Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Hims & Hers: Reimagining Healthcare and a New Model for Startup Growth

21/01/2021

By Jules Maltz and Alex Lim

Today, we are thrilled to congratulate Andrew Dudum, Jack Abraham, Hilary Coles, Joe Spector, and the entire team at Hims & Hers on a successful public listing. Hims & Hers is a multi-speciality telehealth platform that connects consumers to licensed healthcare professionals and has built up a healthy online business with 100%+ compounded annual revenue growth over the last two years and a valuation over $3 billion. They are using technology to eliminate decades-old stigmas and improve the daily lives of women and men seeking access to quality healthcare and in the process have developed a vision to rethink patient engagement and modern medicine.

IVP first invested in Hims & Hers in January 2018, less than three months after its public launch, and then led a $50 million Series B in June of 2018. At the time, the company was among the first businesses applying the direct-to-consumer playbook to healthcare with incredible early growth and ambitious intentions of building a full-service service for a variety of chronic conditions.

When we first met Andrew, Jack, and Hilary at the Atomic offices three years ago, we were so impressed that we literally didn't want to leave the meeting. We paced around their building in the Presidio trying to figure out how we could invest in this amazing company and team, and called Andrew back later that day to express our interest. We're so thankful that we were able to partner with our friends and earlier-backers at Redpoint and Forerunner to join them on the journey to help and support such an innovative business.

While Hims & Hers has pioneered a new model within the larger healthcare market, we also love that it has challenged assumptions on how startups should grow. Here are three things that Hims & Hers did differently that have helped them get to where they are today.

Hire Early for Massive Scale

IVP is used to helping companies go public, but it's not often that it happens just over three years from launch (the average tech company takes twelve years!). As Andrew shared in a recent Business Insider article, Hims & Hers was intentional about building a public-ready company from the beginning. Andrew hired amazing, senior executives early on including Melissa Baird, Soleil Boughton, Spencer Lee, Patrick Carroll, and many others, who had experience scaling companies to hundreds of millions in revenues. Andrew, Jack, Hilary, and Joe also were committed to building a true healthcare platform for men and women, and launched new products faster than we've ever seen. This focus on hiring for scale and product expansion resulted in a financial profile that had not only high growth, but also strong margins and unit economics that set the company up for long-term success.

The Studio Advantage

Hims & Hers got their start within the walls of Atomic, a venture studio headquartered in the same San Francisco Presidio complex as Lucasfilm and Industry Light and Magic. Atomic founds and funds companies at the earliest stages who are on a mission to solve some of the world's biggest problems and provides them with shared back-office infrastructure to help them focus on the core drivers of growth. The studio model provided Hims & Hers with the advantage of being able to rapidly test and iterate its service, setting the company up for a phenomenal public launch. The company also learned important lessons about marketing, product, and sales from other Atomic startups that helped make the business even more successful.

A SPAC-tacular Debut

Hims & Hers went public through a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which was IVP's 116th portfolio company to list publicly. While historically, all of our portfolio companies executed traditional IPOs, in June 2019, we had our first portfolio company, Slack, complete a direct listing. Today, Hims & Hers is our first investment to go public through a SPAC. While we wouldn't recommend SPACs for everyone, as the process is more complicated than traditional IPOs, the Hims & Hers SPAC had three advantages over a traditional process: (1) it set a floor on valuation during a volatile macro environment; (2) it provided access to a wider range of institutional investors over a longer time period; and (3) it allowed the team to tell their story in a more proactive manner than traditional IPOs, which was important in a new disruptive space like telemedicine. It's good to have options when you're going public and SPACs are here to stay. We're so thankful for the tireless work by the Hims & Hers team to execute this difficult process and pioneer a new model for premium companies.

The Journey Continues

Hims & Hers is a company that thinks and acts differently. It's challenging stigmas around physical and mental health conditions, opening up access to safe, quality healthcare, and reimagining primary medicine in a rapidly-changing world. Today's public listing is only a milestone on a long journey far into the future, and Hims & Hers impact on healthcare is just beginning. Lastly, we're so proud of Andrew and his team for building such a special business while also staying humble and committed to the mission. Onward!

Jules Maltz and Alex Lim are Partners at IVP, a later-stage venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, CA.
LINK: https://www.ivp.com/news/blog/hims-hers-reimagining-healthcare-and-a-n...
See more stories from ivp

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

09/10/2026

Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026

September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026 New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...

08/10/2026

Life Safety, Part 2: From Noise to Nice: The Evolution of Speech Intelligibility in Stadium Sound

Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...

