Results Are In! Hims & Hers Labs Is Disruption In Action

I was one of the first people to sign up for Him & Hers’ $HIMS ( ▲ 1.91% ) lab testing when it was announced last week.

I quickly scheduled a time to get my labs done and broke the bank with the $499 advanced plan. It’s research, after all.

My blood draw was on Monday at 11:40 a.m., and by the time I woke up on Tuesday morning, the results were coming in. As I finish writing this, 72 of 79 biomarkers have been analyzed, and I’m starting to get suggestions on how I can improve my health.

I wanted to give you a look at the sign-up process, what the lab draw is like, Hims & Hers feedback for me, and where I think this will go in the future. Hopefully, this helps in understanding why I believe this is a disruptive new product for the company.

Signup and Pre-Labs

As you would expect, signing up for Labs is a straightforward process. Hims & Hers is a typical modern tech company, and with a few clicks, I had paid for and scheduled my labs. I already had an account, so I had a bit of a head start; however, I think the setup process for an account took less than five minutes.

Needless to say, this was easier than going to a doctor’s office.

The app’s homepage then displayed all the necessary information about my appointment (I cropped some of the personal information at the bottom).

And Hims & Hers gave more than a few reminders that the appointment was coming up. I appreciated the reminder to fast for at least 8 hours, which I might have missed in the fine print about the appointment.

After spending hours at Walgreens dealing with kids’ prescriptions over the past few months, this signup flow felt like a new world of convenience.

The Labs Process

The current lab testing is outsourced to Quest Diagnostics, a traditional laboratory testing company. In time, I presume some of the biomarkers will be testable at home; however, there may be physical hurdles to conducting the full test at home.

The lab is everything you would expect: a full waiting room, people with terrible coughs, and a lot of waiting. Or that’s what I thought.

My appointment was at 11:40.

I was called back at 11:47.

6 minutes — and 9 vials of blood lighter — I walked out.

I don’t know if Hims & Hers did something that allowed me to cut the line, but only one or two people were called in while I waited, and at least a half dozen were left waiting. Maybe it was my appointment? Perhaps it was the simplicity of my blood draw?

Whatever it was, I was worried when I walked in that this would be a PITA, but it wasn’t at all!

Quick, simple, and (almost) painless.

Cost Analysis

As I waited in the lobby, I began to wonder how much it would cost if I had ordered these labs myself.

Quest does have an option to order these tests individually, and using their online pricing, I started to add up what it would have cost to get the advanced version of the Hims & Hers labs.

Below is a table showing the vital areas and biomarkers that Hims & Hers offers (it’s the complete list, so not everyone will receive all of these at each test), as well as what I could have ordered through Quest. In total, the labs would have cost $1,220. The comparison isn’t perfect, and I’m sure there would be ways to optimize, but the Hims & Hers option was around 80% less, considering the $499 price is for testing twice a year.

Are some of these tests overkill?

Yes.

However, it provides a comprehensive picture of my health, and if I continue these tests twice a year, I’ll have a historical trendline to compare to, something I would typically receive from a doctor.

For $499/year, that’s worth it for many people.

The Results Are In

I’m going to show exactly what results look like. There are a lot of screenshots, but I think the information is useful for understanding where this is going.

There’s an overall “Insights” tab on the app, which is then broken down into vital areas. This is a look at my Liver Health (yes, I’m picking the best one!).

Within each biomarker, you receive your reading along with its corresponding position on a scale.

If you’re out of range on one, which I am for Monocytes, it adds a “What can I do to improve?” dropdown.

That dropdown then provides some suggestions for improvements you could make, and sometimes offers potential prescription treatments that could be prescribed.

So far, I’ve learned I need to sleep more, exercise more, and eat healthier.

I don’t know if I needed labs to learn that.

But I appreciate the data.

What I haven’t gotten yet is my biological age or an action plan. This is where things get interesting for Hims & Hers.

The Opportunity for Hims & Hers

I see labs as a product that opens doors for Hims & Hers. When they have the lab data, creating an action plan and offering services or prescriptions is a no-brainer.

Yes, the company could see my results and offer a GLP-1 or testosterone, but there’s also an opportunity to build a more holistic relationship.

What if Hims & Hers helped me set goals for weight loss, nutrition, and fitness? I wear a Garmin watch and my weight is recorded on a connected scale…but the data goes nowhere. What can Hims & Hers do with it?

Yes, prescriptions will be a part of the answer. But the stickiness and value are in being more than just a pill pusher.

Hims & Hers already offers help with nutrition — and it’s free! If I start using the Hims & Hers app to track my labs, record my weight, and plan my meals, it deepens the relationship I have with the company and the app. I harp on this over and over, but that’s how you build a business in the digital world. Owning demand by having a great product is the key to success!

I think Hims & Hers needs to lean into this even more. Send me notifications with recipes that would improve my health. Integrate with my wearables. Surface this value to more people, even if they aren’t paying subscribers!

Another opportunity lies in new verticals.

Hims & Hers now has data on where there are opportunities in the market.

And they have a cohort of users with 100% product market fit!

I’m already more impressed with the Hims app than I was only a few hours ago. And I don’t even have a doctor-recommended plan based on my labs yet!

This is the kind of product that will add value to consumers looking for more information. And it’ll open up new verticals that will drive revenue growth and margin.

Labs are a huge step forward for Hims & Hers, and while it’s not the only company that can offer such a product (Superpower and Function have a similar offering), it does have scale and a vertically integrated supply chain to offer personalized solutions that others don’t.

If this helps Hims & Hers continue to aggregate demand, it will help the company differentiate itself from the competition. And that’s a big deal in a market that could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars per year.

Disclaimer: Asymmetric Investing provides analysis and research but DOES NOT provide individual financial advice. Travis Hoium may have a position in some of the stocks mentioned. All content is for informational purposes only. Asymmetric Investing is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor, or a broker/dealer. Trading any asset involves risk and could result in significant capital losses. Please, do your own research before acquiring stocks.