as cleansers. Is there some ingredient in particular that you’re just not very excited about, that you wish was actually not in these products.

Dr. Amy Wechsler 18:27
What’s important in a product? So it’s not for me, it’s not just one I really don’t like this one molecule. It’s often the concentration of that molecule. So certain oils, certain ingredients, like hyaluronic acid, which is a really nice moisturizing ingredient, naturally found in the skin and joints. A lot of young people are using ha as a serum. First of all, they don’t need it. Their skin is so plump they do not need that. And also, if a product does not say non comedogenic in the US, that mean it was that means it wasn’t tested, even if it’s a face product like I wish all face products had to be tested for that, but they don’t. So if it doesn’t stay non communogenic, it can break you out, and I’ll often see that in makeup or in moisturizers, cleansers just stay on for such a short period of time, usually fine, similar with shampoo and conditioner, as long as someone’s actually rinsing it off properly, because sometimes there’s a residue on the hairline and that can that can clogged horse. But there isn’t just one thing. I know you don’t like aloe. I don’t like aloe, but I don’t like I know people think is soothing, but in fact, quite irritating. It can be irritating. Now, people only come to me with problems, right? So I’ll see someone after they’ve smeared on something with aloe to soothe something and it made them worse. So yeah, not for acne, but not, not my favorite ingredient, yeah, we see it in a lot of moisturizers, yes, and then also certain fragrances are really irritating to people. So if someone uses a product and it irritates them, they can also, then their breakout can be worse, because any irritation or inflammation can worsen that.

Kara Goldin 20:00
Acne. So what is if somebody walks in? How do you charge people for your clinic?

Dr. Amy Wechsler 20:08
So we have initial consultation fee, which is $250 everything else is $100 so pimple shots, acne, chemical peels and extractions are $100 and follow up appointments to the consultation are $100 we also offer packages, so you can buy a three pack, a five pack or a 10 pack, with 1015, and 20% discounts associated with each one of those. And the good news about the packet the packages is that they don’t expire for two years. You could actually share one with a friend. I love it if you don’t need it, or the friend wants to try spot

Zoe Wechsler 20:42
if we clear you up. So you up so quickly, you only use eight of your 10 pack. You can give them away

Kara Goldin 20:47
that you could have the the airline model, where you’ve got the family on on the app, right?

Zoe Wechsler 20:53
Yeah, family who two of the children, we put them on Accutane, and so they bought 210 packs, but they’re actually just going to share them instead.

Kara Goldin 21:03
I love it. What are people typically making appointments? Or are they typically walking in?

Zoe Wechsler 21:09
We’ve seen a real 5050, split, not what we expected at all. But it’s been really interesting to collecting that data, because it’s we expected mostly walk ins, and it’s totally split. And a lot of people do book the day before or the morning morning of, or they’ll call and say, can I make an appointment for an hour? And we’ll say, you actually, you were more than welcome to you can just come in an hour? And they’re like, Oh, okay. Like, what? You’ll save my spot. And, like, there’s a spot for you through the spot for walkin to come on in. And they’re like, Okay, just because you’re not used to that model. So, Zoe, you’ve shaped much of the brand’s look and feel. What was the most important aspect in creating the space that you wanted to make sure was present? The most important one is gender neutrality. Because if we say we’re for everybody with acne, then everybody, everybody with acne, has to feel like it belongs. And luckily for me, I have a younger, very macho, sporty brother, so I would just run everything by him and be like, Hey, would you go to a place that looked like this? Or would you would this font like, bother you? Like, really, just those basic questions helped a lot. And also we spoke about a little bit earlier, toeing the line between excellence and kind of a youthful, more less sterile feel. So really, toeing that line was, was one of the most important things, also.

Kara Goldin 22:28
So what is success for both of you? You can each answer, answer it, if you like, but I’d love to hear, you know, when do you guys know that you’ve made it? You’ve done it, and I mean, I love that, that your two co founders that are very close to one another, so that you can think about this and talk about it, but I’d love to hear what your response is.

Dr. Amy Wechsler 22:52
Success for me, couple things. One, we’re around the US, and maybe in Europe as well. So there’s a need for us. Word is out. People know, come to Spotless you get outstanding acne care same day, number one, number two, well, I’ve got a pie in the sky headline, New York Times, which, because acne has so many negative psychological effects on people. Treating it does the opposite, right? So I’ve got drawers full of thank you notes from patients from over 20 years saying when I cleared their skin, it changed their life. They take healthy risks, they interview for new job, they go out on a date, they try out for a play, whatever it is, they’re back in life in a healthy way. And I would love Spotless to positively impact the mental health of our young people with acne. And so the headline would be, you know, Spotless proven to increase happiness productivity, you know, just being in the world in a good way, I have to have to write that in a more eloquent way. But I think you have time. Okay,

Kara Goldin 24:09
I love it. That’s great. So what about you? Zoe, do you have How do you think about this business?

Zoe Wechsler 24:17
I think about it in a way that might be hard to qualify, just, like, something to do with, maybe just the organic patient testimonials that I hope for people saying, I went here and they cleared me up like, that’s all we want to do with, clear people’s skin and make them feel better about themselves and make them their lives better. And so if maybe I run into someone and I’m wearing like a Spotless hat or something like, Oh, you’re that Spotless, then, like, You cleared me up, like, something like that, or like, if I’m in a random airport, like, that’s just a dream of seeing someone like you guys cleared me up. Like, that’s

Dr. Amy Wechsler 24:48
all, all we want to do. And I would love, at some point, for Spotless to live on its own as a brand without meaning to know who I am. Spotless will you know now? I need to be the face of it, and

Kara Goldin 25:03
I know what you mean, though. Yeah, you want it to be able to succeed on its own, right? I mean, and be and stand on its own. I totally, I totally get it so well. Amy and Zoe, thank you so much for coming on today, and best of luck with everything. I’m so excited for you. And I mean this sincerely, like, this is one of these ideas that just seem like, I mean, why didn’t somebody think of it sooner? It’s definitely a an idea that people everywhere have, have come across this issue and want it fixed now. So I think the urgency side of of this is definitely something that is needed across the US, and I am very, very excited to see it grow. So thank you again for sharing this, and good luck with everything to both of you, and definitely check out Spotless clinics com. And if you’re in New York, come by on in the location on the Upper East Side. And also follow Zoe and Dr Amy Wechsler and Spotless clinics on social so thank you so much for coming on.

Zoe Wechsler 26:20
Thank you, Kara. Thank you,

Dr. Amy Wechsler 26:21
Kara, thanks for having us on your awesome podcast. It’s a

Zoe Wechsler 26:24
real honor. We appreciate it

Kara Goldin 26:26
so much Absolutely. Thanks again. You guys. Bye. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast, just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now.

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