{"id":305650,"date":"2022-01-18T13:24:20","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T16:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=305650"},"modified":"2022-01-18T13:25:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-18T16:25:08","slug":"soraya-el-khatibs-lebanese-entrepreneurial-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/soraya-el-khatibs-lebanese-entrepreneurial-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Soraya El Khatib\u2019s Lebanese entrepreneurial roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 With entrepreneurship in her DNA, Lebanese descendant Soraya El Khatib<\/strong> (pictured above)<\/em> began her business career incredibly early, more precisely at the age of five. As a child, she mixed her mother\u2019s perfumes to create fragrances, painted t-shirts, made sachets, developed plays, and sold tickets to support herself.<\/p>\n

Years later, after obtaining an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy, El Khatib studied for a master\u2019s and doctorate at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in S\u00e3o Paulo. And, in 2021, heading her company S Cosm\u00e9ticos do Bem<\/strong>, she received the Entrepreneur of the Year award from UNICAMP. The brand develops dermo-cosmetics and is considered a daughter company and graduated from UNICAMP, as it went through the incubation process in UNICAMP\u2019s Technology-Based Companies Incubator (INCAMP).<\/p>\n

Now, El Khatib is preparing for new goals, to conquer the B2B market with its products, expand sales in Brazil, and reach the foreign public.<\/p>\n

The pharmacist spoke with pride about being the first woman and former UNICAMP student to win the Entrepreneur of the Year award to ANBA. A talent inherited from her grandfather, who arrived in Brazil in 1946 from Lebanon. El Khatib had always wanted to undertake but in a sustainable, effective, and safe way. Based on this tripod, she built the mission of S Cosm\u00e9ticos do Bem.<\/p>\n

In 2020, after ten years in the company, research, and arduous work, she launched the first product, the Rejuvenating Serum. The entrepreneur explained the Serum acts on the skin, accelerating cell regeneration and reducing aging signs. In addition, it has a probiotic action on the skin. \u201cOur acceptance rate reached 92%. Something unprecedented in this area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For the market, the company is still developing five more products: An anti-COVID nasal gel, whose process was halted due to lack of resources, two healing products \u2014 one for pets, to fight atopic dermatitis, another for humans \u2014 and a natural repellent. All are made using Artemisia annua, an Asian plant widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, which has over 3,500 bioactives with therapeutic properties.<\/p>\n

In the businesswoman\u2019s opinion, the market yearns for sustainable and daring proposals. El Khatib advises those who want to innovate to build a strong business plan to avoid deviating from their goals. \u201cEntrepreneurship is difficult in Brazil due to the lack of incentives, and it takes focus, a lot of studies, and knowledge,\u201d she pointed out.<\/p>\n

A bit of history<\/strong><\/p>\n

The entrepreneur\u2019s resilience and persistence also come from her dedication to sports. El Khatib was a Brazilian athlete and runner-up in 100 metres track athletics. But it was from her grandfather the main lessons came. \u201cMy grandfather was a source of inspiration, and we have a gift for business in our genes, and it inspired me to start my work,\u201d she revealed.<\/p>\n

Her grandfather, she said, upon arriving in Brazil bought a farm for growing coffee in the countryside of the state of Paran\u00e1 and a grocery store. The grandfather\u2019s priority, says El Khatib, was to support the family. When the children needed to go to a university and look for work opportunities, the patriarch did not hesitate and moved to Campinas, in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

There, El Khatib even thought about studying Medicine, but her dedication and commitment in the Pharmacy area made it possible to open other paths. \u201cPharmacy is a course with several fields of work such as inspection, legislation, and laboratory,\u201d she emphasized. After her undergraduate course came the master\u2019s and doctorate, and she taught at universities for over 20 years.<\/p>\n

But the Lebanese descendant<\/strong> had always wanted to undertake and saw the opportunity to make her dream come true with the support of the UNICAMP ecosystem. In 2011, S Cosm\u00e9ticos do Bem was founded. Four years later, in 2015, it became a technology-based company and was incubated within the university environment until 2020.<\/p>\n

The startup follows the entire process, from planting the raw materials to the waste produced. This approach is called \u201cfarm to face.\u201d In addition to the products generating only 2% of carbon, they still can be recycled, as the waste can be used as charcoal for industry or in the production of ecological bricks.<\/p>\n

* Special report by Lisiane Mossmann for ANBA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Translated by El\u00fasio Brasileiro<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Pharmacy graduate, the CEO of the startup S Cosm\u00e9ticos do Bem was the first woman and former student at UNICAMP to win the Entrepreneur of the Year award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2340,"featured_media":305624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,3066],"tags":[27294,27291,33010,13204,27293,8848,27295,27292,27296,22057],"class_list":{"0":"post-305650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-society","9":"tag-artemisia-annua-en","10":"tag-bioactives","11":"tag-cosmeticos-en-2","12":"tag-cosmetics-en","13":"tag-dermo-cosmetics","14":"tag-entrepreneur","15":"tag-incamp-en","16":"tag-s-cosmeticos-do-bem","17":"tag-soraya-el-khatib-en","18":"tag-unicamp-en"},"wps_subtitle":"A Pharmacy graduate, the CEO of the startup S Cosm\u00e9ticos do Bem was the first woman and former student at UNICAMP to win the Entrepreneur of the Year award.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}