We Let a Pimple Go Viral and It Worked

Max: Hello there and welcome to another episode of the Innovantage Podcast, where business meets tech to bring you your competitive edge. As always, I'm your host Max, and it's my ongoing job to explore that edge between business and tech and find something interesting for us to discuss. Today's episode is focused on practical AI — AI used to solve people's problems here and now, not in a theoretical future sense but in an actual practical one. And we're going to look at that through the lens of business and the lens of skincare. Helping me on that journey is Dr. Akvile Ignotaite. Welcome, Akvile!

Akvile: Hi, thank you for inviting me.

Max: You're the founder of System Akvile, and you currently have close to a million users globally, right? Tell us a little about yourself — how did you become a doctor, how did you found the company, and how did your road lead you here?

Akvile: Doing my PhD was never the purpose at the beginning. I studied economics in Lithuania, then left for Germany to do my MBA, and after that I felt I wasn't finished yet, so I moved into a PhD. When I met my advisor, he said I needed to go into the data and do statistics because I had the economics background. I said I didn't really know how to do that — I wasn't that into data science. So I got a second professor, and he said, "You need to learn coding and statistics." That's basically how I moved into data — not by choice, but by force. I learned a lot. After the PhD I went into business, worked in M&A and finance, and learned how business is really run. But it didn't feel right for me. I wanted to try my own business, and I thought, if not now, then when? So I left the corporate world and moved into a startup. It was a lot of learning, but that's how System Akvile was born. It was quite a long journey to a million users, but once you find product-market fit, it becomes relatively easy.

Max: That's a nice way of putting it. I speak to a lot of startup founders and investors, and finding product-market fit is 90% of what we talk about. Would you say System Akvile has already found its market fit?

Akvile: I really think we found it, and it's based on data — how much we pay for user acquisition, how long users stay in the app, the virality, all of it. But it was a long journey with a few pivots, because we started as a medical app — very technical, built for millennials. I'm a millennial, so it was how I imagined an app for skin health should be. And it just didn't work. User acquisition was flat; nobody understood the app. It was too technical. So I had to decide: do we kill it, or do we pivot? We decided to pivot and go broader — less medical, more lifestyle and wellness. One of my team members told me, "You need to go on TikTok." I resisted — I didn't understand TikTok, it didn't fit our medical brand identity. But we went on, started learning about our audience, and saw the real product-market fit: not what I thought would work, but what the data and the market were telling us. That completely changed how we develop the product now. Reality hits you in the face.

Max: And it's the same you did with Pimsy — before you even coded it, you launched on TikTok to see if people would like it. The other way around this time.

Akvile: Absolutely. No code written, just two people making the videos and testing Pimsy — and now Pimsy has over 50,000 followers. Only then did I say, okay, let's build the MVP.

Max: For listeners unfamiliar with System Akvile — what is it that you do specifically?

Akvile: We have an app for Gen Z and Gen Alpha focused on skin and health topics. We started with acne-prone skin — pimples — but now we're moving into a broader approach: nutrition, well-being, habits. Skin is the largest organ in the body, but we still treat it as a beauty issue. Our data showed users moving away from just targeting pimples or pores toward general skin-health topics, so we went broader. We recently launched our first expert collaboration, with Dr. Stefan Bart, a scientist in longevity and skin cells.

Max: What does your typical user look like?

Akvile: Our sweet spot is 12 to 21 — younger Gen Z and now Gen Alpha.

Max: And geographically?

Akvile: Around the globe, but we have a strong base in Europe, a strong base in Southeast Asia — India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh — and now good traction in Africa: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa.

Max: That's a diverse set of markets — different user types and different skin types. Does that diversity influence how you build the product?

Akvile: From the beginning, as a data scientist, my main hypothesis was that darker skin is underrepresented in data. That's why we made the app available globally — to get users and data from around the world. One thing to understand about Gen Z and Gen Alpha: even if they live in India, Nigeria, or Germany, their behaviour is very similar, because it's shaped by social media. I always say it's one global community. We adapt small things, but the app is in one language, English, and the features are essentially the same for everyone.

Max: Do you notice differences in user behaviour around the globe, or is it mostly similar?

Akvile: Mostly it's about the market-entry point. Some markets are more advanced in consumer behaviour; others are earlier, still figuring things out. So we look at how to help them understand things faster and simplify our communication — no overly scientific topics.

Max: That sounds like a hard balance. How do you manage it — a huge team, or dedication?

Akvile: The team is very lean. When ChatGPT and AI arrived, we cut the middle layer — product managers, product owners. We use a lot of AI, we're data-driven, and the app is used globally, so we get data daily and can see the trends: how the consumer behaves in Asia, in Africa, and what we can adapt.

