A telehealth brand started with hair loss and erectile dysfunction — then tried to become a healthcare platform
Andrew Dudum co-founded Hims in 2017 as a direct-to-consumer telehealth company designed to make treatment for sensitive health conditions easier to access.
The first products focused on men’s hair loss, sexual health and skincare, combining online medical evaluation with prescription fulfilment and consumer-style branding.
The early business looks very different from the company visible today. Following the milestones in order shows which decisions changed Hims & Hers Health’s direction and which capabilities remained constant.
Hers expanded the model beyond men’s health
The company launched Hers to address women’s health and wellness categories using a similar telehealth and direct-delivery approach.
Marketplace businesses become stronger when buyers, sellers and supporting services reinforce one another. This step gave Hims & Hers Health another way to deepen that network rather than relying on a single transaction type.
Subscriptions made healthcare look more like consumer software
Recurring treatment plans and medication delivery created ongoing customer relationships rather than one-off online consultations.
This shift also changed how customers consumed the technology. Instead of treating software or infrastructure as a one-off purchase, the relationship became more continuous, with updates, capacity and services delivered over time.
A 2021 SPAC merger brought Hims & Hers to public markets
The company completed a business combination and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
For Hims & Hers Health, access to public markets was more than a branding milestone. It increased financial transparency and created another route to fund expansion, acquisitions or long-term product development.
Mental health and weight management expanded clinical scope
Hims & Hers moved into additional areas including behavioural health and metabolic care, increasing the complexity of its medical operations.
This was an important turning point because it expanded what Hims & Hers Health could offer or the markets it could address. The effect becomes clearer when viewed as part of the longer sequence of changes that followed.
Personalisation and infrastructure became the next differentiators
The company invested in pharmacies, technology and data systems intended to tailor treatment while supporting greater scale.
The AI era increased the value of capabilities Hims & Hers Health had already been developing. Compute, data, networking, software or infrastructure that once served narrower workloads became relevant to much larger AI systems.
How consumer branding became the front door to clinical care
As of 18 September 2026, hims & Hers now operates a consumer-facing telehealth platform across sexual health, dermatology, mental health, weight management and other categories.
For readers following the brand today, the history explains why newer announcements often connect back to technology or business decisions made much earlier.
For TechnologyBlog.co.za, this page is intended to serve as the company-history cornerstone for future Hims & Hers Health coverage, so product and company-news articles can link back to one factual brand background instead of repeating the full origin story.
Sources reviewed include Hims & Hers investor materials and corporate history. Official company identity cross-checked against http://www.forhims.com.
