Founded by Miami-based celebrity aesthetician Amy Peterson, Lenox and Sixteenth approaches skincare through a treatment room lens informed by more than two decades of hands-on clinical experience. The brand is positioned at the intersection of luxury skincare and professional aesthetics, aiming to extend in-office results into consumers’ at-home routines.

“Most skincare brands are formulated by marketers,” says Peterson. “Mine was formulated by me, a licensed medical aesthetician who has treated thousands of faces, watched clinical technologies evolve and spent years understanding what skin actually needs versus what it’s being sold.”

While Peterson is confident in her knowledge of formulation and aesthetics treatments, she joined Bridge seeking mentorship around scaling Lenox and Sixteenth. The brand is currently self-funded and isn’t actively fundraising, but Peterson is educating herself on what a financial partnership could look like. She says, “We’re making sure that when we do move, it’s with exactly the right partner for exactly the right reasons.”

Rhute speaks to the increasing convergence between dermatology, scalp health and prestige haircare. Founded by London-based dermatologist Aamna Adel, the brand tackles hair shedding and scalp barrier dysfunction through a clinical, science-backed framework. Nuñez explains Rhute stood out for bringing an elevated and personalized approach to a category that has historically lacked “emotional connection” and modern branding.

“We remain increasingly focused on depth over breadth.”

Adel says, “Unlike traditional haircare, which often focuses on surface-level results, we treat the scalp as skin, addressing the biological root causes of hair concerns such as thinning, shedding and barrier dysfunction.”

The company is open to strategic capital, but careful about picking partners. “We would look for a partner with deep experience in beauty and consumer, who understands how to build a premium, science-led brand and can support expansion across product innovation, distribution and brand awareness,” says Adel. “Alignment on long-term vision and disciplined growth would be key.”

Southern California brand Académie Hair is centered on what founder Rachel Anise views as a persistent white space in detangling and styling products. Its debut product, Sea Glass, was developed over roughly two and a half years with the goal of combining lightweight texture with detangling performance and scalp-health benefits. Anise hopes the mentorship program will help sharpen the brand’s retail and marketing roadmap as it prepares to launch additional products later this year.

She says, “As someone who battles with tangles while recognizing the importance of meaningful hair brushing for scalp health and hair strength, I wanted to create a luxurious and clean formula appropriate for all hair types that would masterfully detangle and refresh the hair without weighing down while adding silkiness, softness, volume and manageability on contact.” She adds, “I am not looking to launch new products for the sake of newness or scaling without sustainability and anyone who I would partner with would need to share that ethos.”