The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Hims Founder Andrew Dudum on Hims Going Public, The Reasoning and Benefits of SPACs, The Biggest Misconceptions of Successful Company Building & Wall St's Changing Perceptions Towards Growth and Profitability

10 snips

Jan 21, 2021

Andrew Dudum, Founder and CEO of Hims & Hers, shares insights from his dynamic journey in the health and wellness industry. He discusses the challenges and misconceptions of building a successful company, emphasizing that small teams can drive efficiency. Andrew reflects on Hims' rapid growth to a $1 billion valuation and his timeliness in opting for a SPAC IPO. He also delves into improving productivity through innovative time management strategies and shares his vision for the future of healthcare accessibility.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

From Wharton to Hims

Andrew Dudum dropped out of Wharton to join a Sequoia-backed company.
He later co-founded Atomic Labs, a venture studio backed by Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen.

ADVICE

Prioritize Specialization

Hire specialists who are better than you in their respective roles.
This raises the overall talent level as the company grows.

INSIGHT

Timing of Specialization

Transition to specialists after achieving product-market fit.
Hims transitioned quickly after demonstrating customer willingness to pay.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Andrew Dudum is the Founder & CEO @ Hims & Hers, offering a modern approach to health and wellness and one of the fastest-growing companies to reach $1Bn. Prior to their going public on Tuesday this week, Hims raised over $158M from some of the best including Thrive, Forerunner, Founders Fund, IVP, Redpoint and more. As for Andrew, alongside his role at Hims he is also Co-Founder of Atomic, a company builder and venture fund all in one, backed by Peter Thiel and Marc Andreesen to name two. Prior to Atomic, Andrew led product at TokBox managing a team of 30 leading to their acquisition by Telefonica in 2012.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Andrew made his way from Head of Product at Tokbox to venture capitalist with Atomic to changing healthcare with Hims?

2.) What are the biggest misconceptions people have with regards to what it takes to build a successful company? Why do you not need big teams? How can leaders drive efficiency within small teams? What have been Andrew's biggest lessons in acquiring the best talent in market? What works?

3.) Hims is the fastest company to scale to $1Bn, how does Andrew reflect on how he managed hyper-growth? What did he do well? What was the first to break? What would he do differently? When is the right time to go from generalist to specialist? When is the right time to add more products?

4.) Why did Andrew believe now was the right time to IPO just 4 years into the founding of the business? How did the SPAC process play out? What are the core advantages to Andrew of the SPAC over an IPO? Why will more founders use it in the future? How does Andrew assess the importance or lack of, when it comes to the pricing pop on IPO day?

5.) How does Andrew reflect on his relationship to money? Why does he feel more scared of it now than ever before? How does he think about bringing up his children with an appreciation and respect for money? What 3 traits would Andrew most like his children to have?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode

Andrew’s Favourite Book: The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World

As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.