Keith O’Briant: CEO of HYDRINITY

Episode 882

Building skincare from regenerative medicine — that’s the magic ✨
On The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Keith O’Briant, CEO of HYDRINITY Accelerated Skin Science — one of the fastest-growing professional skincare brands in the U.S.
We talk about how HYDRINITY began not as a traditional beauty brand, but as a regenerative medicine company developing advanced wound care products and drug delivery systems for oncology and hematology patients. Keith shares how that medical and scientific foundation evolved into a professional skincare brand built around patented injectable-grade hyaluronic acid, proprietary delivery systems, and regenerative technologies designed to support skin health and deliver visible results.
We also get into what “science-backed skincare” really means, why delivery systems matter as much as ingredients, and how consumers can better understand the difference between marketing claims and clinically backed innovation. Keith also shares what he learned from more than 30 years in life sciences, including leadership roles at Pfizer and Shire, and what it has taken to scale HYDRINITY into more than 4,000 professional practices in the U.S. and more than 40 countries globally since launching in 2022.
If you’re interested in learning how regenerative medicine is shaping the future of skincare, what it takes to build a science-first brand in a crowded beauty market, or why professional skincare is entering a whole new chapter — check out the interview on my podcast. You can find it here or anywhere you listen to podcasts 🎧

Resources from
this episode:

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. We 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, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin Show. Today’s guest is Keith O’Brien, who is the founder and CEO of an incredible company I just stumbled on, called HYDRINITY, and it’s actually HYDRINITY Accelerated Skin Science, a brand helping lead the shift around regenerative medicine in skincare, and I love this company. I love the products. I love the story. Very excited to have Keith with us here today to talk a lot more about HYDRINITY. It did not begin with a beauty trend or influencer launch. It started in regenerative medicine, developing advanced wound care products and drug delivery systems for doctors in oncology and hematology, and that foundation eventually became the basis for this incredible professional skincare brand you can find in many offices, doctors’ offices, skin dermatologists, plastic surgeons, oncology offices, as well as different offices that are focused on skincare across the U.S. And I’m very excited. Oh, and actually around the world in over 40 countries as well. So, anyway, I will stop and start getting Keith to answer a lot of these questions, but very excited to have you here, Keith.

Keith O’Briant 2:07
Thank you. No, it’s I love telling the HYDRINITY story. So again, excited to talk to you, and and thank you, thank you for the opportunity.

Kara Goldin 2:15
Absolutely. So for listeners who are just discovering HYDRINITY, how do you describe the brand, and what makes it different from other professional skincare brands?

Keith O’Briant 2:25
Yeah, I think the best way to describe the the brand is it’s simple yet effective. It’s it’s very straightforward. There are a lot of brands out there where everything’s a regiment. You have to use five or six products. You have to use them all exactly in a row. Where with hydronity, it’s not. It’s it’s a simple. It’s straightforward with the philosophy. How do we bring regenerative medicines, delivery techniques? How do we bring science and luxury and match those together? And that’s what we that’s what we’ve tried to do is take something, take like many of our products do multiple things. They all, every one of them, are going to hydrate your skin. Everybody’s skin needs to be. You can’t have too hydrated of a skin, but then it treats other issues. So it’s very straight. It’s very straightforward. It’s simple. We embrace skinamization, skinamize fewer products for better results, and because that’s the best skin is is when you somebody uses something consistent. When you make it too difficult, people are not going to do it every day, and you have to you have to work on your skin every day. And so that’s what we try to do is we try to provide the ability for people to use something every day.

Kara Goldin 3:43
Can you give me a bit of the backstory? So it began in regenerative medicine. I’ve read, but what was the original idea behind this and creating these products that would ultimately be sold throughout the world?

