Tech Brew Ride Home - (Portfolio Profile) Juna

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

Juna (heyjuna.com) replaces awkward lab visits with at-home STI testing and treatment. Another proud investment of the RideHomeFund. As ever, get in touch with Brian if you'd like to work with Juna directly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to another bonus episode of the TechMeme Right Home, another portfolio profile episode. We're going to talk to another amazing company that the Right Home Fund has invested in. Today we're going to talk to one of my favorite investments, because when we talk about actually making the world a better place, this is for real, y'all.

We're talking to Peter Arrian, founder of Juna, which you can find out more about at Hey Juna, at juna.com. Peter, welcome. Thanks for having me, Brian. Great to be here. Let's start off with just a quick sort of two-minute elevator thing about what Juna is, what it does, and why we're all so excited about it. Yeah, absolutely.

So Juna provides at-home SDI testing and treatment for college campuses. So this was something that is personal to me when I was in college seeing there was a lack of support in sexual health. And at the end of the day, we all hate going to an in-person lab, seeing a physician. It's a painstaking process. And it's a bigger pain for someone that is on campus. And our focus here is to provide that inclusive, equitable care while also being able to educate young adults on the importance of sexual health to your insurance provider. So essentially, what I can do is I can basically subscribe to Juna, and on a regular basis, I get STI kits sent to my house so I can test myself regularly to check up on my sexual health, essentially. Exactly, yeah, it's a kit. It comes directly to your doorstep, and it's mailed to our Clio Certified Lab partner.

from there, our in-house providers will be able to treat you. And we provide that kind of clinical support from start to finish while ensuring that you are in network and giving you that transparent price with the insurance plan you're on. So let me tell you some of the reasons why I was excited about this from the very beginning and I continue to be excited. I think a key term here is proactive. This is allowing, especially young adults, but anyone.

but especially young adults, to proactively take control of this aspect of their health, as opposed to, you know, oh, there's something funny going on down there. I'd better go see the doctor. Like, again, Juna is a way to test yourself regularly, like your tagline is making safe sex simple. So if I'm a college student, how do I use Juna? I go to the website, I figure out if it's covered by my insurance. then I sign up and I get these kits on a regular cadence.

Is that right? Absolutely. And proactive is definitely the key word. For Juno, we knew that this was not only something we personally experienced, but those in our network, I mean, the vast majority of STIs are asymptomatic. And when you're looking at at-risk population, that kind of proactive testing is a necessary step in taking control of your sexual health. you're on our platform, we verify your insurance eligibility, and from there, we mail you a kit.

And we have both video and call support for you to speak to a physician. Really, our key focus is providing that holistic care that doesn't exist in this market, where we're with you from start to finish in a way that a lot of brands aren't. And we find that the ability to create kind of that lifetime value comes down to that kind of clinical support where we're here to answer your questions and be there with you through that life-altering process if you do happen to go through that. So I guess another important thing to think about is, you know, again, it's not, oh, you get tested when you think that you maybe were exposed to something.

If you're testing on the regs, that's a way for all of us or, you know, society, but you specifically to be healthier and for your partner, et cetera, et cetera. But not only is it inconvenient to go to the clinic regularly or the doctor, but it could be a little embarrassing to ask for these sorts of tests every few months or so. So this is a way to do it privately, take control of this part of your health on your own, in your own home privately. Absolutely. And to kind of give you perspective, only 8% of men and 20% of women get tested on campus.

