OUR STORY

How it all started (2015)

Based out of New York, the team behind Fordyce Gel came together in 2015 to take the most current scientific data on Fordyce spots and push the envelope even further. On a side note, at the time our primary interest was in the genetic link between Fordyce spots in the oral mucosa and colorectal oncology. Our goal was simply to do a retrospective study and get published.

We certainly did not set out to develop a therapeutic strategy, let alone launch a full-fledged treatment to effectively resolve Fordyce spots over the next 5 years. This semi-tangential move came amidst our literature discovery process when we learned something quite surprising about the Fordyce spots research landscape.

What we found was that the medical community had a disjointed theory of why Fordyce spots formed. There was a lot of variability in histological examinations and this led to varying hypotheses for what was happening under the skin surface.

There were obvious statistical disparities relating to how often Fordyce spots occurred in both sexes. While some grouped Fordyce spots with sebaceous hyperplasia, others drew a sharp line differentiating the two and calling Fordyce spots a problem primarily of ectopicity.

What we discovered was that everyone was right in their own way. It turned out that the variability found within Fordyce spots lead to variability in their proposed etiologies. It was just that no one had taken all the literature and put together a complete picture of the condition through a thorough metaanalysis.

So that’s exactly what we did. It took us two years to put together a unified theory of Fordyce spots’ etiology based on an exhaustive literature analysis.

Based on that work, what was born as a result was a clear therapeutic path towards a product that would eventually be called Fordyce Gel.

Unique challenges (2017)

When we completed our work on creating a unified therapeutic approach to treating Fordyce spots, the next step was to identify suitable therapeutic candidate compounds. However, just like Everest climbers that get all the way to the Hillary Step realize, the hardest part of the climb was yet ahead.

We were faced with unique challenges when it came to these candidate compounds…

• For instance, lipase was the leading candidate to target the breakdown of sebum, but its fatty acid byproducts were showing slight dose-dependent proinflammatory properties. Where we balanced this effect by introducing a potent anti-inflammatory compound like AKBA, we had to keep its effect measured because collagen remodeling (one of the therapeutic targets) utilized part of the common inflammatory pathways.
• Where salicylic acid was showing promise in partial reduction of sebum production, it promoted photosensitivity – which had to be carefully balanced with Quercetin’s UV protective properties.
• Similarly, where retinaldehyde became the ideal candidate for modulating sebaceous activity, it promoted dermal thickness which could potentially interfere with ingredient delivery. So, we had to slightly counter this effect by using Polyhyroxy acids in an almost antagonistic fashion.

There were countless such challenges that required adjusting dosages, introducing adjunct compounds, eliminating promising substances and rethinking therapeutic strategies.

The methodical effort to make the therapy as comprehensive and effective as possible eventually led us to a formulation of ingredients that turned out to be greater than the sum of its parts. Thus was born the Fordyce Gel therapy.

A product is born (2018)

In early 2018, we finally launched a combination therapy that showed tremendous promise in treating Fordyce spots. Indeed, 9 out of 10 sufferers saw an immediate response to the gels and were very satisfied with their results.

However, what really bogged us down were the remaining 10% that seemed to be non-responders (and vocal ones at that). Now most companies would take a 90% success rate and run to the bank. Afterall, you can refund the other 10% of people and just call it a cost of doing business.

However, being a research focused entity, we just couldn’t ignore such an obvious aberrance in results. Why was the therapy working for everyone except these individuals? Were they misusing the product? Had they misdiagnosed their condition?

As our subject pool grew, the 10% non-responder figure stayed steady. It had to be us, not them.

We weren’t about to use Occam’s razor as our crutch.

We knew we could no longer ignore this issue and had to go back to the drawing board to figure out what was going on.

What we found was humbling.

We fell in the same trap that we initially identified with existing research – we treated Fordyce spots as a monolith and did not take its extreme variability into account.

We realized that people had variable epidermal thicknesses, immune-sensitivities, gland depths, etc. Moreover, we made the critical mistake of treating the lips and genital tissue alike.