08/10/2026

ESPN's First Super Bowl Adds Disney+ to U.S. Distribution Mix

ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...

08/10/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Addison McGhee, Auburn University

From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments The future of live sports produ...

08/10/2026

Prime Video to Become Exclusive Global Home of Emmy Awards Beginning in 2027

The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...

08/10/2026

Techex to Demonstrate Hybrid Satellite and IP Delivery Platform at NAB Show New York

Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...

08/10/2026

X Games Appoints Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer

X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...

08/10/2026

Fonn Group Appoints Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director, DACH

Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...

08/10/2026

Perfect Game Introduces New Studio Show on the Road With Launch of PG Central

The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms Perfect Game is bringin...

08/10/2026

Uplynk White Paper: The IP Convergence Framework for Distribution

Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...

08/10/2026

Gravity Media Op-Ed: Gravity Media's Next Act - From Service Provider to Strategic Content Partner

For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...

08/10/2026

Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley Publish Satellite-to-IP Distribution Framework

Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...

08/10/2026

NFL Announces Ninth Annual Big Data Bowl Powered by AWS

The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...

08/10/2026

Eutelsat Renews Partnership with Tldiffusion dAlgrie on EUTELSAT 7 West A

Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...

08/10/2026

Disney+ to Stream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027

Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...

08/10/2026

RHStv to Stream Clemson vs. Coastal Carolina Baseball at Myrtle Beach Fall Showdown

RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...

08/10/2026

Gray Media to Simulcast 15 Timberwolves Games Free Over-the-Air in Minnesota and Wisconsin

Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...

08/10/2026

SMPTE Media Technology Summit Returns to Pasadena Nov. 16-19; Get 10% Off With SVG Promo Code

SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...

08/10/2026

PROTON Camera Innovations Named Recipient of 2026 Technology and Engineering Emmy for FPV Drone Systems

PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...

08/10/2026

Silver Lining: Sharing Tales From the Trenches of Cloud-Based Production with NBC Sports, MLB, NHL, and Warner Bros. Discovery

Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...

08/10/2026

Dolby Atmos Coming to Formula 1 on Apple TV Beginning with 2026 U.S. Grand Prix

The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...

08/10/2026

Free Leonard Peltier Proves That the Fight for Justice Is Just Beginning

David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...

08/10/2026

Sound Particles update Energy Panner 2 & Brightness Panner 2

Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...

08/10/2026

The DMNO ON from UDO Audio

New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...

08/10/2026

ADAM Audio introduce the Sub8 PRO & Sub10 PRO

Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...

08/10/2026

Clear-Com Powers Critical Communications at Rock in Rio 2026

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......

08/10/2026

NAB New York 2026 Preview

Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October. Cal...

08/10/2026

ESPN Unveils First Studio W Refresh

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Pay-TV Operators Ask FCC to Pause TV Station Ownership Cap Rules

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Calrec Brings New Consoles, Software to NAB Show New York

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Mediagenix Bows AI Content-Aware Scheduling

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Ikegami to Unveil UHK-X700VN Camera at NAB Show New York

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Ed McGivern Joins USSI Global as Chief Revenue Officer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Globecast Brings Media Orchestration and C-Band Transitio...

Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...

08/10/2026

Clear-Com Powers Critical Communications at Rock in Rio 2...

Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...

08/10/2026

Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Creative Executives

Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...

08/10/2026

NAB Show New York Returns to Javits

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

FCC to Vote on Restrictions for Device Testing, Spectrum for D2D and Drones

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

World First' as DTM Deploys Riedel Private 5G for On-Track Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

LiveU Cranks Up Connectivity Across Tour de France

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Ikegami to Introduce New UHK-X700VN Camera at NAB New Yor...

Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...

08/10/2026

Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show...

Calrec will be located at Booth 444. Freedom to choose The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...

08/10/2026

LiveU LU900Q with LIQ Brings Unprecedented Connectivity t...

LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...

08/10/2026

Disney+ to Stream Super Bowl LXI Live

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix to Be Carried in Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision on Apple TV

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Marshall to Bring Newest PTZ and POV Cameras to NAB Show New York

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Marshall Electronics to Showcase Award-winning Camera Sol...

Marshall Electronics, a globally recognized provider of high-performance video solutions for broadcast, streaming, AV and professional production, will exhibit ...

08/10/2026

UKTV acquires first two series of new Maigret for U and U&DRAMA in deal with Banijay Rights

14-hour package also includes A Remarkable Place to Die season 2 as well as libr...