Keith O’Briant 3:56
Yeah, we we kind of joke sometimes internally, like the happy accident. You’re right. We it was never never desire to have an esthetics company or a skincare company. We we started this with our novel hyaluronic acid that was made being extracted and used without heat. It was really the first one that had done been done without heat, and we were making products to be used in the hospital, advanced wound care products, buying orthopedic products, and then also the low molecular weight, the way that it is, the way that it penetrates the skin and down to the dermal layer, is we thought, hey, you know what, we might even could use this as a drug delivery system. What we found is that patients that were using our HA serum, their skin was perfect. Even those undergoing radiation therapy, what you found is their skin was really it was pristine. You could not tell they were undergoing treatments, and then even around the wounds, the the skin around the wounds was really good, and so. That just kind of led us to, then the the light bulb just went off, and just like you know what, if it can do this with compromised skin, just think what it can do to to who’s who people who really want to make their skin better. It’s the largest organ of our body, as you know, and there’s a lot of clinical data out there that says the better your skin is, the less likelihood you’re going to get other types of illnesses or diseases, and so we said, you know what, we have something so new, unique here with our HA and how we hydrate the skin, and the ability to use it as a carrier and a delivery system, that this could be really unique to the skincare market, and so we just decided, you know what? We’re going to do this, and we did.

Kara Goldin 5:42
So, what year was this that you decided to actually create hydronity for for consumers?

Keith O’Briant 5:49
So, we did this right after post post COVID, and then what what we saw, and so then when we decided, you know, said we’re not going to rush this to the market. We’re going to study our products. We’re going to develop them, and then we spent the next two years doing clinical development work. We did a 71 patient study. We did a 31 patient study, and so we wanted to follow the science. We wanted to make sure that what we did, that when we went and we introduced this to the world, that everybody knew exactly what you were going to get. And so we spent the next couple of years developing our first, our first three products, and we wanted to make sure we had all the clinical data and all the science behind it to back it up. And so it’s, and so we launched in September of of 22. So we’re we’re less than four years old.

Kara Goldin 6:37
What did you launch with? How many products did you actually launch with when you launched.

Keith O’Briant 6:41
We launched with three products and five SKUs. We launched with two HA serums, our renewing serum, which is your everyday hydration serum, fine lines and wrinkles. So great daily hydrator. Our restore serum for skin for either post procedure or compromised skin, and then highest inactive are hyperchlorous acid, and that’s that’s a great story there because no every person I talked to said hyperchlorous acid doesn’t belong in esthetics, and I argue, no, it absolutely it belongs in esthetics, and it’s it’s been a fabulous ride with with with all of our products, but especially that one that one’s the fun product.

Kara Goldin 7:20
Can you share a little bit more on that one? How did it ultimately get developed? What was it used for? What is it used for today? How is it different?

Keith O’Briant 7:28
The product’s called Hyacinactive. It’s a hyperchlorous acid. We didn’t invent hyperchlorous acid. It’s been used in the hospital for 30 or 4040 years. There’s 5000 published clinical papers on it. It’s what your white blood cells. It’s what they produce. So it’s a natural producing. But through the years, people have been able to find out how to how to make it, and it’s really great. It’s a utilitarian product that’s used all over the hospital. Where ours is different is is is how how ours is made, the pH is balanced. Our our containers triple walled because light and air really to store hyperchlorous acid. So what it is, it’s an antiseptic. It’s an antibacterial. Kills 99% of pathogens. It comes in contact with 30 seconds by penetrating the cell wall. It cleans out your pores and your crevices. It makes every other product that you use, it makes it makes them better, and so that’s that’s the reason we use it. We use it in pre-parry and post procedures. You put you put it on, and instead of alcohol, it’s it’s a great product. It’s great because it’s an anti-inflammatory product. Also works great in rosacea, eczema. It can it has so many uses. It’s just a great great product. And when you put it with our HA serum, which is probably when you use restorative now, latest data that I saw shows that it’s the number one post procedure kit in the market out there. So somebody undergoing micro needling or any type of laser treatment, that you can use it pre prep your skin, get your skin hydrated, use it during the procedure, and you use it after the procedure.

Kara Goldin 9:07
That’s incredible. So I I tried that product, and I’m I’m happy to hear a little bit more about that. So I’ll have to use it a little bit more because I really really enjoyed it. So there’s so much to learn in skincare, and it’s and obviously you’re doing things differently. But how do you get that message out to consumers, especially when maybe you’re relying on these offices to actually get the message out there? Maybe you’ll have a good person in the office who’s able to explain it, but there’s just a lot of marketing language versus clinical language, and how do you simplify it and get that message out to consumers?