It's not because nobody wants to get tested, right? It's really because the process of getting tested is a pain. It's awkward. It's cold. And the current alternatives are unaffordable when you're looking at home STF testing. We found that incorporating the payer side of things, as well as being able to provide that education was a necessary step

for our ability to create the community we've created thus far. Given what we've all come through in the last couple years, I think when we first spoke, I asked you, is this almost like a positive sort of COVID times outcome where I can't tell you the amount of at-home COVID tests like I've taken this year? And again, it's about being proactive. It's about like making sure you're healthy for like my parents are coming this weekend and things like that. So, as I said, when we first spoke, are we sort of making a bet here that people are more comfortable, more used to the idea of, I get a kit delivered to my house, you know, I send back some fluids or whatever, a swab or what have you. And people are

sort of acclimatized to this sort of way of like, I guess you could call it telehealth in terms of their overall health care regimen? Yeah, no, that's an interesting question. I definitely think that in this post-COVID era, telehealth has become more normalized. I also think testing as a whole has shifted where you have at-home COVID tests in a way where people now,

it's kind of become a natural part of society. You know where to swab, you know what to look at. And the reality is we see that being applied to sexual health. And Juna's here to build that ubiquitous brand. in a way where you know what steps you need to take, the same way you look at plan B. So we're creating a brand that sits right next to there where that's just something you do when you're sexually active, not because you think you might have something, but because that's part of your lifestyle and being sexually active.

And give me some, I forgot to bring up the original pitch deck, give me some of the statistics right now, like certain STDs are I think are at decade highs or so and young people are disproportionately they're less of the population but they're disproportionately more of

the people that get STIs which makes sense. They're more sexually active. If you have any of those stats off the top of your head. Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, it's staggering. I mean, we've hit a six consecutive record for STIs. When you're looking at the

discrepancies amongst demographic, 50% of all new STIs are represented by Gen Zirs, and that is taken to count by 25% of the population. So there's a huge gap, and that gap becomes even wider when you're looking at health inequities. So, for example, HIV rates from 2014 to 2017 rate went down 7%, but they actually went up 7% for people of color. So there's a huge gap, in terms of accessibility, education, as well as affordability. And the tools are there. I mean, the tools are there for you to be on prep. The tools are there for you to be tested proactively.

But there really hasn't been a brand that is looking at representing these underserved communities, most importantly working with payers that are directly integrated to that ability for people to afford this. Well, and that's one more key detail. So again, it runs through your existing. insurance if you have it. So it's affordable even for college kids. So A, it's a way to make a healthy habit, an actual habit. And B, it's not like it's going to like, you know, break your wallet to create this healthy habit. Yeah, absolutely. That's really the core. And we find that when you're looking at a prep kit, that costs around $400 with the companies that do,

exists in this market. It's hard for me to see who can afford that because it's stress hell isn't someone that's 18 to 24. Well, I think you mentioned, did you mention that you thought of this idea when you were in college? So tell me a little bit of your story. Is this your first go-round for being an entrepreneur for starting a company? Yeah. I mean, when I was in college, you know, I saw the need for this. And I think the best problems come down to those that are personal. And this was something personal to me. It was personal to those within my network. This is definitely a first in terms of how far we've taken this. And it's definitely a learning process. I think when you go into building a startup, there's so much you learn. that I think no amount of classes can help you and no amount of props can help you. It's really just by doing where you learn the most.

And I think that there's a big learning curve and regardless of you doing it when you're in college or you're doing it in your 50s, it's a process that really takes a grueling amount of blood, let's win tears, especially in this market. Well, especially in this market and especially in the space and the medical space? Do you have a medical background? How did you even know that this was something that could be made simpler by being done at home?

Yeah, I mean, I don't have a medical background. The folks on our team do. Our chief medical officer, Kyle Hoda Beck, was the first U.M. Medical Director at Oscar Health. He spent 17 years in the US Army leading outpatient clinics in Korea and received recognition by the Surgeon General. So I think when you're looking at healthcare,

it's really important that your founding team has that experience and that clinical experience is crucial to building a company that isn't just a pill mill. I think that, you know, you're seeing in this era of telehealth, a lot of companies going into unethical practices with regards to prescription. And I think, you know, having a face on your team that actually has deep clinical experience is key.

And that's what we're really excited about, Junas, is not just approaching this from a DTC side of things, but also being able to approach this from a clinical first standard of care. Well, I mean, that's an interesting thing also about being in the space. Like, this is not like a straight D2C in the sense that, oh, this is not, we're just going to put up a Shopify page and have an e-commerce site or whatever. I mean, this is a heavily regulated area.

