From Bondi bedroom to multimillion-dollar business
Inside the success of men’s health platform Mosh.
It was bad enough to be experiencing hair loss in his early 20s, but when lawyer-turned-management-consultant Gabe Baker went searching for treatment, things somehow got worse.
The large hair loss treatment clinics he visited turned out to be expensive and determined to lock him into a long-term contract. Plus, he adds, as a self-conscious young 20-something, “it was a fairly embarrassing experience walking into a hair loss clinic”.
"It was a fairly embarrassing experience walking into a hair loss clinic.”
Baker was sure there was a better way – and after talking it through with his flatmate, financial consultant David Narunsky, the pair decided to launch a business that offered hair loss consultations and treatments online using telehealth.
“Bringing the whole model online solved a lot of the issues,” says Baker. “It meant you could [deliver the services] in a discreet way. And you also cut out all the real estate costs and could therefore offer a cheaper and more affordable solution to potential customers.”
Providing home delivery for products made treatment even more convenient and discreet for customers. “You don’t even have to worry about going for repeat prescriptions or frequent visits to the pharmacy.”
It was a neat end-to-end solution, but even Baker and Narunsky couldn’t have predicted how successful their business, Mosh, would become.
Just five years since the pair dreamed up the idea from their Bondi flat, Mosh has more than 50,000 customers, attracted three rounds of investment and been valued at $90m. It has also expanded into other men’s health areas including weight loss, erectile dysfunction and mental health.
“Guys are pretty bad when it comes to being proactive about our health care,” says Narunsky. “Mosh as a platform is focused on making men’s health easier.”
Bootstrapping vs borrowing
At first, Mosh grew thanks to Narunsky and Baker’s sheer determination (“We would come home every day with a passion to do a bit more. That passion or fire was always there.”) and their own savings.
Looking back, the pair say that bootstrapping was the right choice for them. “For me, finding the right product, and market fit and validating the concept before going out to market for funding makes a lot of sense,” says Narunsky.
Later, their background in finance and management consultancy helped them structure the funding deals they secured for Mosh.
Why marketing matters
What neither Narunsky or Baker had experience in was marketing – and early on they admit they underestimated its importance.
“We were overly focused on product and one of the big learnings for me is that you have to have a solid go-to marketing strategy in place as you’re building your product. Otherwise, you end up with a perfect product…but nobody knows about it.”
They quickly rectified this by making marketing one of their first hires, and today Mosh, which has a stylish, modern website, has a number of sports sponsorships in place to boost brand awareness.
“It’s about entering into ‘purposeful partnerships’,” says Narunsky, pointing to Mosh’s sponsorship of Melbourne’s St Kilda Football Club, which has a dedicated mental health and wellness facility for players. “There’s a really nice alignment there between our mental health offering and what they have built.”
How Mosh uses content throughout the funnel
Another key marketing strategy is content. Today, Mosh offers an extensive database of engaging articles about men’s health. “We really try to break down the stigma surrounding a lot of the issues that we’re trying to treat.”
Not only does Mosh’s content, delivered by email marketing and social media, keep the brand front of mind with customers, but it helps educate customers and raise awareness of additional products and services available on Mosh.
“We’ve been able to start conversations… what’s really interesting is the majority of our customers are treating a condition for the first time. We’re really building out a new market here.”
Maintaining the right mindset
Throughout Mosh’s business journey, Baker and Narunsky say that maintaining a positive mindset has been key. “Building a business is hard,” says Narunsky. “There are no free lunches! And we are operating a complicated business.
“It’s highly regulated, there are lots of stakeholders – we’re dealing with medical professionals, we’re dealing with customers, we’re dealing with a range of different categories,” says Narunsky, adding that scaling and securing investment is also particularly challenging right now.
“But I’m a big believer in having the right team, having the right mindset,” says Narunsky. Because if you’re in the entrepreneurial space, you’re going to be facing battles.”
The pandemic push
One battle that Mosh initially faced was convincing doctors and patients of the validity of telehealth.
“Before the pandemic, we had to go and speak at conferences or events and we’d have to try and explain to people that it’s not illegal to consult your doctor online. We would always say, ‘Raise your hand if you know that you can speak to your doctor online’ and barely anyone would raise their hand.”
The global pandemic changed all of that, says Baker.
Partnering with Afterpay
Another boost to the business has been Afterpay, which Mosh partnered with early on.
“Our customers were demanding it as an option,” says Baker, who adds that offering Afterpay has increased Mosh’s reach. “It’s expanded the pool of available users to us because there’s a huge chunk of the population looking to shop online with flexible payment options.”
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