Keith O’Briant 9:55
Yeah, we do. We have a we have we have we have a. Great team, a great, a great sales team that goes out and educates the offices. And so, what we do is we mandate through our partners internally and externally that if you bring our products on within the first two weeks, you have to have a sit down training. This non negotiable. You have to come in, let us tell you about the products, so that that message does get to the end to the patient to the end consumer. We provide the the materials that they can hand out at no no cost to them. And what we do is we take the science because we’d always lead with science, but we translate that into just everyday terms and terminology that that everyone can understand, and so I think training and education is is is critical. We also put a lot of that material on our website HYDRINITY.com, so people can go and look, and they they can they can read about the product and they can understand even more. But we do. I will tell you, our team does a great job of providing all those resources to the provider, and they’re they’re the experts. And so, what we try to do is we just try to give them as much data as we can, talking points, and to help them. Because you’re right, it’s very confusing out there. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of nonsense going on out there. People making claims that they can’t validate, they can’t substantiate. That’s the reason we do clinical evaluations of our products, every one of them before they’re launched.

Kara Goldin 11:32
Yeah, that’s that’s amazing. So, how do you know when a formula is strong enough to put the HYDRINITY name on it? You launched with three products, five SKUs. How has that changed, and how do you make those decisions?

Keith O’Briant 11:48
Yeah, well, we develop everything internally. I’m the first person that tries everything, just because if something goes wrong, it’s which which it hasn’t so far. It it should be me, and then the team does it internally. And so, what we’ve what we’ve done is we’ve held a very high standard. We’ve been lucky; we’ve launched 11 products in the three and a half years. But what most people don’t understand is I’ve said no to four. There were four other products that could have come, but they weren’t worthy. You said HYDRINITY. We say the H. It wasn’t worthy of the H, and so we just said no because it wasn’t better. One of one of our one of our mottos is we’re not going to have a me too product if it’s not better than something that is already available on the market. There’s no need to bring it out if people are satisfied with what’s there, it’s it’s okay. We don’t we don’t need to do me too products. There’s enough of that out there.

Kara Goldin 12:47
Hyaluronic acid is core to to your brand, and you’re actually using patented injectable grade hyaluronic acid. But there’s a lot of products out there that are using hyaluronic acid, and if you can generalize kind of what maybe consumers are being sold, I guess by some other brands and how what makes yours different, that that would be super helpful.

Keith O’Briant 13:14
Yeah, I I think that’s easy. We launched with this with this tagline: “Not all HAs are equal, and and they’re not. I love hyaluronic acid. I think it’s one of the most misused and underutilized molecules there is out there. They’re they’re not all the same. You said it. We’re the only company that uses 100% injectable grade HA as a topical. It it costs more to do that, but it’s it’s the same hyaluronic acid that people are getting fillers with with the needle injected. We’re just using it topically. The other thing is, HAs work based on the size of the molecule. They’re called Daltons, but that’s just the size of them. And so we’re very specific. We use dual dual molecular weight. We use a high molecular weight, a large molecule for skin barrier. It helps protect you. It keeps you hydrated. Our low molecular weight, we use that as a delivery system to take the peptides down to the dermal layer. That’s where true skin rejuvenation happens. Is at the dermis, not on not on the surface. Most HAs that are in other products, they’re cosmetic grade. They’re mass produced. We do ours in micro batches, so we can really control. We control everything about it. The the amount of material chemicals that go into it to to make it. And the other thing is the molecular weight. There are a lot of products out there. People have used HA products and say it’s tackier, it’s sticky. That’s just because they’re using the wrong size molecule. Ours is very specific, and if you use the wrong size molecule, you’re not going to get the results. And I think that’s where most people are not precise. Enough in their manufacturing methods. There’s a lot of HAs out there. You’re right, but there’s only one brand that uses 100% injectable grade for for their topicals, and that’s and that’s hydrangea, and that’s the reason you will never feel tacky or sticky with with with our with our products. It’s very intentional in how we make things.

Kara Goldin 15:20
Can you explain some of the technologies that you have trademarked in your line? Supercharged HA, Micro Fusion, and Retizome. That’s incredible. You and I were talking briefly about your Retin A product that you have as well, which is super great. Can you talk a little bit about all of those,

