Michael Polansky, known publicly as Lady Gaga’s partner and a former top deputy to Sean Parker, has emerged from stealth mode to reveal Outer Biosciences. The AI and biology startup has spent years quietly keeping living human skin tissue alive outside the body for over a month to discover new skincare compounds.
Operating largely out of sight, the company built a platform designed to maintain viable human tissue samples for weeks at a time. According to reporting by the Washington Weekly Times, the venture links biological maintenance directly to machine learning, attempting to bridge the gap between computational prediction and empirical dermatological reality.
From Applied Math to Venture Capital and Biotech
Polansky’s path to running a biotech startup defies standard Silicon Valley archetypes. Growing up in Minnesota, he went on to study applied mathematics and computer science at Harvard, graduating in 2006. A three-year stint at hedge fund Bridgewater Associates followed. In his own words, it was “a very unique place,” but not somewhere he saw himself waking up excited to work every day.
His transition West happened through a series of coincidences. A childhood neighbor who worked as Sean Parker’s assistant mentioned at a 2007 Minnesota wedding that Parker was looking for someone to work with him. After a quick dinner in New York, Polansky quit Bridgewater the next day and relocated to San Francisco.
He landed as a principal at Founders Fund during the era when the firm was run by its four original partners: Peter Thiel, Sean Parker, Luke Nosek, and Ken Howery. Polansky shared an office with fellow young principal Brian Singerman. When Parker later became liquid in his Facebook stock and spun up his own family office, Polansky went with him. He managed Parker’s business, investment, and philanthropic interests—including helping stand up the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, where he remains executive director—until the COVID-19 pandemic shifted his trajectory.
The Intersection of Celebrity and Computation
That shift involved Stefani Germanotta, professionally known as Lady Gaga. The couple met in late 2019 at one of Parker’s birthday parties, following persistent matchmaking efforts by Germanotta’s mother, Cynthia Germanotta, president of the Born This Way Foundation. Polansky and the elder Germanotta had already crossed paths through philanthropic channels.
Today, their collaboration is deeply entwined across multiple domains. During Gaga’s recent world tour, which spanned from July of last year through April, the pair coordinated a complex logistics operation across three 747s. Polansky likens the undertaking to running a 200-person startup constantly on the move. That entrepreneurial spirit also extends to Haus Labs, the cosmetics brand Germanotta originally built on her kitchen floor rather than licensing out to an established conglomerate. Operating out of El Segundo, California, with roughly 70 employees, Haus Labs maintains structural links to Outer Biosciences. Germanotta sits on Outer Biosciences’ board of directors, while Outer’s chief scientist, Kyung-Jin Jang, serves on Haus Labs’ scientific advisory board.
Scaling Ex Vivo Models with Machine Learning
By keeping human skin tissue alive outside the body for over a month, Outer Biosciences generates datasets regarding cellular responses, barrier function, and compound efficacy.
