Inspiring Business Leaders

Hims & Hers is a multi-specialty telehealth platform that connects people to licensed healthcare professionals, enabling them to access high-quality medical care for numerous conditions related to primary care, mental and sexual health, dermatology, and more. Launched in November 2017, the company offers thoughtfully created and curated health and wellness products. With products and services available across all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., Hims & Hers provides the country's people access to quality, convenient and affordable care through a computer or smartphone. 

The long-term vision of Hims & Hers has always been to act as a front door for the healthcare system. When the company was launched, it started addressing the needs of highly stigmatized conditions. Today, Hims & Hers offers access to treatment for dozens of conditions and continues expanding the categories of care, intending to become the first stop for people's health and wellness needs across hundreds of conditions. 

Hims & Hers has raised approximately US$260 million in funding, taking its total valuation to US$1.6 billion. The company reported US$41.3 million of net revenue in Q3 2020, representing 91% year-over-year growth. Hims & Hers currently has about 130 employees and it has recently announced plans to go public via a SPAC. 

 

An Ingenious Leader  

Andrew Dudum is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hims & Hers. Prior to founding the company, he co-founded Atomic, a venture studio in San Francisco backed by Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen. He also co-founded Ever.com in 2013, a leading iOS productivity app across 95+ countries, as well as led products at Tokbox.com through their acquisition by Telefonica. In 2007, Andrew founded Lendforpeace.com, the first non-profit micro-lending platform for the Middle East. 

Andrew graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Entrepreneurial Management and Venture Capital. He founded Hims & Hers with the vision to deliver high-quality healthcare to everyone. He believes that no one should be denied the care they deserve owing to cost or geography. Hims & Hers offers a modern approach to care that aims to eliminate stigmas and enable access to treatments for a variety of conditions. "People deserve the same level of control as their healthcare that they have in many other parts of their lives. That's why patients on the Hims & Hers' platform have access to licensed providers, regardless of their location in the US," Andrew said. 

 

Enabling Affordable Healthcare Access to Everyone 

Hims & Hers is focused on building an enduring, efficient and innovative business that provides affordable products and services to its customers. The company continuously works on improving factors of its business such as patient flow, creating and offering more products, expanding treatments and services, working with policymakers to improve telehealth regulations, testing and trailing products, surveying, and collecting data to make informed decisions.  

 

Adding Value to Care Delivery Using Technology  

According to Andrew, technology has allowed Hims & Hers to change the healthcare experience. The company can virtually connect people anywhere in the U.S. with medical providers – by phone, video or secure messaging, depending on location – and have products/treatment delivered directly to them.  

Andrew feels that his leadership role has certainly changed with evolving technology and most recently, it has had the biggest impact. "A few months ago, we decided to become a remote-first company as the pandemic showed us we could be just as – if not more – efficient working from home. Leading from a distance can be challenging, but it has helped me to be more present and attuned to my colleagues and work," he asserts. 

 

Initial Challenges of Effective Healthcare 

Andrew says it took “a village” to get Hims & Hers to where it is today. He knew that getting a company up-and-running in the healthcare space would not come without challenges, and he is thankful for the team of extraordinary people behind Hims & Hers that helped the company become the success it is.  Andrew says it was no small feat to construct a functioning telehealth company, from figuring out how to partner with provider groups to leverage a high quality and efficient distributed provider network, building a clinically focused EMR from the ground-up, creating access to a cloud pharmacy, and more. This all had to be done while working with state legislators, medical boards and other regulators to comply with the existing health standards while also pushing for legislative clarity, necessary to give all consumers access to trusted and high-quality care. 

The challenges have been tough to navigate at times, but Andrew is thankful to his incredibly smart and driven team who has always stayed positive and made it all come together. 

 

An Inspiring Entrepreneurial Journey Towards Success 

Before entering the tech world, Andrew was a cellist, traveling the world to perform. He even bought his first car using money from a tip jar that he used to take with him while playing cello at Union Square in San Francisco. Andrew's father also has an artistic background, a self-taught concert pianist who replicates anything on the piano just by ear. He was an attorney and had his own business as well. Andrew says that in his family, arts and business have always been intertwined. 

In addition to his passion for the cello, Andrew wanted to get into business and ended up attending Wharton School, which counterbalanced his artistic side. "Being at Wharton seemed like the most creative route in business I could find at the time, but I found myself sketching interfaces for mobile apps in corporate finance classes while my peers were paying attention and doing a really good job in school," he mentioned. 

For Andrew, leading successful companies has always been about finding an intersection between beautiful design and art as well as underlying fundamentals that made a great business. He loves incorporating creative, custom/consumer brands, experience, and design - art - and coupling those with good business models that have sustainability. That is how Andrew ended up in Silicon Valley building companies at a venture fund/studio, ultimately leading to the founding of Hims & Hers. 

 

Vision for a Brighter Future 

Hims & Hers' long-term goal is to be a person’s first stop for their healthcare needs across hundreds of conditions.  

With that said, Hims & Hers is experiencing a unique moment in the evolution of healthcare in the country — COVID-19 has accelerated its view into the future of healthcare. According to a recent McKinsey report, there has been an incredible surge in the use and awareness of telehealth from both patients and providers, with 76% of consumers now interested in using telehealth platforms. Since its founding, Hims & Hers has been creating a consumer-oriented telehealth platform that empowers people with choice across multiple aspects of their health and wellness. The company is uniquely positioned to address the needs of this current environment and lead the space as the future of healthcare continues to unfold.  

 

Advice to Leaders of Tomorrow 

Shedding light on effective leadership qualities, Andrew emphasizes that leaders primarily need to have goals. To achieve those goals, they must balance patience, learn to lean on others and promote teamwork. He further articulates that emerging leaders need to be kind, keep things simple, take their time, and never stop learning.