Max: Since that transition from human-based to more AI-based work, have you noticed a difference in output — quality up, down, the same?

Akvile: Productivity increased crazily. All those weekly calls and meetings — we killed them, because the team is leaner and it's easier to communicate directly. No more "broken telephone" loops. The speed we have now is insane; sometimes I joke that people work too fast and I can't keep up. When I talk to investors, my team is now so fast. In the past we had so many operational things — HR and so on. AI definitely increased productivity dramatically. Interestingly, I read a study today saying that for people who are already technical and into AI, it increases productivity a lot — but for people who aren't technical, it adds almost nothing.

Max: I can see that. It comes down to data — having correctly structured data. Garbage in, garbage out. For a technical company, especially with you at the helm and your focus on robust data, it's much easier. You've mentioned it took a long time to get here — how much time has passed since you founded the company?

Akvile: Almost too long. We did the pivot in late 2021. The first app was essentially a failure — we didn't close the company, we raised some money on the existing product and moved into the pivot. It was great that existing investors still believed we could pivot. That was the lesson: you can do a lot of preparation, strategies, and fancy decks, but then you launch and reality hits. From 2021, the main focus was growing the user base and getting data. We saw Gen Z and Gen Alpha traction already in 2023, before "Sephora kids" was a topic — kids buying adult products not right for their age. We saw that trend early. Same with India — we started growing there in 2023.

Max: What made you focus on India — a feeling, or data?

Akvile: I woke up one morning and we had 50,000 users from India. I asked, why? An Instagram Reel had gone viral. The next day, another 10,000. So it happened by accident — we didn't plan it. But it made sense: when I later went to India with a German accelerator (I was the only founder from ten startups who actually went), I saw that Gen Z in Europe is Gen Z in India — same behaviour, same trends. I thought, we have product-market fit, and the timing is right. Now the Indian skincare market is booming and companies are moving in. I was like, "Yeah, I told you."

Max: Off camera we talked about the blind spots in skincare tech — a lot of it is based on whiter skin and existing data doesn't cover the skin types many people actually have. Is that still true?

Akvile: Because we got data early, especially from these markets, and because we used some third-party APIs, we started seeing strange results — clear, good data on white skin, but on darker skin tones the AI would say "no pimples detected" when you could clearly see them in the photo. I talked to companies and some said, "You need very high-quality pictures." But tell that to someone in India using a $10 Android phone with a mediocre camera. Why is nobody building tech that works for a large group of people instead of just those who can afford iPhones? I became very vocal about it, because some technology is still very biased.

Max: How do you address that in your own company?

Akvile: We made it clear from the beginning that we don't judge — not in the data, not in how we build the recommendation systems. We're open to different cultures and lifestyles. For example, we deliberately don't do product recommendations or ingredient scanning that labels things "good" or "bad," because that data is based on Western research. Someone into Ayurveda or natural products would be told it's "not scientific" — but who are we to judge? Over 80% of Indians believe in Ayurveda. When I was in India I visited an Ayurvedic doctor; my mentor reminded me Ayurveda has existed for 2,000 years — how long has Western medicine? So now we work with Ayurvedic doctors and have Ayurvedic content in the app. You can't be so ignorant. If it works for them, why not?

Max: You've also stressed that the solution isn't a healthcare product — you're not providing healthcare services. Where do you draw that line?

Akvile: I wouldn't even say skincare — we see ourselves in a preventive, educational context. A diagnosis like "you have acne" — so what? We sit much earlier in the journey: prevention, education, building awareness, helping people figure things out about their own skin health. We're even in discussions with a company in primary wound care — small cuts, plasters, preventing bigger issues. It's about behavioural change before we even talk about diagnosis. Going to a dermatologist is one thing; understanding what works for you is a completely different journey.

Max: With hundreds of thousands of users worldwide, some with big budgets and some with nothing — can you cater to both on the app side, or do you set one goal everyone reaches?

Akvile: It's earlier than the product. Expensive products might work, cheap ones might work — it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, what works for you works, even if it's soap. It's more about educating people: why you need a routine, what hygienic rituals mean, the role of nutrition, whether you should change habits. That's the hard part, because kids today are used to three-second TikTok frames, so getting them to sit and think — "does this make sense for me?" — isn't simple. Sometimes CMOs or CEOs ask me, "What's the secret sauce?" and I say, "A few million." But really it's understanding the audience and making them engage with topics that are good for them.

Max: Everyone's talking about "Sephora kids." How do you find the balance — follow trends and add your experience, or lead with data on something nobody talks about?

