What on earth is methylene blue? Quiz, a question for you, and how has a Moco-based business made it the centerpiece of their product line that helps longevity, hair growth, and other benefits for the human condition? Up next, we talk to Yasmin Elcordine, CEO of MBlue Labs.
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AnnouncerGood day,
and welcome to What's Happening Moco, an authentic, unscripted podcast from your Montgomery County government. Now, it's your host, Derek Kennedy.
Derrick KennyGood day, and welcome to What's Happening Moco. Just 11 months or so ago, or maybe a little bit longer, we were at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair and we met a MoCO-based business called MBlue Labs. And even though it's hot and it was a whole lot of humidity, our good friend here, CEO, Yasmeen, El Cordeen of MBlue Labs, was there to talk to us about her organization. And since then, she's had some updates and some new innovations. And one thing we love more, or as much as business in Moco, is innovation. Yasmeen, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. Boy, I can't believe it's been a year. And that was a really hot day full of lots of animals.
Derrick KennyVery hot day. It was a very hot day. Yeah. You really toughed your way through it. And we learned a lot of great things about your organization. But that day, we talked a little bit about affair as well. But today is all about business. Today is the business episode of the What's Happening Moco podcast. Big, bold business episode. And what better way to feature an episode about business than to talk about a MoCO-based business that's been doing great business for quite some time?
SPEAKER_01That's right. So you started out by saying, What is methylene blue?
What is methylene blue? It sounds exotic.
SPEAKER_01It is. It's also very old. It's a magic molecule. It was actually discovered 150 years ago. We're celebrating the 150th, actually this week, for this ingredient. It was one of the very first medicines ever derived, and it was an antiviral for malaria. That was its origin. Yes. Wow. Over the last 150 years, it has been used for blood disorders as an antibacterial antiviral. It's been studied for neuroprotective, like Alzheimer's disease. It's cardioprotective. It's a laboratory diet. It's an amazingly, really super versatile ingredient. It just goes on and on. What we discover about this ingredient. And so Dr. Sow, who is a professor at the University of Maryland in cellular biology, she studies human aging.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow. Okay.
SPEAKER_01She's my co-founder and business partner here for MBLU Labs. She discovered methylene blue when used topically on human skin reverses the cellular aging of the skin cells. Oh wow. So that was an amazing discovery back in 2017.
Derrick KennySo the fountain of youth for skin? Yes. Okay. Pretty much.
SPEAKER_01Fountain of youth for skin. And we just really literally in May introduced a hair growth product with methylene blue as well. That took us two years of research.
Derrick KennyHow ironic. A hair growth formula, you say. You might have a client somewhere nearby. I'm not sure. Okay, yep.
SPEAKER_01So we're very excited about uh having discovered all these new applications of an age-old medicine.
Derrick KennyWow. When did you guys get started? And I just wanted to ask the question the name of your company is MBLU Labs. That's met that's a short way to say MBLU, M ethylene Blue, right?
SPEAKER_02That's right. Yeah.
Derrick KennyHow how long ago did you guys get started? And how did you guys connect? She's a she's a professor, uh, your business. How did you guys come together? How long ago was that?
SPEAKER_01It's a fun story. So in
2018, the university had filed patents on this beautiful new ingredient that she discovered at UMD. Uh, and it was time to see if this product can go to market. Very clearly, the application was going to be anti-aging for the skin. Uh, the university has a program, it's called UM Ventures, and they look for CEOs to match scientists with when there's something super cool, like Netherland Blue, that comes out of a research. Very cool. So they found me. I had been in high-tech for many years and was ready to just change industries, do something new, you know, follow my dream of building a startup. And so we very serendipitously connected. I'm an alumna of UMD, and so it's been really fun. All right, yeah and start a company out of there together. Uh, we got our funding from TEDCo, which is the Maryland Investment Fund. That was our seed fund.
SPEAKER_02All right, cool.
SPEAKER_01So with that in our pockets in 2018, we built our very first product, just a single product, and we launched it on Amazon right in January of 2019.
Derrick KennyWhat was the first product that you guys made?
