Stryx

The company was born from a pimple in a wedding photo. On his wedding day, Devir Kahan woke up with a conspicuous zit, and, with no discreet way to cover it, watched it become an unwanted co-star in the pictures he would keep forever. The takeaway was not embarrassment so much as opportunity: millions of men had skin they would quietly like to fix and no acceptable way to do it. Stryx was his answer.

Launched in 2019, Stryx set out to build cosmetics for men from the ground up, starting with a clever signature product, a bullet of concealer in a discreet, pen-like applicator that looked like a grooming tool rather than a makeup compact, plus a tinted moisturizer. The co-founding story has a charming symmetry: Kahan's eventual partner, the men's-style YouTuber Jon Shanahan, received a sample, happened to have a breakout the very day it arrived, tried it on camera, and was so impressed he came aboard to run marketing. The brand went through a startup accelerator, raised venture funding, landed in mass retailers, and pitched on Shark Tank, where its bold valuation drew interest but no closed deal.

In 2023 the founders sold Stryx to a platform that scales online brands, and both eventually moved on to other ventures.

The honest read: Stryx deserves real credit for chipping at the stigma around men wearing makeup and for a genuinely smart product designed around how a self-conscious first-timer actually wants to buy and use it, discreet, simple, fairly priced. The hype-aware caveat is that 'skincare and cosmetics for men' is, formulation-wise, largely a positioning choice; the actives and pigments are not fundamentally different from those in any cosmetic, and 'because you are a man' is a marketing wedge more than a dermatological necessity. It is a competent, well-conceived grooming line with a real cultural point to make; just do not assume the 'for men' label reflects some special chemistry. The innovation was the packaging and the permission, not the molecules.

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