Keith O’Briant 15:41
yeah, I I think our our chain and again, it’s the manufacturing process that that we have have have the patent for. It’s um it’s just made without without heat. So what it does, it gives you a better molecule. It’s it’s not fragile and it’s not weak, and it allows the peptides to attach to it, and it’s more like your normal body’s hyaluronic acid, and that’s the reason that the body takes it so well is because of the size of it, and it just recognizes it very close to what the body produces. The microfusion technology is really, it’s a great, it’s a great technology. It’s made from fulvic acid. Fulvic acid is one of only a few molecules that has both a positive and a negative charge. It has dual polarity, so when it enters the body, it’s a very small molecule, and so it can penetrate and it can take other ingredients with it: antioxidants, peptides. It it takes them, and then what happens is the polarity changes on the product, and on its way out, it takes dirt, grime, and it just it’s it’s a cleaning agent on the way out, and because it both has a positive and a negative charge, and we have several of our products that use that technology, and it’s and we’ll probably have more in the future because it is a great delivery system on one hand, but it’s a cleaning mechanism on the other on the way out. And it’s really, and what it allows, it doesn’t allow reoxidative stress to really destroy the ingredients before they penetrate down to the dermal layer. It’s a great delivery system, and then you talked about retizone with our our new our new vitamin A, and that’s that’s really the biggest advancement in vitamin A in 10 years. So what we did is we took a retinal with an A, encapsulated it in tight into a synthetic or biomimetic exosome, and what that allowed is vitamin A is one. It’s the only product that the FDA says everyone should have, and you can make clinical claims as far as anti aging on it, and it’s one that every dermatologist recommends that everyone use. The problem with with vitamin A’s and retinols are is they’re very irritating. They cause redness, dryness, and flakiness. So we thought, you know what? If we can solve for that problem, then you really have something special, and that’s the reason we put it in an exosome. And because the exosome is 1000 times smaller than a stem cell, so it takes it not only to take it to the dermal layer, it gets inside the cells, and so in our clinical study that we did, we had zero patients that dropped out. It improved erythema redness by 68% Most of these vitamin A’s cause you to turn red and flake. This actually treated the patients that that had the redness and the inflammation. Not one patient dropped out in the study. It’s we launched that last fall, and it has just done really, really good because it everyone needs a vitamin A. This the other thing is you can you start. You don’t have to titrate a lot of vitamin A’s. You have to you have to you know a retinoids. You have to start, go two or three days, and then do again. This it’s therapeutic from day one. You take it every night, and so it’s just the delivery system is what really makes what really makes this product.

Kara Goldin 19:14
That’s incredible. So HYDRINITY has grown into more than 4000 professional practices around the U.S. and more than 40 countries globally. It’s a big undertaking in just a few years. What has surprised you most about the pace of growth that HYDRINITY has experienced, and what are some of the challenges when a brand grows this quickly?

Keith O’Briant 19:40
Yeah, I think we knew we had good products, but but again, coming in, myself was lucky enough to get some teammates to come along that had some industry experience. The way that the industry has embraced us is kind of surprising. I knew we had good products. But they were look. I think we were the right place at the right time. They were looking for a company that had good science, had simple products that worked, and didn’t try to charge an arm and a leg for for them. So I think the rapid growth. I knew it was going to be good, but it’s probably even outpaced a little bit of where we’re probably 12 months ahead of where I thought we were going to be, and with that, you’re building the plane as you’re flying it, and so sometimes it’s a lot of it’s just been internal the systems and the data. How do how do we keep up? How do we make sure because we have this standard for shipping is when an order comes in at 48 hours, it has to go out, has to go out the door, and so when you grow this fast and get that that many orders, you got to make sure you have the right systems in place to capture capture the data, get the shipments out the door, make sure people are where they’re supposed to be. So there’s a lot of logistical and moving moving parts to it, and then you throw the international aspect on there, then it’s we tell everybody it’s not it’s not it’s hard work, but it’s not complicated. It’s just the execution part. It really is. You just have to, you just you can’t think about today. You got to think about next week, next month, and then next year. And you got you got to put your systems into place to be ready for that.

Kara Goldin 21:19
Yeah, definitely. Systems are so so key, and I think that that is you you hit the nail on the head when it comes to growth. Because if you’re not ready to be able to scale, then you’ve got to you know slow it down a little bit in order to scale. Would you agree?

Keith O’Briant 21:38
I would I would agree, and I think speed is is something that we take great pride in here. Being able to launch 11 products in in three years is you got you got to be able to work fast to to make to make that happen. So,

Kara Goldin 21:53
so trends in professional skincare and longevity focused beauty. I’m so curious. What do you think is out there that you think is really just noise? You know, obviously you don’t have millions and millions of products in your lineup. It’s a pretty simple system, right? That that you’re offering to consumers. But are there ones that are out there that are just a lot of noise?