There are so many different stakeholders. You can work with insurance companies. I think you even have to go state by state to work with insurance companies, right? So how... That's one of the things that I've heard over the years is one of the reasons why it took so long for tech to try to disrupt finance, to try to disrupt healthcare, was because it was more complicated. So what has been your experience?

working specifically to do a startup in the healthcare space? Yeah, I mean, there definitely is a lot of moving parts. I think that's one of those things that I learned stepping into this industry. Like you said, it's not something that you can just build an e-commerce platform. You know, we've had to build a lot of in-house products to be able to support the lab, the provider, the payer, patient portal. There's just so many moving parts. Shout out our CTO, Neil.

He's just been an absolute beast since he's been a part of the founding team. And I think that's really core, right? Like when you're building a product, there's so much to learn in an industry that is so new. And telehealth is one of those. When you're looking at what's required to support the infrastructure on all these moving parts, a lot of them just don't exist, quite frankly. And you have to build them in-house. And we're really excited to be able to build a product that's capable of

supporting this and being able to expand beyond the states we're offering our services too. Well, also, you know, the specific niche within the niche, although health care is not a niche market, but that you're serving is sexual health is people's sex lives. So how much of trying to make Juna a success is educating your potential customer base about how this should be a part of their health regime? Like, how How much of education is sort of like task one for this? Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. Because when you think of the approach of using fear,

that hasn't really worked. It's something that CDC has been doing forever. Institutions have been doing it. I don't know the audience here, if they can remember when they stepped into a high school sex ed, but it hasn't changed, quite frankly. I mean, you're talking about a club plastic banana and condom stick. It's outdated. It hasn't been inclusive towards folks that have

different orientations or gender. And we strongly feel that our ability to approach this in that manner is key. Education and approaching this with a lifestyle brand kind of go hand in hand. The education itself has been very successful in our ability to communicate effectively to Gen Z years, platforms like TikTok have become really core when you're looking at this demographic, but as well as on-premise support, you know, having student ambassadors, having folks there physically to be able to create that community and that awareness is really core in our ability to tap into these campuses. Well, right, because it's, it's the other half of the job is not, as you said, making

it scary, but making it cool and like, and inclusive. And so you just mentioned like TikTok. So you're doing a lot of your marketing on social media and TikTok especially. Is that right? Yeah, TikTok is an amazing platform, especially when it comes to education, when you're looking at video content and having it an engaging manner. We've built a really strong brand around our unfiltered and raw approach, where we've collaborated with drag queens, folks that are on top 1% of only fans.

We have a podcast called Better Safe Than Horny. These are areas that we're really excited about and really excited to tap into it because a lot of legacy brands and a lot of institutions just haven't been able to tap into this community and market of Gen Zeres. And we know how Gen Zers think because we represent this demographic. And that's really key in getting people to take action and get tested proactively. Well, also, one more question about like the particular problem that you're trying to solve here. What about the fact that the core customer you're trying to reach might not have a relationship with a physician? So in a long-term sort of way, one of the things that I was most excited about with Junet is that this is sort of a hack to not only get people on a good healthcare track, but also like this might be a way to introduce. healthcare relationships to people for the first time in their adult lives.

Yeah, absolutely. When you're looking at the number of primary care providers that have established their brand as a result of COVID, we see a similar path for Juna where we're not at one-stop shop to testing. Providing that level of clinical support is key. Working with payers is also key and we see our ability to expand these areas of care. Really, really exciting because end of the day, sexual health in the end of itself is a very taboo subject. It's something that not a lot of young adults have the ability to speak about and to have a platform on that is amazing. And we see the future of that creating a bridge into other areas of care that are not being addressed for Gen Zeres.

Sort of lensing out to the wide picture for a real quick second. If someone out there is listening and wants to solve problems like this in the healthcare space, if there's someone listening right now that wants to do a health startup, is there any sort of learning about this space that you could share? What is the biggest advice that you could give somebody listening that wanted to do sort of a healthcare startup? Yeah, I would say just get out there, learn by doing. I think that there are resources out there that allow you understand the overall market. And I would definitely say it's really important that the products you're building and your overall market is identifiable.