SPEAKER_01It was a night cream. We called it a day and night cream, a single product. And uh it was, you know, the the beauty industry is very crowded. There are 3,000 beauty brands and 300 of them are skincare. I mean, it's an incredibly crowded field. So back then we said, let's start our brand on Amazon because we have consumers who are ready to go buy something and might be searching anti-aging night cream and find us. And that was a really good way to start because it was economical. We could grow our customer base with advertising that was really targeted to that Amazon customer. So we we did it completely differently from a traditional beauty brand because we're we weren't, you know, she's a scientist. I came from high tech. So we just looked at everything with fresh new eyes.
Derrick KennyAnd when
and when when you tell people that you have anti-aging cream, what should they expect?
SPEAKER_01That's a really great question. So methylene blue, let me tell you what it does and then how long it takes. Methylene blue goes inside the skin cell. It's called a fibroblast, and it actually fixes the mitochondria. That's the energy powerhouse of all our human cells. And so, healthy cells, when they turn over skin, is every 28 days, they'll make replicas of healthy cells, and those make lots of collagen and elastin. Those are the tissues that prop our skin up the building blocks. So with methylene blue, we double collagen and elastin in about four weeks. You have to catch one cell cycle of 28 days. But the applications our customers tell us even overnight, the first time they try it, they have a glow the next day. And so within a couple of weeks, they see some really beautiful results and four to six weeks for really the full expression of the new tissues developing.
Derrick KennyWow. So you guys have quite a bit of longevity for a startup. You guys are eight years old this year. So congratulations.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
Derrick KennyUm, and now the nerd in me is thinking mitochondria, isn't that the same thing that we sit here in Star Wars that makes Jedi's Jedi?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, you know, it's it's the energy center of every one of our trillions of cells in the body. So it's a super important part of aging and/or living well and healthy.
Derrick KennyOh, wow, fantastic. All right, so since then, you started off with a day, a night-to-day cream.
Yeah.
Derrick KennyUh, what are some of the things that you have now that you want to highlight that over the years you've developed as useful for potential customers?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So we now have 12 SKUs. We started with just a single one. I brought a few of them just uh to show you. But the uh hair serum, which is working on hair regrowth, is our most recent, most uh incredible launch. And we'll talk a little bit more about the science, about why that actually works better than monoxidil, which has been around for decades.
Derrick KennyCan I have that?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Uh another new one is hair density.
Derrick KennyOkay, cool.
SPEAKER_01Since you and I met, another new one is our Fit Plus firm serum. We saw a lot of GLP1 users getting really haggard looks. It's called a Zempic face. Oh, wow. Yeah. Social media. And so Dr. Sao did some research, and sure enough, you know, our skin is the largest organ of the body. So it has GLP1 receptors and they react to the drug in your system. And what the drug does is put metabolic stress on your cells. And so people tend to lose fat in the skin. The collagen doesn't produce as much. They even are seeing hair thinning because the same thing, the scalp is part of your skin, right? So the same thing happens. So this brings back the density of your skin, whether you're on a GLP one or just for mature skin, where we naturally lose that density. So this has been a hero.
Derrick KennySo this is this is um something that is get um work designed to help people with GLP1 face. Yes, yes, which is a thing that is now in vogue because GLP1 is what the diabetes drug or health um the weight loss drug now is. And that would help with that.
SPEAKER_01It it does, and you know, we also did research and saw that people lose hair uh shedding during with GLP1 treatments. And so again, our hair growth serum will help that population as well as all the other causes of hair loss.
Derrick KennyOkay, awesome, awesome. So you have uh these items that you guys put forward to help people as solutions to some other solutions they may have for the modern uh health conscious person.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. You know, it's we're really sort of the the trendsetter in BlueDB because we're at this intersection of we're a biotech company, we work on longevity, but we also sell our products in the health and beauty market. Oh, right. And so we're really unique. Most of the other companies do a lot of mixing of existing ingredients like retinol, peptides. What we have is truly working on the human cell, which is very different.
