In an exclusive interview with Indian Startup Times, Pravin Prakash Pandey, founder of By NAKED Fact, explained why he set out to build a beauty and personal care brand that starts with education instead of hype. His conviction was straightforward: the biggest gap in the market was not a lack of products, but a lack of clarity.
The gap: too much noise, not enough clarity
According to Pandey, consumers today are surrounded by home remedies, viral hacks, ingredient trends and conflicting beauty claims. People often hear something repeatedly and start accepting it as a fact without questioning whether it is actually true. “The biggest gap we identified was not a lack of beauty products, but a lack of clarity,” Pandey told Indian Startup Times. “That is where By NAKED Fact comes in. We wanted to make beauty and skincare decisions simpler by questioning everyday myths, explaining the facts in an easy-to-understand way and then connecting that education with products people can actually trust.” For him, the opportunity is not to add more noise to beauty. It is to become a trusted filter for the noise that already exists.
Core philosophy: question, fact, educate, trial, repeat
The brand’s philosophy is simple: less noise, more truth, better beauty decisions. For By NAKED Fact, myth-busting is not just social-media content. It is the starting point of the relationship with the consumer. The brand follows a clear journey:
- Question something the consumer has always believed
- Explain the fact behind it
- Educate in simple, understandable language
- Offer a product that delivers on that promise
- Let repeat purchases validate the trust
“In a crowded market where many brands compete through claims, celebrities and trends, we want By NAKED Fact to compete through credibility, education and consumer trust,” Pandey said. “The content gets attention. The product has to earn the trust.”
Why the name “By NAKED Fact”?
The name itself is the philosophy. “NAKED Fact” means putting the fact before the flourish. In beauty, there is often a lot of hype around ingredients, trends and promises. By NAKED Fact tries to strip away that unnecessary noise and ask a simple question: what is actually true? The brand questions claim, explains ingredients in context, avoids unnecessary exaggeration and communicates with consumers as honestly as possible. The word “By” makes it feel like a signature from the brand. It represents the company’s point of view, not just another anonymous opinion on the internet.
“For us, By NAKED Fact is therefore not just a brand name. It is a way of looking at beauty,” Pandey explained.
R&D and quality control: simple communication, rigorous science
Pandey’s technical background in cosmetics and Ayurvedic formulations gives the brand discipline behind its simple communication. While the messaging is deliberately easy for a consumer to understand, the thinking behind each product is far more rigorous. The team looks at formulation, ingredient selection, stability and quality considerations rather than simply following whatever ingredient or trend is popular at the moment. Experience with Ayurvedic formulations provides an understanding of traditional ingredients, while the product-development approach evaluates them through a structured formulation lens. “In short, we want our communication to be simple, but our science and formulation thinking to be anything but casual,” Pandey said.
Building credibility and trust as a system
For By NAKED Fact, trust is a system, not a marketing claim. The brand builds it by encouraging consumers to question things openly, explaining claims in understandable language and avoiding exaggerated promises. The philosophy is that if the brand educates consumers about a myth or an ingredient, the product experience should be able to stand behind that conversation. The D2C model is particularly important because it gives direct feedback from consumers. Their questions, reviews and behaviour help improve both communication and products. The company also values external recognition and visibility, including Pandey’s founder feature on DD National and the brand’s recognition among the Top 50 Skin Care Companies 2026. But ultimately, Pandey believes real credibility will be measured through consumer feedback, repeat purchases and cohort behaviour, not just awards or claims.
Awareness strategy: content first, transaction later
The strongest strategy so far has been content that earns attention before asking for a purchase. Myth-versus-fact content naturally creates curiosity. People stop, question, discuss and share because the subject is something they have often heard in their own lives. That gives the brand an important advantage: it can start a conversation before it starts a transaction. The D2C channel then allows By NAKED Fact to convert that attention into a purchase and, more importantly, learn directly from the customer. Customer feedback is used to understand what people are asking, what they are confused about, what products they respond to and what should be communicated next. “So our model is: content creates curiosity, education creates trust, D2C creates conversion, and product experience creates repeat,” Pandey said.
Capital, funding and a lean operating model
By NAKED Fact was built in a promoter-led early stage, keeping the operation lean while the products, brand and market were developed. The first documented external round was ₹50 lakh for 5% equity at a ₹10 crore valuation. The approach to capital is clear: capital should create growth, not become founder consumption. The company has maintained a lean operating structure, and the capital raised is intended to remain within the business and go toward areas such as customer acquisition, inventory and working capital, export development, offline distribution and operating systems. “For us, external funding is not about simply raising money. It is about accelerating an engine that we can demonstrate and scale,” Pandey explained.
Product portfolio and market expansion: depth before breadth
The brand’s strategy is depth before indiscriminate breadth. It does not want to launch products simply to increase SKU count. The priority is to strengthen the core skincare proposition and use actual consumer questions, feedback and purchasing behaviour to identify the next problems to solve. From there, By NAKED Fact plans to selectively expand into relevant beauty and personal-care categories. On the market side, the growth model is becoming increasingly omnichannel, with D2C, export and selective offline presence in India. “The objective is to build a larger beauty brand where product expansion follows demonstrated consumer demand rather than simply following market trends,” Pandey said.
Long-term vision: owning the “truth layer” in skincare
Pandey’s long-term vision is to make By NAKED Fact the brand people turn to when they want to know what is real, what is hype and what is actually worth buying. He wants the brand to own what he calls the “truth layer” in skincare. The ambition is to grow from the current stage toward a much larger, trusted consumer brand, while maintaining the same fundamental philosophy that created it: question, understand and then choose. His advice to aspiring founders in beauty and personal care is simple:
- Don’t just solve a product problem. Solve a consumer confusion.
- Build something people genuinely need.
- Be technically honest about what your product can and cannot do.
- Earn trust consistently.
- Build distribution economics that can scale.
“Because in beauty, getting someone to try your product is marketing,” Pandey said. “Getting them to believe your brand is worth coming back to is brand-building.”
Why By NAKED Fact matters?
For Indian consumers, the beauty and personal care market is increasingly crowded and confusing. Brands compete through claims, influencers and trend-driven launches, while consumers struggle to separate fact from fiction. By NAKED Fact’s approach myth-busting content, transparent communication, scientifically grounded formulations and a D2C feedback loop aims to turn clarity into a competitive advantage. In speaking to Indian Startup Times, Pravin Prakash Pandey made clear that By NAKED Fact is not trying to be another trend-led beauty brand. It is trying to become the filter consumers use when they want to know what is actually true and the brand they trust when they decide what to put on their skin.
Interview By: Sejal Thakur
