In a year-end wrap-up on the 20 Minutes VC podcast, host Harry Stebbings celebrates the show's success, with over 100,000 new subscribers and 20 million downloads. He introduces Andrew Dudum, founder and CEO of Hims, a rapidly growing men's health and wellness brand that has raised over $97 million in VC funding from prominent investors like Thrive, Founders Fund, and Redpoint. Dudum shares insights into Hims' marketing strategy, which focuses on creating proprietary channels to avoid the competitive and costly landscape of platforms like Facebook and Instagram. He emphasizes the importance of a diversified marketing mix and the return to real-world customer acquisition. Dudum also reflects on his journey as a serial entrepreneur, the lessons learned from his previous ventures, and the value of keeping a small, focused team to maintain agility and creativity. The episode also touches on the role of Atomic, a venture builder co-founded by Dudum, which ideates and tests numerous companies, selectively building a few with outlier potential. Throughout the conversation, the significance of strategic hiring, data-driven decision-making, and the balance of valuation in fundraising are discussed.
"2018 and what a year it has been here at the 20 minutes VC, we had over a hundred thousand new subscribers to the show. We had over 20 million downloads across more than a hundred episodes."
This quote summarizes the podcast's significant growth and reach in 2018, highlighting the number of new subscribers and downloads.
"I'm absolutely thrilled to say it is an individual that's become a dear friend since our episode in the form of Andrew Dudham, founder and CEO at hims, one of the fastest growing consumer brands of our time and the fastest growing men's health and wellness brand."
The quote introduces Andrew Dudum as a significant guest on the podcast, emphasizing his role as the founder and CEO of a successful and fast-growing brand.
"Andrew also works closely with Atomic, a venture builder backed by Peter Thiel, Mark Andreessen, and many of the world's best investors who recently announced their new $150,000,000 fund to start companies solving the world's problems."
This quote details Andrew Dudum's involvement with Atomic and the substantial new fund aimed at launching companies to address global issues.
"I'd also want to say a huge thank you once again to Miles Grimshaw at Thrive for the intro to Andrew today."
The quote acknowledges the role of networking and introductions in the venture capital industry, specifically thanking Miles Grimshaw for connecting the host with Andrew Dudum.
"With Carter's new modern fund admin software and services, you get a real-time dashboard of your general ledger. You can securely share info with your lps and issue capital calls, all from the same platform."
The quote describes the capabilities of Carter's software and services, highlighting the benefits for venture capitalists managing their funds.
"Brex founders Henry, gay and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y combinator. They decided to build Brex with instant online signup, no founder liability required and limits ten to 20 times higher than standard cards."
The quote tells the story of Brex's origin, addressing a common problem faced by startup founders and the innovative features of the Brex corporate card.
"Startengine is the leading and largest equity crowdfunding site in the US. On start engine you can invest as little as $100 in private companies."
This quote introduces Startengine as a platform that democratizes investment in private companies, allowing for low minimum investments.
"I would like to believe that when I was a little boy that I had this incredible vision. And I've been working towards it for the last 20 years, but that's not quite the case."
The quote reflects on Andrew Dudum's journey and the fact that his vision for Hims was not a lifelong dream but rather developed from personal observations.
"So everything from erectile dysfunction to hair loss to acne, these are all things that statistically all of us men as an entire gender struggle from, but the paths forward to actually take care of them are a little bit more fragmented."
Andrew Dudum explains the common health issues Hims focuses on and the fragmented paths to treatment that the brand seeks to improve.
"I think with everalm specifically, one of the areas that we really got good at with that company was small team iteration and market testing."
The quote highlights the key learning from Everalbum, which is the value of agility and constant testing in the market, a practice that has influenced his approach with Hims.
"I think with hims, our approach was very unique in that we wanted to own as much of our marketing and as many proprietary channels as possible."
This quote outlines Hims' strategic approach to marketing, which is to control as many channels as possible to maintain scalability and cost-effectiveness.
"You need to have an incredibly diversified set of channels to begin with... create your own inventory, don't bid on it."
This quote emphasizes the importance of having multiple marketing channels and creating unique advertising spaces rather than competing for existing ones.
"I think we are moving closer to that, yes. The reality is it is so easy to create a brand digitally today that your customers need to see you."
Andrew Dudum suggests that despite the digital ease of brand creation, real-world visibility is vital for customer acquisition and brand trust.