Derrick KennyOh, yeah, that sounds very um high-tech. It is. And we we trust that it's doing is doing doing doing very well. Um But now since this is a business episode for us, uh let's and we have a CEO here who's partnered with someone that has a product and helped develop new products. Uh, what advice would you have for someone out there that has the next big thing, the next uh MBLU labs uh hair grill product or the next um sandwich or the next um or the next um camera, whatever the it may be, product or service. What do you have in terms of advice for the next entrepreneur to come out of Montgomery County?
SPEAKER_01Yeah,
so you're really lucky, first of all, to be in Montgomery County and in Maryland in general. There is a really big support system here. So if you're affiliated with a university like UMD, they have entrepreneurship programs, they have other UM Ventures that helps you take an idea to market with lots of business advice along the way. We took advantage also of MIPS Maryland Industrial Partnerships as a grant funding where the company pays a part, and MIPS grant funds a research scientist at a university in Maryland. So you can collaborate with if you have an idea and you need a university professor in that specialty, you can collaborate and get grant money to fund the research. Uh TEDCO, I already mentioned, very big for investing in startups and also helping with lots of ongoing research funding. Uh, we also got a grant from NSF, uh the National Science Foundation, and we developed our sunscreen product under a grant uh with a new ingredient that is coral reef safe and is human safe, better than oxybenzone and octanaxid, the ones that everyone is uh so there's a problem with um sunscreen and in uh the coral reef? Yes, so those ingredients I just mentioned are in the majority of sunscreens other than zinc oxide, which is a mineral sunscreen, those are safe for coral life. But unfortunately, oxybenzone is very harmful to coral reefs and aquatic life. So we did all the research, including building our own coral reef at the university to show how supportive methylene blue, once again, yet another application is UVA and UVB fully protective and reverses photoaging, the damage we get from being out in the sun.
Derrick KennyAll right. And you have a few other products there. What are those products?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I just brought a couple of them. So there's our daily moisturizer. Uh, our male customers love this because it's very lightweight. All of them have the same amount of methylene blue, so it doesn't matter which one you use, uh, you're gonna get the right amount. We talked about the sunscreen. I brought an eye cream because everyone, including our male customers, loves a specialized eye cream that really hydrates it. But you know, one thing I didn't share with you that's really important in the story, if I could just go back. So,
how Dr. Sow actually discovered methylene blue for human skin was an accident. She was looking for a treatment for a childhood disease. It's an aging disease called progeria. If you saw the movie Benjamin Button, you will have seen they, you know, children are born with it, they never fully grow up, but they become older people. That's a real thing. Yes, sadly. They they have human aging at a rapid state. And so in their teens, they pass away from old age. So she was studying that disease to find a treatment for the progeria children. And because the easiest uh part of a child's body to work with as an organ is the skin, she was working with skin cells of the progeria kids and also adult control groups, so you could see what difference this ingredient would make. Well, the cells all recovered, including the adult groups of various ages. They all got healthy, and that was a phenomenal discovery, and that's how it really happened. So it was never meant to be this great new ingredient for cosmetic and beauty and wellness. It was this great discovery. It was too good to leave in the laboratory. We had to take this to market and bring it to everyone.
Derrick KennyAll right, that's what's happening, Moco and Blue Labs took it from the laboratory to the market, and now to you. Now, how do people find your product um and how do they find out more about your organization?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
At bluelean.com, B-L Blue, like the color blue, l-e-n-e.com is our website. You can find us on social at get blue lean uh and follow us there. Lots of over 200,000 people follow us on social. So join the group and you'll learn about everything. 200, over 200,000.
Derrick Kenny200,000 people. Wow. All right.
SPEAKER_01You know, we sell worldwide now, so it's a really wonderful brand. We've been in the Oscar gifting suites. We, you know, have lots of lots of interesting stories to share on social. Uh, our company info is there as well. And there's also an mbluelabs.com. If you're an investor or a media and you want to just learn about the leadership, that's on mbluelabs. But follow us uh on social at getblue lean.
Derrick KennyAnd there you have it, Yasmin L.Kordy, CEO of MBlue Labs, Montgomery County's own MBlue Labs. Up next, we'll be talking to other business owners about their important and amazing MoCO businesses, some of which we talk to live at the Juneteenth event in Montgomery County, Maryland, Black Rock Center.