There was no way a single formula was going to address the problem in all the people with Fordyce spots at different locations of their body. We had created a therapy for the average person but the average person didn’t exist. Everyone was unique.

We needed a more nuanced approach.

It soon became clear, if we were to push our success rate closer to 100% we would not only need more strengths (both stronger and milder), we would need to customize our formulations separately for the lips and penile/labial skin.

And that’s exactly what we did.

We developed a therapy so comprehensive that nothing similar to it has been created since.

Fordyce Gel came in 6 strengths and targeted Fordyce spots on the penile skin, scrotum and labia.

Fordyce Balm too came in 6 strengths and targeted Fordyce spots on the lips.

24 custom formulations (Day and Night Gel) in total that could help anyone, regardless of the severity of their problem, peculiarities of their skin or location of the spots.

We launched the new therapy and noticed that not only did the previous non-responders start seeing immediate results, others reported seeing faster results with fewer side effects.

The effort to help the 10% ended up also helping the other 90% as well. We can’t help but find a sense of poetic karma in
that.

Everything seemed to be truly perfect, well except for one small lingering issue…

Maturing from a research lab into a topical product company (2020)

Here we were, having launched a highly focused therapy with 12 different treatment options, aiming to decimate that 10% non-responder figure and to a large extent we did succeed.

Our treatment success rate climbed from 90% to 95%. And that’s nothing to balk at. A 95% success rate is essentially a guarantee that a product works. But somewhere we felt like this splinter was only half way out.

Who were these remaining non-responders and why didn’t the therapy work for them? The effort to answer this question taught us lessons that left our company transformed.

Imagine our surprise when we learned that our treatment approach was missing a key element. A component that determined how the product would be used by thousands of people. This critical component was the Fordyce spots sufferer.

We were so focused on the research that we never truly paid attention to how the product was being used in the real world.

Our interactions with our customers made us realize, they simply didn’t have the time to engage with the therapy the way we thought they would.

No one buys a medicated gel and sits there reading 3 pages of instructions. In fact, most people barely read the directions on the box. And for good reason. Everyone’s time is valuable and they have better, more interesting things to do.

We were too naïve. We just never noticed the disconnect between what we were offering and how people were using it.

• Though moving to another strength would improve a person’s success rate, many were simply not requesting those other strengths
• People didn’t know to proceed through the therapy or what to look out for during their treatment
• Many weren’t even aware that we had a separate product specifically made for the lips and instead just used the therapy made for the genital region.

This was on us. We had to grow up from lab dwelling scientists into customer facing guides. We had to mature as a company.

And so we did.

• We started to deeply engage with the customer. Our customer service lines and online chat started operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• We simplified product usage – Use the day gel in the morning and the night gel at night. That’s it.
• We valued the customer’s time even more by shipping out all orders same day and upgraded every package to priority shipping.
• We made requesting other strengths free of charge and automated the process.
• We took away purchase anxiety by lowering our price and extending our money back guarantee period to 1 full year.
• We even contracted with licensed doctors to answer customer questions.
• Most incredible of all, in 2019 we started harnessing the power of artificial intelligence in our research and development efforts. In 2020, we made handed this power over to our customers in the form of the DocLab app.

The DocLab app is essentially like having a doctor by your side 24 hours a day:

• The app has the ability to take a look at your Fordyce spots through your camera and suggest the best treatment strength for you
• It can track your results better than the human eye and predict when you’ll be completely Fordyce spot-free
• It can catch signs of inflammation before you can and help guide you to a better strength
• It can tell if your current therapy isn’t progressing and can automatically request a stronger strength formula at no charge
• It gives you 24 hour access to a doctor to have all your technical questions answered

The release of this app has been our most satisfying achievement yet because it truly takes away any guesswork or complications of using the therapy. It boosts the effectiveness of the treatment to the point where the only reason one might not see a near 100% success rate is if they never used the DocLab app.

Which finally brings us to where we are today…