I think that go-to-market is key, and I truly believe that there are a lot of underserved communities that aren't being addressed. And the future of healthcare really comes down to accessibility. And when you're looking at just overall areas of care that aren't being met by patients, technology is going to be core in providing that. And we are really excited to see what other brands are coming up with what products. because of how new this space is. And so far, there isn't a household name in the consumer health space. There just isn't the number of companies that are out there putting hundreds of millions into ads creates a new vacuum to be able to create a brand that's organic with a strong community.

And we're really excited to do that in a way that has given us the ability to tap into these underserved markets. Well, so obviously, episodes like this are part and parcel with like sort of our investor check-ins and things like that. So to the degree that you're interested in sharing, willing to share, given the current environment, what can you tell me about like how you're feeling in terms of Juna's runway and the fundraising environment? Just anything, because again, even if people aren't. aren't invested in Juna or aren't going to become Juna customers, you know, what can you tell

folks about the startup landscape right now? Yeah, it's an interesting time. That's for sure. I think when you're looking at healthcare, you know, we see it as an inelastic area of care. Brian, there are two things people aren't going to stop doing in this market shift. One is those going to college and the other is those needing health care services. These are two areas that we're really confident isn't going to be impacted by the market. The beauty of building a product that people need is that whatever happens outside of what you see on Twitter or, you know, everyone is like chickens with their head cut off right now.

It's pure mayhem. But I think if your ability to create a product that people need shouldn't be impacted by that. I think there is going to be a shift on building companies that are capital efficient and have high growth versus being capital inefficient and have high growth, which we're seeing across many DTC brands. What we're really excited about is being able to create something that is organic. And I think that that's something that's going to shift amongst founders. There's going to be more experimental marketing. You're going to have to be able to prove your unit economics fits to what investors are looking at because right now the focus has been extremely high customer acquisition with high growth.

And these companies have been debt vehicles for advertising, essentially. And I think that that's going to shift with products now being focused on their ability to tap into communities organically. And I think ad spending should come into play once that's established when you do have that kind of ubiquitous brand. And you do have those that are referring your product at such a rate that's reducing your customer acquisition. So yeah, it's an interesting time to build a company. but it's never been a better time, I think, because the way that VCs are looking at companies is going to shift. I think that hype isn't just going to be the main factor anymore. I think you're going to have to show that you're building a product that people want and need,

and that's going to shift the way products are being built. So, yeah. Yeah, this is sort of tangential to Juna, but when people ask me, like, like, when's the right time to have a kid? I'm like, there's never a right time. It's always the right time or it's never going to be the right time. It doesn't matter. You should just do it, which gets back to your advice earlier.

So let's close with, again, if you want to find out more about Juna, you know, get in touch with me. I'll put you in touch with Peter. Hey, juna.com. But Peter, also, are there any asks from the audience? Any ways that audience can help or get involved? Yeah, absolutely. I would say one is definitely if there's someone that's from TikTok or has a connection to someone at TikTok, we'd love to connect with that individual.

You know, obviously for us to be able to create content that is respective to the community guidelines as key, and we want to make sure that our content isn't being flagged and really how we can keep that going. This is by its nature sexual content. So if there's somebody at TikTok that could sort of help you navigate that or handhold through that, that would be useful. Yeah, absolutely. And others definitely anyone that has the connection to a student that has really strong energy and fits our mission.

We're always looking for student ambassadors. You can email me at peter at heyjuna.com. But yeah, those are really kind of the ambiguous asks on my end. Well, Peter, thanks for coming on and telling us about this. Again, look, this is one of my favorite investments because this isn't another app. This isn't, I mean, all of my investments like my kids, I love them equally. But if we can improve the health of society, I mean, man, that's a good reason to feel good about what we're doing, right? Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Well, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that. And thanks for coming on. Thanks so much, Brian.