Good day, and we are recording interviews for the big bold business podcast episode, and we are recording live from the Juneteenth event, Germantown, Maryland, at the Black Rock Center. And we are accompanied by Abby Gordon. Abby Gordon, Abby Gordon, and she's part of a Montgomery County-based business that sells coffee. And I just had a nice espresso maybe an hour ago, and I'm still feeling express, if you know what I mean. What's the name of your business?
SPEAKER_00Our
business is called Momentum Coffee House or Moco House for short.
Derrick KennyAll right. And what should people know about the Momentum Coffee House?
SPEAKER_00The biggest thing to know is we care so deeply about the quality of espresso and the history of Montgomery County and Germantown specifically, meeting a place, a third space for community and good coffee. So if you're someone in the area who cares about finding um a spot to camp out on the weekend or just finding events and things like that, or just meeting up with friends, um, I would follow us. Keep an eye out for where we are, we're a moveable coffee carts, um, hopefully we'll have a brick and mortar eventually. But yeah. And then we're also a family-owned business. My parents started it, and um a group of 10 of us kind of have kept it going since April.
Derrick KennyWow, so you're kind of brand new.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Derrick KennySo you started in April, you're still going strong now here um at the Juneteenth um uh conference, um, sorry, the Juneteenth celebration. Yes. Um, what is it that you want people to, um, how do you want people to connect with you uh online?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we have an Instagram. It's called Moco House, and that's really our main hub for finding new events or new um menu items today, if I make sure we have three specials that are June on theme for Juneteenth. We have the honey cornbread lamate, my favorite, which I just have. Um, it's a honey espresso lama te with um corn bread cold foam.
Derrick KennyOh, cold foam? Okay, that's my what is it?
SPEAKER_00Cornbread cold foam? Yeah, cornbread cold foam.
Derrick KennyIs it literally cornbread cold foam?
SPEAKER_00There is cornbread in the back there that they use it.
Derrick KennyThat is so unique. That is so unique. How did you guys come up with your uh your brand, your uh company, and even the cornbread cold foam?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, our main head baristum coffee manager is Miko. And then he's right over there. He's working on it, looks like pulling shots right now. Um, and then he kind of has worked on different flavors. He's in the kitchen testing out different recipes to make make them the highest quality syrups that go with some quality espresso. Um and so how we all started is we all have a huge love of coffee and good quality coffee, and then found there was a need to be filled in the area. Right. Um, and we also love gathering and connecting and um so we just combined the two.
Derrick KennyFantastic, fantastic. And then let's give a shout-out to your mom and then your family-based business, who all in the family is um active uh helping to run things?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so my mom is in Denver the owners, um Elsie and Norm, right over there.
SPEAKER_02All right, Elsie Norm.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Um and then they've lived in the area for over 10 years, so they they know a little well, and they're super community-oriented and connected. Um, and then I help on the finance team, but I'm also helping with um, I'm I'm on the barbecue today. I'm on the shift to the mini. Um and then my sister Aliceam, she's on the community team, so helping organize future events and keep us focused on our meeting agendas as well. And then my younger sister, AJ, is also on the community team.
Derrick KennySo it's a full family event and uh business. And you guys are all here today supporting the Juneteent events at the BlackRock Center. Much success to you guys. Thanks for being a Montgomery County-based business. Of course, and thanks for being part of the big bold business episode of this What's Happy Moco podcast. And be sure to be out there, like and subscribe this podcast and support this business. And how do they do that again on Instagram? Yes, at Moco House. At Moco House. Check it out. Great coffee, I can attest to that.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much.
Derrick KennyThank you. Good day, and we have another interview for the big, bold business episode of What's Happening Moco?
And we're talking to Brett, and Brett is with the Silver Branch Brewing Company. Brett, how are you today, sir? I'm doing very well, actually. This is a great event. Yeah, yeah. And we are still, we're here, we're recording this live at the Juneteenth celebration, Black Rock Center, Germantown, Maryland. So, so Brett, let's let's talk about business in the county. What what what inspired you and your colleagues to um launch a business um of this type in Montgomery County, Maryland?
