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For only $5, the ad promises, we could get one month's worth of erectile dysfunction medication.
The ad is for Hims, a men's health startup know for selling generic Viagra and hair-loss medications.
In early November, Hims expanded into women's health with the brand Hers, offering everything from skin care to birth control. And it's not the only one branching out into more areas of medicine. Simple Contacts, whose first business provides eye exams and ships contact lenses, is moving into birth control. Ro, the startup behind men's health company Roman now wants to help you quit smoking through a new business called Zero. And the company behind hair-loss brand Keeps in October expanded into migraine treatments.
It's an approach that's getting a lot of attention as investors are wagering that consumers will be increasingly willing to shop for healthcare the same way they buy mattresses or fancy wool sneakers online. To date, Hims has raised $97 million in funding, including a $50 million series B raised in June. On a whole, the industry has raised $660 million in the past year.
So we decided to try it for ourselves and see what it would be like to attempt to buy generic Viagra online. What we saw was unlike any doctor's visit we'd had before.