Olivia sits down with Ahana, founder and CEO of Clear, a YC-backed beauty tech company that tells you which skincare products actually do something instead of just draining your wallet. Ahana went from physics student to accidental entrepreneur after years of acne, useless prescriptions, and too many doctors who didn’t talk to each other. Armed with spreadsheets, photos of her own face, and a healthy disregard for industry nonsense, she built Clear to track products like a science experiment and crowdsource real results.

They talk about raising money when investors think “skincare app” is a cute hobby, why she refuses to hire a giant team, and how running a startup can wreck your health if you let it. Ahana is refreshingly honest about the grind, the late-night YC pitches, and the reality of building a company with just two full-time humans and a lot of stubborn focus.

Key Takeaways

• Data beats marketing: Clear uses real user results to recommend products, not influencer hype.
• Talk to users first: Ahana did months of interviews before writing a single line of code.
• Small team, big output: Two people, plenty of discipline, no excuses.
• Health isn’t optional: Burnout is real, and founders don’t get an HR department to save them.
• Transparency matters: Inside the app and inside the company, clarity wins.