Akvile: On social media we go with the flow — with trends — and layer education on top. We use Pimsy a lot for this, because it's easier to make content with an AI character than with humans. In the app we do our own research. In January we ran a study on how beliefs influence people's understanding of skin health — is it geography, age, gender? We learned it's mostly what they absorb on social media. Whether someone's in Hamburg or Mumbai, the beliefs are strikingly similar because they're learned online. So personalising by geography mostly makes no sense anymore — you need to target the beliefs and improve the knowledge.

Max: What kinds of beliefs?

Akvile: Things like "my skin is dirty, that's why I get pimples," or "chocolate causes pimples" — very self-blaming beliefs that trend on social media. Someone says you're getting pimples because you wear makeup, or because you're not "looksmaxxing."

Max: Most of that is exactly what my mother told me as a teenager — you're getting pimples because you're dirty, not eating right, not sleeping right. She just didn't mention looksmaxxing.

Akvile: [laughs] That's true. Social media is dominated by a lot of falsehoods.

Max: So what's the truth — what actually causes pimples?

Akvile: It's complicated. The biology is that pores get blocked, bacteria move in, inflammation starts. But why it happens — genetics, stress, nutrition, allergies, too little or too much sleep — it can be so many things. One person can eat chocolate every day and have perfect skin; another can't. Nobody really knows. The point is it's not about self-blame. Most people already do a lot — they have routines, often too many products. I break out sometimes from overdoing products myself. But so much of it is genetics and things you can't change. Now imagine you're 12 or 15, feeling like you're doing something wrong, and an influencer shows up promising a quick way out through looksmaxxing or injecting something. That's where it becomes dangerous. There are more dermatologists on social media now, but there are still too many people who think having an opinion makes them an expert. That's where we fit — we don't judge kids or tell them they're doing something wrong. We give them the right tools to try things and think for themselves.

Max: You mentioned 65% of the kids coming to Pimsy from TikTok are boys, and they're into gaming. What can you do with that in the app?

Akvile: We're launching missions — not a to-do list, because nobody wants a to-do list. It's gamified, it's on-trend, it's a "mission."

Max: A to-do list for the TikTok generation.

Akvile: [laughs] Exactly. Kids are into gaming now, so — missions.

Max: That's part of why Duolingo is so popular, and part of what it gets criticised for — the gamification is so good that people enjoy the process even if they're not learning that much. Funnily enough, my wife started learning chess on Duolingo. I've always tried to get her to play, but she'd get bored. With the gamified missions she finally has the drive to win a game against the AI.

Akvile: Duolingo actually inspired Pimsy. I tried learning Italian on it — I kept getting the word "tartaruga," turtle, and I thought, why do I need this? I went to Rome and the only word I'd learned was tartaruga — I couldn't order food, but I knew "turtle." Still, the process is fun. I kept seeing the Duolingo owl on social media and wanted something like that. My team pitched ideas for three or four months and I didn't feel any of them. Then my designer said, "Let's do a pimple." I thought, a pimple isn't cute — can a pimple be cute? She came back with Pimsy, and I said yes.

Max: So tell us what Pimsy is — what function does it serve?

Akvile: Pimsy is a digital character, but also an influencer and an educator. Pimsy has its own personality — Pimsy is a pimple — and talks about skin health and skincare, has friends, has a lifestyle.

Max: It's hard to imagine what lifestyle a pimple can have.

Akvile: Everyone's watching Love Island, so we launched Pimsy watching "Ingredient Love Island" with friends — three characters: retinol, niacinamide, and now, for some drama, salicylic acid. With AI it's easy to make a lot of this; you just need creativity. What we try to do with Pimsy is take the shame out of topics people don't want to talk about openly. Skin issues can feel shameful, so making Pimsy a little cute helps. And now we're building Pimsy as an agentic AI, so soon people will be able to talk to Pimsy.

Max: Aren't you worried that as an AI agent, given hallucinations, Pimsy might start recommending something like looksmaxxing because it's trending?

Akvile: We built a lot of guardrails before development even started. With Pimsy we went the other way around — we launched it on TikTok as an influencer first, got comments and questions from real people across countries, and used that data to prepare the AI: the guardrails, the personality "books," how to address very young users, how to keep Pimsy out of medical territory, how to handle attempts to break the AI's pattern. Pimsy lived for eight or nine weeks on TikTok before we fed all of that into development. That was extremely helpful.

Max: Will Pimsy face the same Western-bias problem — enough data from TikTok Gen Z, but Nigeria and Hamburg being very different audiences? When will it have enough data to be impartial?

Akvile: We already fed that information into Pimsy's training, because we can see which countries people come from and what they ask. We trained it to address a global community, to be careful with certain topics, and never to recommend expensive things — to keep advice simple and accessible in any country, on any budget.

Max: Do you think everyone will eventually have a digital companion — a Pimsy for everyone — and will users need to be more educated, or will the AI become advanced enough that they can just ask anything?

