SKINSTATE · 16 — FOUNDERS

Founders.

The team behind SKINSTATE — complementary operators pairing brand-building and commercial scale-up experience with financial and analytical rigour.

ACExplore more ↗

Dr. Angelo Castello

Co-founder

Scientist turned luxury-brand operator: immunology research at Cambridge and UCL published in Science; seven years in Bain & Company's Luxury & Fashion vertical; founder of SOTHERGA, Italy's first luxury aesthetic-medicine brand; now leading the FaceGym turnaround as a founder-led PE asset.

Career highlights

2009–13 — Immunology research, University of Cambridge & UCL; published in Science.
2013–20 — Bain & Company, Luxury & Fashion vertical: 50+ projects for brands from €100m to €4bn revenue.
2018–23 — Founder, SOTHERGA: doctor-led, tech-first luxury aesthetic clinics (Milan).
2023– — FaceGym: 4× studio EBITDA, breakeven in 21 months, 13→46 locations signed.

Bringing to SKINSTATE

Scientific rigour + luxury brand-building + clinic operations — the exact SKINSTATE stack.
Built the SKINSTATE concept, financial model and market evidence base — the UK's most complete aesthetic-clinics dataset (17,000+ clinics).

View career timeline →

ScienceStrategyBrandClinics

MExplore more ↗

Matt Grech-Smith

Co-founder

Two decades building real-world experiences worth leaving the house for: co-founder & CEO of Swingers, where he coined “competitive socialising”, raised $100m+ from institutional investors and scaled the brand across London, Washington D.C., New York, Las Vegas and Dubai.

Career highlights

2002–12 — Founder, Rough Hill: the UK's largest youth events organiser (25+ weekly events); acquired 2012.
2012–14 — Founder & MP, VCCP Live: experiential campaigns for O2, Coca-Cola, McLaren.
2015–26 — Co-founder & CEO, Swingers / ICS: $100m+ raised, 6 cities, 700+ staff, Fast Company Most Innovative Companies 2025 (#4 live events).
Sunday Times Maserati 100 · LDC & Telegraph 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders · Leader of the Year.

Bringing to SKINSTATE

The experience-economy playbook — brand, space, guest journey, execution — applied to premium clinics.
Proven venue-template roll-out across markets, institutional fundraising and one of few British brands to crack the US.

View career timeline →

ExperiencesBrandExpansionFundraising

Skin in the game.

Both founders invest personally alongside external capital — committed at the first close, before any institutional money.

Founder commitment (V07 plan): Matt £500k · Angelo £250k · external raise £17.0m