B Factory hopes to keep you young and beautiful

Roh Jungseok, CEO of the cosmetics startup B Factory, is seen as somewhat of a maverick by the cosmetics industry. He is neither a seasoned marketer nor a beauty expert; he did not major in chemistry, which is widely considered an essential foundation for a career in cosmetics. Having spent the last two decades in software engineering, he lacks connections within the cosmetics industry. Perhaps more notably, he has set himself apart from existing cosmetics firms by choosing to entirely bypass costly marketing gimmicks that increase sales and brand awareness, and rather focus solely on developing products that he claims are genuinely able to improve the skin and protect it from aging. Though it may sound counterintuitive to some, he seeks to apply lessons learned from his background in software to cosmetics.

“I felt the tail was wagging the dog within the existing cosmetics industry, as legacy players placed far too much emphasis on trivial concerns, such as packaging and customer experience, rather than prioritizing actual quality ingredients and tangible benefits,” said Roh in an interview with The Miilk. He added “These industry stalwarts have grown complacent within their outdated business practices, which has prevented them from venturing into new areas.”

A new approach to adding value

As an engineer, Roh explained, he felt that the market had been led astray, and that he would be able to resolve these problems by applying software that provided customers with true value for money. 

“Making a new cosmetics product is as simple as cooking,” he articulated. “Put simply, all it requires is the right ingredients combined with precision.”

An avid fan of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, Roh seeks to apply that company’s over-the-air updates  to cosmetics to provide customers with varying proportions of ingredients to suit their specific skin conditions and needs. B Factory has achieved this by allowing individual customers to tailor the formula and ingredients list of their cosmetics by themselves. The company also tracks consumer feedback to offer customers personalized recommendations, like a cosmetics shopping assistant. Currently, this feedback is handled and processed by human consultants, but the Korean startup is working to develop an AI system that would serve as a fully automated beauty assistant.

The democratization of privilege

Roh feels that the market always rewards those who democratize services and products previously owned and enjoyed exclusively by the social elite. 

The beauty and healthcare industries are both prime examples of this trend in practice: initially, only the wealthiest are able to access the most advanced clinical support and products; as technology advances and costs drop, however, the general public are gradually able to gain access to those same services and benefits. 

B Factory’s nanotechnology solution, called MOASIS, is part of the entrepreneur’s efforts to democratize skincare and, later, the biotech industry, which Roh hopes to enter in the coming years. 

MOASIS morphs bigger molecules into those as small as just 5 nanometers in diameter, while preserving the initial properties, to allow for ingredients to be more easily absorbed into the skin. The solution has been applied to its signature brands, including KYYB--an abbreviation of 'keep you young and beautiful.'

“Most existing hyaluronic acid-based products just sit on the skin’s surface, failing to live up to their marketing’s lofty promises,” said Roh. “Ours, however, do actually get absorbed by the skin, keeping you more effectively moisturized,” he added, lashing out at the misleading marketing promises of more complacent established cosmetics firms. 

The company has so far launched just a couple of products, in keeping with its ethos of only releasing items that are substantially different from any existing products on the market. 

Despite B Factory’s limited product lines, the CEO affirmed that “the company is in no hurry to attract fresh funding, as it is already generating revenue.”

In its Series A round in April 2021, the company received a combined 4 billion won from four investors: Signite Partners, Stonebridge Ventures, PKSHA Capital, and Cosmax.

From infamy to fame

Roh gained notoriety as a hacker back in 1996, when he was a student at the tech university KAIST, during which time he crashed the computer system of KAIST’s rival POSTECH. He now says that, although he regrets the immaturity of his actions, which earned him 40 days in jail, they taught him that “even if you hit rock bottom, it’s not the end of the world.”

“Expectations for an upstart like me were so low after the hacking incident that I felt entirely free to choose my own path in life, removed from more mundane academic or career pressures,” he added. 

That single incident more than 25 years ago changed his life entirely. In contrast to his friends, who went on to apply to and work for established conglomerates like Samsung, Roh forged his own path as an entrepreneur, establishing an online security firm which later debuted on the stock market. He also sold his blogging tool service firm, Tatter and Company, to Google in 2008, marking the internet giant’s first and only acquisition of a Korean startup. 

Though he used to work for Google and SK Telecom, he strove to step out of his comfort zone by starting new businesses. 

Despite logging some understandable failures alongside his bevy of successes, he emphasizes that, at the end of the day, persistence is the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur. 

“I always tell my 17-year-old son, ‘If you really want to be successful, pick the riskiest of all the options available to you and stick at it,’” said Roh. He added, “The greater the risk, the greater the reward.”

Moorea Mehta (m.p.a.mehta@gmail.com) contributed to the editing of this story.