Lady Gaga’s techie fiancée Michael Polansky has quietly launched a buzzy startup that harvests human skin left over from plastic surgery to help develop super-advanced cosmetic products.
Polansky, the 42-year old entrepreneur and Harvard grad who got engaged to the Mother Monster in 2024, gave details on the skin-scrawling enterprise Outer Biosciences in an interview with TechCrunch.
The firm, which Polansky co-founded with Kyung-Jin Jang, Chris Hinojosa and Stanley King in 2022, sources “full-thickness” skin from surgeries and keeps the tissue alive for up to a month in order to research the how certain mechanisms and molecules affect skin health, according to its website.
It’s raised $23 million from leading Silicon Valley venture firms.
The novel technique makes it possible to study the effects of certain chemicals that wouldn’t be possible in ordinary human or animal research, helping pharmaceutical and beauty brands identify key ingredients.
The firm has raised $23 million from leading Silicon Valley venture firms, and Lady Gaga herself sits on the company’s board of directors.
Polansky praised his leading lady’s business acumen and shed light on their personal and professional partnership.
The “Bad Romance” singer, 40, launched her own line of “skincare-infused makeup,” Haus Labs, in 2019 and the firm is reportedly thriving.
“People really haven’t gotten to know a certain side of her publicly … She’s such a brilliant businessperson,” Polansky told TechCrunch.
Polansky helped run his future wifey’s massive worldwide tour that began in July 2025, likening it to a “200-person startup that travels around the world every day.”
The lovebirds got engaged on a hiking trip in April 2024 and are believed to share a home in exclusive Marin County outside of San Francisco.
“We went back down and we were just walking back to the room. It was very Michael to ask me if he could ask me. He wanted to know if it was OK to propose before he proposed. I was like, ‘Yes! It’s so OK!’” Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, told Jimmy Kimmel in October 2024.
The two haven’t given many details on their wedding plans, but Gaga shared on Bruno Mars’ iHeartRadio livestream in March they plan to tie the knot “soon.”