SPEAKER_03So both my business partner and I uh we live in we lived in Montgomery County, and um when I first came to this area, I was working in DC, and we were um sort of we had heard all these rumors that the beer business in particular was, you know, Montgomery County was tough to do business in. And, you know, we when I came here back in like 2013, I moved here and um started, I was working for a restaurant group at the time. You know, slowly but surely I actually came to learn the opposite. Actually, owning our kind of business in Montgomery County is a great place to do this. It's one of the most friendly counties in the state of Maryland. Yeah, which is counterintuitive to what a lot of people think, but um not as all as it seems on the surface. And we're just guys, but both my business partner and I that live in the in this area, and we've been here for a while now, and um even longer than me, and we just we saw a great opportunity. It's a big county, lots of beer drinkers. I can verify that because our business has grown. So we have multiple locations and more on the way, so people must like something about what we're doing. That's fantastic.
Derrick KennySo you guys are experiencing some growth and some stability. Uh, what are some of the beers uh that you are um best known by or some of your most popular offerings from your company?
SPEAKER_03Well, I'll tell you what our number one beer is is Dr. Juicy. So yeah, it's got it's a it's kind of a more modern interpretation of an IPA. It's really fruity, it's got like a big tropical fruit nose, but then it's not super bitter, like some of the more old school IPAs. Oh, okay. Um, but my personal favorite is the same beer we've been brewing since we opened on day one. Okay. It's a really tasty uh Czech-style Pilsner called Glass Castle. Oh boy, oh boy.
Derrick KennySo what's what's what is this about Glass Castle? What's that? And when you talk about IPA, for people that don't really drink beer, what's an IPA versus other types of beers?
SPEAKER_03So generally, like any given beer style is gonna give you some kind of indication of what it might look like or what it might taste like. So IPAs are are sort of a wide range of flavors, but you can think of it as beers that include like a high dose of hops.
Derrick KennyOkay.
SPEAKER_03And that's sort of like adding like, you know, spice when you're cooking, right? It's sort of like really ratcheting up the salt and pepper, the seasoning. Um, whereas like a pilsner is more like eating like a fresh baked loaf of bread. You know, it's all about like kind of just the quality and the care of making the ingredient, uh using the ingredients to make the thing. Oh wow, wow.
Derrick KennySo What what would you say to people that like why should I choose your beer over top uh your brand over other brands uh that are available nationally we get liquid?
SPEAKER_03At the end of the day, I hope that you like my can art and that's a reason for you to try it. But really it's it's all about the liquid. That's really why you're gonna keep drinking it, right? And it's all it it's it's liquid and it's also gotta be at a good price point and it's gotta kind of resonate with you in some way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, it's funny. I uh sometimes I don't always go out wearing my silver ranch gear and I'll settle up at a bar where we have it on tap, okay, and I'll hear people say, like, they look at the beer menu and they're like, oh Dr. Juicy, what is that? I want that. You know what I mean? So a little bit of it is uh enticing people to try it for the first time, but once you get them, then if the beer's really good, um hopefully, you know, it keeps them coming back.
Derrick KennyHow how fun is it to be able to create your own products uh and name them um like Dr. Juicy and then and ha and create the flavor profiles and all those things?
SPEAKER_03You know, it that I will say when um when we started the business back in 2019, that was one of the most fun parts of the business. And it's really like exciting because you're not just making a product and uh you're trying to convey like a broader idea, right? Like it's a whole package. So it's really engaging. What I find myself having a lot more fun um thinking about right now is as we grow and and the business matures, and I personally mature. I was nine years younger when I started this thing. Yeah, you know, I think a lot more about my role as like an employer, and you know, we have 65 plus employees in the county right now, and it's huge. We'll probably have 120 or 30 by 12 months from now.
Derrick KennyCongratulations, congratulations. You love to see that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so that's like what that's what I get more excited about is the growth and sort of the impact that we have in the communities that we exist in. That's wonderful to hear.
Derrick KennyUm, congratulations on your steady growth and consistency. Uh, and thank you for being a Montgomery County based business.