"It's essentially an equation per demographic, per region... really tracking that is actually exceptionally important for you to have true clarity and transparency on the effectiveness of your marketing."
Andrew Dudum highlights the importance of understanding and tracking the specific touchpoints that lead to conversions for different demographics and regions.
"But I would kind of start with the basics, which is get a very small group of people who are exceptionally passionate about whatever product or brand or initiative they're working on and give them the freedom and the flexibility to test and iterate and get things into market and see how customers respond."
Andrew Dudum advises incumbents to adopt a startup mentality with small, focused teams to innovate and respond to the market more effectively.
"Constraints breed creativity... You are actually forced to prioritize every single thing you do every single day."
Andrew Dudum credits the concept of constraints leading to creativity as a driving force behind the fast-paced growth and execution at Hims.
"It's actually incredibly difficult. It's incredibly frustrating because we want to do so much. But by creating those constraints, you're forcing yourself to focus on the one thing that matters today and making sure that gets done."
This quote reflects the challenges and discipline required to maintain a small, focused team while resisting the urge to expand prematurely.
"We always lean first and foremost to scale the processes. Let's build technology that can make our few people more effective."
This quote explains the preference for scaling operations by enhancing processes through technology rather than immediately increasing staff numbers.
"But we know exactly what that person needs to do because we ourselves have been doing it for so long, and then we can go find the right person to fill that role."
This quote emphasizes the importance of understanding the role deeply before hiring someone to fill it, ensuring the hire is precise and necessary.
"No, I do agree. I think inflated headcount obviously is some of the biggest challenges that companies who raise a lot face."
This quote agrees with the notion that managing a large number of employees can be problematic for growing companies.
"You never want to raise a valuation you cannot meet and exceed in the given time period that that capital allows you to execute against."
This quote stresses the importance of setting a realistic valuation that aligns with the company's growth trajectory and capabilities.
"At that current valuation, I actually think we're really at day zero, and the opportunity is orders of magnitude bigger than where we're at."
This quote reflects confidence in the business's fundamentals and its potential for significant growth beyond the current valuation.
"My general approach to negotiating fundraising is actually to not focus on valuation."
This quote advises founders to prioritize the quality and value-add of investors over the numerical valuation during fundraising negotiations.
"Essentially what atomic does is builds companies from scratch internally."
This quote defines Atomic as a venture builder that creates companies in-house, from ideation to execution.
"The first thing we did was actually test that we could reach customers with a value prop in a price point that made sense."
This quote highlights the importance of validating the market and customer acquisition strategy before fully committing to building out the company.
Well, I would tell you that 90% don't return good returns. That is far smaller. We traditionally at atomic will prototype anywhere from 20 to 25 companies per year and we'll build three to four.
This quote explains the rigorous selection process in company building at Atomic, highlighting that most prototyped ideas do not yield strong returns, and only a few are chosen to be fully developed.
My favorite book is creativity, Inc. It's a phenomenal book about the way in which Pixar structures its organization, its teams, to enable as much inspiration, as much creativity as possible, and essentially to destruct any bureaucracy and processes that might get in the way of it.
This quote reflects the influence of Pixar's creative and organizational principles on how Atomic operates and structures its teams, emphasizing a culture that fosters innovation.
The one thing that irks me, and I think a lot of people, is the arrogance that the valley has.
This quote highlights Andrew Dudum's critical view of the arrogance prevalent in Silicon Valley, suggesting a need for more humility and collaboration.
My favorite motto is keep it simple, stupid.
The quote encapsulates a fundamental approach to problem-solving and decision-making that Andrew Dudum values, emphasizing simplicity as key to effectiveness.
A major inflection point for me was when I was 19 and I chose to drop out of undergrad Wharton to come back to San Francisco to work on startups.
This quote describes a pivotal moment in Andrew Dudum's life that set him on the entrepreneurial path, demonstrating the impact of taking risks and pursuing passion over convention.
You know what? I just breathe, that's all.
The quote provides a practical tip for managing stress, highlighting the importance of pausing and calming oneself to think clearly during challenging times.
Oh, we've got a tremendous amount of things coming out the door.
This quote indicates the ambitious plans for Hims and Atomic, with a focus on launching valuable products and selectively building impactful companies.
What an incredible founder. And I do want to say a huge thank you personally to Andrew. He's done a huge amount for me since our episode and really become a great friend.
The quote reflects the appreciation for the personal and professional support received from Andrew Dudum, showcasing the importance of building strong relationships in business.