Company beliefs & Cultural standards
What we’re doing
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💬 We help middle-aged men live 10 years longer.
Fella Health is the telemedicine clinic for bigger guys, worldwide. We use medical weight loss treatment to solve our fellas' most pressing healthcare need, then remain a fella's core healthcare provider for the rest of their life - focused on men's health, longevity, mental health, and primary care.
We will have served 1 million fellas by the end of 2026, and 10 million fellas by the end of 2028.
Our mission is to solve male obesity worldwide, by accelerating the take-up of GLP-1s in middle-aged men. From this, we’ll become the world’s leading men’s health brand.
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What we believe
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💬 We’re not an average healthcare entity. We see the future differently. As a healthcare company, we believe in:
- bio-first: we use biology as our main tool. We believe in the power of modern medications.
- radical cost reduction: we resolutely reduce costs. We lower the cost burden to patients & payers in the bloated healthcare system.
- algorithms over humans: we welcome the AI revolution. Where possible, we don't rely on at-edge, human delivery for our product.
- consumer-centric: we design delightful consumer experiences. Patients want to choose their own high-quality, affordable healthcare in a free market and be served safely with no friction.
- profitability: we build great company fundamentals. We stay lean, run profitable, and don't rely on external capital.
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How we work
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💬 These are the core cultural standards to which we hold ourselves & our team-members at Fella:
- Belief in the mission — we will have served 10 million fellas by the end of 2028 (1 million fellas by end of 2026) and we transform the life of most fellas who join. We have a lot of work to do. We are obsessed with our fellas and are dedicated to the mission.
- Bulldozing barriers — the world is malleable and we shape it. We truly believe this and act accordingly. We are relentlessly resourceful and are at the mercy of no-one but ourselves.
- Unwavering integrity — we are at the frontier, so we often live in ambiguity with no trodden path. When we can’t look to others for guidance, we must maintain impeccable ethics and unwavering integrity.
- Enduring frugality — we are frugal. We hate being wasteful and we are anti-luxury. We spend our cash wisely & carefully - in a way that would make our grandmas proud.
- Do what is needed — speed is critical and often the solutions we need are messy. We are comfortable moving quickly and taking on gritty work.
- End-to-end ownership — we are comfortable owning projects from noticing the problem to delivering the outcome.
- Dedication to excellence — we are obsessed with our role, with a commitment to compounding self-improvement.
- Commitment to candor — we believe in open communication and radical transparency. We are clear & caring communicators, welcoming feedback.
- Only the paranoid survive — the road of expansion is bumpy. We are not fair weather sailers; we embrace the storms. However much we’ve already done, however far we’ve already come — all our work is still ahead of us.
- Keep your head down — we’re boring people doing exciting work. We don’t chase short-term status: we ignore short-term dopamine hits and focus on what matters. Outsiders will underestimate us and we revel in that.
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🎯 “You just build a fucking amazing experience. Make each step amazing. Make every decision in the long term interest of the client. Give the client massively more value than you take.”
— a poetic extract from one of our advisors
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Reviewing the arc since 21Q2
A message to my team in our All-Hands at the start of 24Q2:
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💬 In Dec 2022, we had net cashflow (burn) of -$133,779.24 with $923,896.49 in the bank. That’s 6 months runway: 6 months until we went bankrupt.
In April 2023, we’d reduced that to net -$81,537.58 with $563,183.17 in the bank. But again, 6 months runway, 6 months to live.
In June 2023, we’d flipped that that to be net +$2,631.75 — we became cashflow positive! Big deal. Shockingly rare :)
We had small positive cashflow, until the end of October 2023, when we started growing v profitably and v quickly.
In Dec 2023, our bank balance went up +$105,391.03 — unlike almost all other startups (who burn more money than they make), we become strongly profitable.
In March 2024, our bank balance went up +$505,769.95 — truly extremely rare in startup land.
We are not reliant on external benefactors (investors). We ourselves are in charge of our fate.
I remember right at the start, launching the product in June 2021, when we had 0 customers and $0 MRR.
One year later, in June 2022, we’d grown to $11,707 MRR but were struggling.
We made many changes and 15 months later, in Sept 2023, we had $125,737 MRR.
As of April 22nd 2024, we’re now on $1,257,656 MRR with very strong financial foundations, serving 3,664 active fellas.
Let’s keep our heads-down & keep building. We have a long way to go and a lot more to do.
All our work is ahead of us.
1 million fellas by the end of 2026 💪
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High-level strategy 2024-2027
Company stages
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💬 Stage 1, 2020 H2: D2C men’s binge eating. not healthcare, pure cashpay.
Stage 2, 2021-2023: D2C US healthcare for men’s obesity, pure cashpay except some medication coverage.
Stage 3, 2024-2025: D2C healthcare for men’s obesity & related comorbidities, still cashpay but starting to be paid via insurance where possible. building the foundations of async, LLM-led care. starting to become vertically integrated, so we fulfill our own medication. international expansion outside of US:
- 2024: English-speaking, German-speaking, Spanish-speaking
- 2025: India, France, Portuguese-speaking, Arabic-speaking
Stage 4, 2026-2027: expand to be the world’s leading D2C men’s health clinic. continue international expansion: deep in each new country, and in more countries. start selling to US payers as a full-service men’s health clinic (with async, LLM-led care as default):
- Endocrinology: Testosterone
- Obesity-related Primary Care: Obesity, Hypertension, Sleep Apnea, Gout, Diabetes
- Mental Health: Anxiety, Depression, Binge Eating Disorder
- Urology/Andrology: Prostate, Fertility, ED
Each stage must bring in enough cash to fund the next stage, therefore not relying on outside capital.
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Overarching strategy for 2024
- US market = protect, expand, integrate
- Protect access: ensure ongoing D2C GLP-1 access, esp for those without insurance coverage
- Experience: obsessively improve customer satisfaction
- Nationwide: get live in final US states & territories
- Profitably scale: rapidly scale profitable acquisition
- Integrate with the system: getting in-network with payers to be able to bill for existing services & add on new services — to provide deeper, ongoing chronic healthcare
- Expand offering: expansion of add-on products to be able to serve fellas for a decade
- Vertical integration: Start becoming a pharmacy in the US
- International expansion = launch & prove out
- Expand coverage: offer GLP-1s internationally with the same Fella Health brand: English-speaking (24Q2-Q3), German-speaking (24Q3-Q4), Spanish-speaking (24Q4)
- Prove out: get marketing machine working in each new country
Open positions