Keith O’Briant 22:20
You know, there there have been brands in in the past. I think a lot of them have already gone away in the last in the last four years since we’ve been here. It overpromising and underdelivered. I I do think there is a lot of noise out there about longevity, regenerative medicine. But actually, I think there’s some companies out there, and I hope that we’re one of those that people think, “Hey, they’re starting to deliver on that promise now. You know, I think exosomes are here are here to stay. I like I like them. I like growth factors, things that have used in in a previous life. They are great delivery systems to be able to get whatever you’re trying to transport down to the dermal layer, so I think exosomes are are here to stay. They’re really they’re really good, and I think I think the synthetic, the biomimetic exosomes that we use, actually, I think they’re even better for a delivery system than human or plant exosomes because you get to systemize, can’t build them. You put exactly what you want. There’s nothing in there that that you don’t know about. When you use other types of exosomes, you don’t you don’t get to choose, pick and choose what’s in there to only to a certain extent. You can’t fully you can’t fully develop it. I think that I think some of the longevity of I I think it’s really good. I think you we’ve always said in other in other medical disciplines, you have to heal from the inside out, and skin is no different. And so I think there’s there’s some things with I’m a big fan of NAD, super hard to work with. You know, you can you can do injections and you can do IVs. That’s still not getting it into the cell, and that’s where that’s where really that’s where it needs to be. But there are there are some things coming that I’ve heard about that are coming. I think are going to be really really exciting, really exciting in in that in that part of it. And peptides are not going anywhere either.

Kara Goldin 24:22
Yeah, it definitely, definitely. So you’ve been in life sciences for three decades now, and building one of the fastest growing professional skincare brands. For anybody listening who’s thinking that their career is just is once you start in something that you have to stay in that industry. You’re you’re clearly a great example of somebody who has expanded beyond what many people do. Did you ever think that hydronity, when you were first starting your career, was was gonna. Happen or be in your future.

Keith O’Briant 25:02
I I tease people all the time. I said, you know, four years ago I couldn’t spell esthetics. I’m still not sure I can some days, but no, absolutely not. And and I do. I I think that’s that’s great. People have to when when the opportunity is there. Sometimes you just have to take it. I tell people all that. Bet on yourself. If you won’t bet on yourself, why should somebody else bet on you? And and you just and you know what? It’s the same science is the same no matter what discipline you’re just looking at different things. Execution is the same no matter where you are. People are the same no matter where you are. If you’ll come in and you’ll listen and you’ll be humble and you’ll try to learn, you’ll try to learn the core elements of that business or that discipline. You’ll get there, but I also tell people just because everybody else does it that way doesn’t mean that you have to. We do a lot of things different than other companies, is because we don’t have those unwritten rules that this is the way that you have to do it. We don’t do minimum orders. There’s a lot of things that that we do that other companies just don’t do, and it’s just because we’re. I like to think we’re open minded enough to do it that way, or maybe just not smart enough to not know how to do it that way. I don’t know which it is, but it’s worked out pretty good so far. So

Kara Goldin 26:26
I love it. Well, Keith, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all of your wisdom. And HYDRINITY is just so incredible. Everyone needs to try these products. Are available as I mentioned in professional offices, but also online at at the website, we’ll have all the info in the show notes as well for everybody to check it out more and and purchase for everyone listening. HYDRINITY Accelerated Skin Science, including it in your next purchase, definitely follow along on the company and also check out what Keith and his team are doing next. So, thank you again, Keith, and thank you everyone for listening. We’ll see you next time on the Kara Goldin Show.

Keith O’Briant 27:15
Thank you, Kara. Appreciate it. Thanks, everybody.

Kara Goldin 27:18
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.

Click to subscribe:

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen OnApple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen OnSpotify
Listen on Overcast
Listen OnOvercast
Listen on PlayerFM
Listen OnPlayerFM

People Also Liked

881

Alysa Seeland: Founder & CEO of FOND Regenerative

880

Heidi Zak: Co-Founder & CEO of Thirdlove

879

Alex Taylor: Co-Founder of Perelel

878

Phantila Phataraprasit: Co-Founder & CEO of Sabai

877

Neka Pasquale: Founder & Chief Product Officer of Urban Remedy