Women in Dermatology: Iris Rubin, MD

The Fixer

“I love science and how things work,” says Dr. Rubin, who has applied that love to various aspects of the patient experience. She was once called out by the head of her practice for not selling enough product; she was uncomfortable selling products that were more expensive than drugstore ones, without a point of differentiation and greater benefit. Now, as founder of a haircare products line, Dr. Rubin is not actively practicing dermatology but still focuses on what attracted her to the specialty: “an opportunity to fix things.”

Even as a child, Iris Rubin, MD says, she “never liked to see anyone suffering.” Her interest in medicine shifted from internal medicine to dermatology—”I loved the visual nature of it. I loved the fact that you could do medical dermatology. You could also work with lasers.” For years she worked part-time at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC as medical director of the vascular laser program, which, “was really gratifying.” She left practice to launch a line of skin-friendly haircare products, because she believes hair care can dramatically impact skin.

What prompted you to launch SEEN? Why did you leave practice?

Iris Rubin, MD: I discovered what I considered a big clinical problem that was an unmet need. I, personally, was getting breakouts and acne from haircare products. I started to wonder how many other people are getting acne or other skin issues from haircare products. We did a study showing that any time you use a haircare product, it deposits on your skin and can stay on your skin for hours—not just on your scalp, but also on your face and your back.

We developed SEEN, which took more than four years, to be haircare products that are skin friendly—non-comedogenic and non-irritating. It took so long to develop because of the fact that we were trying to hit two metrics: beautiful hair and healthy skin.

Recently, we did a dermatologist-graded acne study that showed that by changing to SEEN, 70 percent of study participants with body acne improved after eight weeks, and 52 percent with face acne improved after eight weeks. Our four-week dermatologist-graded dry scalp study showed that 93 percent of subjects with dry scalp improved.

I believe haircare products are skincare products, since they get on the skin and can stay on the skin for hours. They just have not been developed that way.

When we developed SEEN products, I was still in practice. To be in the operating room, launch a product line, have three kids, I felt like I had a lot going on at the same time. It took about four years to develop our first products. The tipping point was once I had a product in hand, I realized that launching a brand is not a part-time job. I could have handed it off to someone, but I wanted to be involved; for me, it’s all encompassing to be an entrepreneur.

Were you always interested in business?

Dr. Rubin: I have an identical twin sister who went to Harvard Business School when I went to Harvard Medical School. And even when we were kids, she was always starting businesses. When I was transitioning from internal medicine to dermatology, I wanted to explore business and worked briefly at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. So, I was getting some business experience along the way, but I never really saw myself as a business person until I launched SEEN.

I love learning new things, so SEEN has been really exciting in that sense. I soon realized that I needed help on the business side so I partnered with my twin sister’s husband Greg, who’s a Wharton MBA, to launch SEEN. I’m mostly focused on the science side, the IP side, the pipeline. Greg heads up operations and marketing. We work together on strategy and business development.

What is your best advice to others?

Dr. Rubin: If you have an idea, don’t listen to naysayers. I think when things are innovative, often people will say, “No, that’s not going to work.” But if you really believe in something, do the research. Getting the science to prove your hypothesis is important.

It’s important to make sure your concept will work as a business, because you don’t want to develop something and then not be able to get it out to people who would benefit.

Developing the product is just one part of the process. Getting the right partners is important, because it’s not something you can do alone. You need the right partners for formulation, marketing, operations and more.

Get a gut check on whether or not your idea is something that’s really going to help people by talking to people and doing your research on what’s out there, and where the unmet need is. Then get the science down and see if there’s a business model that works. Is there anything else out there like what you want to build? Is yours better? And then, obviously, funding, which is another important aspect, because developing your product takes resources.

What was your biggest challenge in business to date?

Dr. Rubin: The biggest challenge for launching the product line was perseverance, because there’s just so much involved. In business, you can’t pick up a textbook and get a roadmap. There’s a lot more uncertainty and there’s definitely a need for grit and perseverance to make things happen.

There’s a difference between having a product and a business. Someone may have an idea for a product, which is great, but it takes more to make something into a business that will continue to grow. With SEEN, we’re continually innovating and developing new products that are based on science and will help people.

Is more support for entrepreneurship needed in dermatology, especially for women?

Dr. Rubin: So much innovation could happen if there were a bridge from clinicians’ discovery of problems to being able to create solutions. There is a group at Harvard, led by Dr. Rox Anderson and Dr. Lilit Garibyan, working on a Magic Wand project to do just that, to basically give dermatologists the education they need to be able to translate, if they see a problem, to create a solution.

What interests me about business is figuring out, if I have a solution, how do I get it out there so people can benefit?

As doctors we are trained that industry has bias, which it does. There is this undertone where business is seen as separate from medicine, that we have to be purists. I think that’s a little bit of a challenge to get past. At least for me, it took me a while to realize, “I can actually do business and do good.” Those are not conflicting.

Women on our team have been critical. For example, our cosmetic chemistry team includes women, who have been key to developing skin-friendly luxury hair care. In the development process, we test formulations internally first, and having women chemists on the team to test these products has been incredibly helpful. In general, women use more hair care products than men, so it just makes sense that hair care would be designed and developed by a team that includes women.

I really believe that some of the best solutions come from clinicians who make these observations, and I would just say go for it if you have an idea.

I don’t know if there’s a single mentor that can give you A to Z if you’re trying to develop a device or a product, but it’s probably more like a constellation of mentors. It’s unlikely that one person can give you all the advice you will need, especially since the nature of that advice will change over time as the business takes shape and then starts to grow. We always like to say that we look for “been there, done that” people to learn from their advice and experience.

What have been your greatest personal and professional challenges and accomplishments?

Dr. Rubin: I think the greatest challenge was learning to say no. Learning to say no just allowed me to show up in the way I wanted to for my kids and my family and for SEEN.

For me, a big success has been structuring my career so I can show up for my family in the way that I want to. One of the benefits of being an entrepreneur is it just gives a lot of flexibility, which has been great as a mom of three kids.

Another success is just learning to be authentically and boldly myself, coloring outside the lines, making my own rules and just going for it. And not listening to the naysayers. We need more female-founded businesses and I feel really proud to be a female founder.

It was challenging for me to leave clinical practice since practicing medicine was such a core part of my identity, but I knew that I had to do it to launch SEEN in the way I wanted to. It was hard to allow myself to take that leap, but I’m certainly glad that I did it. We routinely hear from people who say that SEEN is life-changing, and it’s been humbling and exciting to create products that positively impact people’s lives.