SPEAKER_03Three times over. We're opening in Wheaton in uh 2027. So sorry for the shameless plugs.
Derrick KennyShameless plug. This was it's this is the shameless plug business podcast. We want people to be aware of the businesses that they can support in the county, um, that makes the county uh better, uh, and a better place to live and a better place to work. Um, and then of course a better place for business to take new business. Because the more businesses that are here that are flourishing, the more businesses that will be here that are flourishing. Yeah. Couldn't agree more. All right. Now, before we leave, is there anything that you like to share with people about the um your brewing company? Uh are there things that they should be aware of the outside of being able to buy uh your beer? Like where can they buy it? Uh, where can they find your social media? Uh, what's your website?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so we're sold in pretty much all the ABS stores. So you'll find a bunch of our different brands there. Um actually, if you've never done it, the tap room is where it's at. We have a full menu in both locations. Um we also offer cocktails and wine because even though I'm a beer drinker and I love beer, I have friends that uh, you know, maybe they prefer something else. So we we try to make something for everybody. That's great. So you have a shot and a beer or cocktail and a beer. Yeah, well, during the World Cup, we're running a uh Mexican-inspired lager and uh one ounce shot of tequila special. Oh wow. So And then that's in Silver Spring and Rockville? Yes, sir, that's in both locations. The place that you grew, you can also um go and partake in the beverages that you have available. And that's because we're full service establishments and and and the other thing is is you know, it's it's in it's an interesting thing, and I think it's kind of the way it was in Europe for a long time, but it's happening more in the US now. Yeah it's also a family-friendly spot. You know, like at 1 p.m. on Saturday, there's lots of parents there with their kids, they get a cheese pizza, drink beer, kids run around. You know, that's kind of the new the new thing, so definitely worth checking out.
Derrick KennyAnd that's great that you say misses family friendly because it's not necessarily like The Simpsons where it's a seedy environment, it's kind of dingy and it's a bunch of depressed people sitting around a bar. It's really a vibrant, lively place where parents, uh adults can come and unwind the kids to come run around and feel that they're not out of place. 100%. And that's absolutely what we're going for. Fantastic.
SPEAKER_03Now, uh, how do people reach you on Instagram and Facebook? Uh so for our Silver Spring location, we're part of the reason we have two different Instagrams and Facebooks is so that you can keep track of the different events going on. So we got at Silver Branch US for Silver Spring and at Silver Branch Rockville for Rockville. Alright.
Derrick KennyUm now and we're here today at the Juneteenth event in um Germantown, Maryland. Uh why why did your uh company support this event as a vendor? Um, and why is it important to support uh events or do outreach like this as a business?
SPEAKER_03Well, I think you know, I'll be transparent about it in craft beer, like there's this ongoing theme where we need to in general be as inclusive and po as possible. And when Silver Branch started back in 2019, especially being in downtown Silver Spring, that was part of our goal the entire time. And so we felt like there was like a natural alignment by being a sponsor, being here, showing our brand, um, getting people accustomed to us, and you know, that's our biggest thing is like sometimes there's a perception that like you know you gotta know your beer to be able to go to a brewery, and we're the opposite. We're like, no, everybody's welcome. You don't have to know anything, just come on in and and have a good time.
Derrick KennyYeah, come and come and enjoy a brew or or cocktail or pizza. Any and all the above. All right, fantastic. Well, you heard it from Brett, he's the COO. He's the COO, co-founder of Silver Spring Branch Brewing Company, uh, Silver Spring, Rockville, and soon. Wheaton. Wheaton, Maryland. Fantastic. We love seeing the growth. We love seeing the Moco based businesses. And that's another interview from the big bold business episode of What's Happening Moco. Thanks, Brett. Cheers. What a great episode hearing from some of Montgomery County's most interesting businesses.
If you have a business or something of interest to the residents of Montgomery County, Maryland, and you want to let them know what's happening via our podcast, feel free to reach out to Derek, D-E-R-R-I-C-K dot Kenny at Montgomery County M D.gov. That's a D-E-R-R-I-C-K dot K-E-N-N-Y at Montgomery County M D.gov. As always, please like, share, and subscribe this episode.
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