Akvile: We're at a crossroads as a society. I keep asking industry leaders why nobody is doing something similar in health, because healthcare is becoming so expensive — in Germany, insurance keeps going up while prevention goes down. The main things people use AI for are companions and digital girlfriends. In China I saw devices where you scan your vitals before going to a hospital, and the AI routes you if needed. So it will probably come; we'll see what the experience looks like. My bet is on Pimsy, of course — no bias there.

Max: Most teenagers are unhappy with how their skin looks. Will you have enough data to predict how someone's skin will develop, given genetics, environment, and routines — or will it stay a back-and-forth between human and AI?

Akvile: My real question is whether we even need that. Our data shows users are already unhappy with their skin before they arrive — even without any medical condition — because they're growing up on beauty filters, and reality doesn't match the filtered version. Can AI change that in a good way, or will people start looking more and more artificial? For us, AI should help people understand that maybe they don't look as bad as they think. Instead of "you have five pores and two pimples" — drama — say, "you look beautiful, and here are five tips to improve your sleep, nutrition, and mood."

Max: That's insightful. Looks are the culmination of everything else — it's hard to look good on no sleep, regardless of products.

Akvile: And it's about perception — how you feel about yourself. Helping people improve that perception should be the focus, rather than telling them they need this or that product.

Max: Looking to the future — what's next for the company? A billion-dollar enterprise, or expansion into different kinds of care?

Akvile: We want to become the leading platform for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, growing globally. The next step is expanding Pimsy into China — we're already strong in Southeast Asia, so China is the logical next market. It's very hard to penetrate with software, so we'll try the same approach we used with Pimsy: launch on social media first, see the feedback, then bring the app.

Max: Good luck — fingers crossed. To simplify it for founders still trying to find market fit: what's the one metric you'd always track?

Akvile: One metric is hard — we track many. But my real advice: do strategy on the weekends; execution is what counts. Launch fast. Don't over-strategise, or you'll fall in love with your own decks — and product-market fit is usually different from what's written on the slide. Learn from the market really fast. It's better to fail fast than to fail slowly. Coming from academia, that was hard to learn, because in academia you research for months or years before doing anything.

Max: What metrics do you track when launching fast?

Akvile: Retention, daily installs, WAU, MAU. In new markets we watch deletion rates — when users bounce and what it means, what audience we're attracting, time spent in the app. For Pimsy on TikTok we tracked followers and engagement, not just posting daily. In the app we track how many data points we collect per user, whether that's going up or down, and how trends move — like spotting the shift toward gaming and adapting the product. Data, data, data. Every morning I check the analytics, because if you don't, you miss things — like login being broken after a release, and suddenly hundreds of bad reviews saying "I can't log in."

Max: What's the most overrated thing in the skincare market right now — something that will fade?

Akvile: I don't want to say it — but I think the face-scanning technologies will need to pivot at some point. The data lags for different skin colours, and they tend to feed insecurities. Every time an investor does a face scan in a demo, the results come back and the reaction is "oh no" rather than "wow, cool." It's literally feeding insecurities.

Max: Hopefully that fades. Everything online is insecurity-focused right now — if you're angry you get more anger, if you're unsure about how you look, there's the looksmaxxing rabbit hole. Jumping back to today: you're a very lean, AI-focused startup, in an environment full of hype and promises that won't come true. What's your advice to survive as a founder in that?

Akvile: Be very strategic. If you're a serial entrepreneur with strong venture-capital contacts, you can raise on almost any idea, even a copycat or something vibe-coded — go for it if it works for you. But for everyone else, you need to be strategic about which tech you invest in and where you focus. From the beginning we said data is what we do. We don't try to reinvent the wheel or compete with Google. We write our own code, but we'll never build an OpenAI copy — that's unrealistic. Big tech giants are ramping up and launching fast; I read this morning that Lovable might soon be irrelevant because Claude or Perplexity launched vibe-coding features. So focus on the real-life application that makes sense for your audience.

Max: And the strategy becomes the data again, or the users, or the connections?

Akvile: It depends on the founder — play to your strength. If you have the contacts, you can fundraise on any idea that's hot now and pivot later; that's a strategy too. I come from private equity, not venture capital, so I have to be strategic about where I put the money and which technology. If we built what Google just launched, investors would ask why they should fund us. Instead we build what our users want, so we have traction and product-market fit.

Max: Makes sense. Thank you for the advice — it was a very insightful discussion. Where can people find you?

Akvile: On TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and our own website. Ping me on LinkedIn — happy to talk. Thank you.

Max: Thank you very much. And thank you for listening today. I hope you learned something about your skin, which is the largest organ in your body. If you liked this episode, tell us in the comments — and if you didn't, leave a comment too, so we can make the next one better. See you then. Bye-bye.

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