nufabrx21There are tons of acne remedies out there, from facial scrubs to lotions to oral pills.

nufabrx221But one young Seattle startup has a unique way for people to enjoy clear skin: A pillowcase that fights acne while you sleep.

Nufabrx has developed a $29.99 pillowcase that contains bamboo fibers and microcapsules that release a special serum into the skin that helps reduce facial bacteria. The product, which contains tea tree oil, can be washed and typically lasts one year.

Founder and CEO Jordan Schindler, 22, started Nufabrx (formerly Skin Ally) after his dermatologist told him how dirty pillowcases contribute to acne. The company’s overall focus is to administer medications, vitamins, cosmeceuticals and hormones via textiles.

We caught up with Nufabrx’s Gwendolyn Moruzzi to find out more about the four-person startup:

Explain what you do so our parents can understand it (in a Tweet-sized statement): We embed natural oils that have medicinal properties into textiles (right now we have started with a pillowcase) that can help promote repair to the body.

Inspiration hit us when … We went to the dermatologist and they told us how dirty our pillowcases are and how they are as dirty as a toilet seat and cause acne.

VC, Angel or Bootstrap (And Why): Bootstrap, but we are now looking at angels. So far we really enjoy the advising relationships that a lot of successful angel investors have given us. Their previous business experience gives us insight into important decisions.

Nufabrx CEO Jordan
Nufabrx CEO Jordan Schindler

Our ‘secret sauce’ is: Always staying a step ahead, and always throwing ALL of our ideas around even if we think they are bad ones, because you never know which ones have the potential to work.

The smartest move we’ve made so far: Listening to our advisors and their feedback. It allows us to let our company grow in ways we wouldn’t have been able to grow it ourselves.

The biggest mistake we’ve made so far: Buying all of our packaging for thousands of pillowcases only to find that we were going to change it.

Would you rather have Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg or Bezos in your corner: Probably Bezos, because he deals with tangible consumer products the most and could make us the star of Amazon.

Our world domination strategy starts when: We are able to unleash our patent-pending hydrogel technology into our fabrics, and expand our products and create some amazing stuff.

Rivals should fear us because: We are constantly thinking about how to innovate everything and realize that nothing is ever finished and always can be improved.

nufabrx32We are truly unique because: Our product can span out into so many things and our beauty line [Nufabrx] is just the beginning. We hope to create products to help all people in the world. We hope to create anti-malarial as well as anti-bedbug sheets and hope to expand our product as far as self-lubricating contact lenses.

The biggest hurdle we’ve overcome is: Just starting out is hard. When you are making such a new product, it’s hard to find a manufacturer that is going to make you exactly what you want or even understand what is you want. We went through over six prototypes before we found one that gave us what we wanted.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other entrepreneurs just starting out: Be constantly excited about what you are doing and remind yourself everyday how awesome your company is going to become.

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