The entrepreneurial Iron Man: Alumnus Matthew Sánchez fuses arts, scents and science

For all the high-tech heroics and world-saving feats his armored suit makes possible, the true might of Marvel's Iron Man - aka Tony Stark - lies in his humanity.

It's that creative, compassionate, can-do spirit that Matthew Sánchez, who graduated from UCLA in 2017 with a degree in applied mathematics and chemistry and minors in global studies and entrepreneurship, most aspires to.

"I admire that he's innovative and nothing can stop him," he said. "Who wouldn't want to be a real-life Tony Stark?"

Drawing on the strength and discipline instilled in him by his Mexican father, who is from Michoacán, and his Ghanaian American mother, from West Virginia, Sánchez is already forging his own path.

The first-generation college graduate is the perfumer, founder and CEO of Matteo Parfums and, he says, the youngest Black male and youngest Latino perfumer in the country. To get there, he blazed his own unique trail - working in banking during the day and taking on an unpaid perfume apprenticeship at night, which he secured by sending out 100 cold emails.

Although only one person responded, it turned out to be a perfect fit - his new mentor was a classically trained perfumer from Chanel who attended the prestigious French perfume studies institute ISIPCA and had moved to America looking to revive her own brand.

"I learned so many foundational fragrance best practices, concepts and lessons from her, and I'm so thankful for that experience," Sánchez said. "I went in thinking we'd make a bestselling formula in my first week, but like Mr. Miyagi in 'The Karate Kid,' she taught me all the basics and fundamentals that make the craft and the business."

In addition to cleaning equipment, learning the supply chain, handling inventory, designing marketing materials and manning the sales counter, Sánchez began participating in scent profiling sessions. He and his mentor spent several hours twice a week alphabetically categorizing ingredients arranged on shelves, taking notes about possible pairings, trends, usage amounts and inspirations.

'Like creating a song'

"Whenever we had free time, we would create accords - basically, a scent is a note, and an accord is an amalgamation of notes, so creating fragrance is, in many ways, like creating a song," he said. "For example, if you want to build a vanilla accord, there are a million ways to do it: Do you want shades of smoky vanilla, a natural vanilla that feels earthy and gritty, a cupcake-frosting vanilla? I love that with every note of fragrance, you can literally create your own symphonies."

After completing his apprenticeship, Sánchez was ready to launch Matteo Parfums in March 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Undaunted, he pushed the launch to fall and used the additional time to perfect his first fragrance, Celadawn.

"Celadawn is my most personal creation - my attempt to distill myself into scent. In it, you'll find ingredients from Africa, California, Mexico and the Mediterranean," Sánchez said. "What made Celadawn famous, however, is that I created the industry's first 'horchata amber' accord for a fine fragrance.

"Horchata is so consistent in my life and my childhood, I knew it must be incorporated into my first-ever scent," he added. "If you've had horchata before, you know it's a delicious, milky, cinnamon-rich rice drink; I had never seen anyone put it in another fragrance, so I immediately thought, 'Why not me?'"

While most high-end fragrance companies aim for an aspirational and escapist Eurocentric vibe, Sánchez has consciously chosen to embrace an ethos he calls "imaginative inclusivity." The whimsical fantasizing across space and time that defines childhood doesn't have to end in adulthood or sacrifice sophistication, he says: Inspiration can come from any and all sources and cultures.

"For example, Lovers' Dew, our second scent, was my best artistic interpretation of what an Aztec or Mayan aquatic fine fragrance would smell like on the market today. When people heard that, they were, like, 'That's weird. That's crazy, how incredible!'" he said. "I love that. I want people to wear a fine fragrance made by an artist who is telling a story they'll carry with them throughout their day and throughout their lives."

As the company continues to grow, so does his vision. Last year, Matteo Parfums became the first fragrance company to win one of L'Oréal's $200,000 Beauty Fund grants. And this past spring, Sánchez landed a spot in a competitive startup accelerator in Texas to create a health-tech spinoff inspired by his father's diagnosis with early-onset Parkinson's disease.

Scent-based disease detection

"I'm co-building Eroma Health; we're aiming to provide scent-based early disease detection and health management," Sánchez said. "When I learned in my research that several conditions and diseases, like Parkinson's, have characteristic and detectable smells, I asked myself, 'Who is working on this? Is anyone doing anything about this in the field?' So, I took it upon myself."

Sánchez recently pitched his idea to Bruin Founders, the executive mentorship program by UCLA Ventures. Whether or not that happens, he's proud to say he'll never be too far away from his alma mater in some form.

"It hasn't exactly been a straight line. What great adventure ever was? But I knew I'd find my way thanks to the grounding I received at UCLA," he said. "My younger self would never have imagined I'd be doing all this - traveling all over the world, being asked to speak internationally, creating ideas, researching and studying new markets, new technologies and worlds, and ultimately building a future from scent.

"But here I am, driven by fire, passion and curiosity," Sánchez said. "I'm ready to fully become the Tony Stark of the senses."

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