Manual, leading the men’s wellness revolution!
In 2018, we brought an old friend on board as our first Entrepreneur in Residence, George, who previously led growth and marketing at two unicorns, TransferWise and Deliveroo. We are thrilled and proud to see that work come to life, as George and his co-founder, Michalis, launch their own venture: Manual.
Entrepreneurs on a mission…
Manual is on mission to help men take care of themselves. Observing that men are 70% less likely on average to seek medical attention compared to women, George and Michalis have decided to build a holistic destination and guide for men to feel good, look good and stay healthy.
…to solve men’s health issues…
They have decided to start their journey by tackling some of the most common, yet taboo, men’s issues: hair loss and erectile dysfunction (ED). It is quite striking to see that by the age of 50, 1 in 4 men will have experienced some type of ED and 1 in 2 men will have suffered from hair loss … with less than 15% and 7% of those men respectively receiving treatment.
Manual is breaking today’s lack of trust, accessibility and society stigma by enabling each man to explore holistic healthcare via his own personalised guide. The company has launched by focusing on these two specific topics but expect them to expand to other men’s health problems very soon!
…with their new approach.
Men’s personal care is a large and fast-growing global market ($166b), and we’re only at the beginning stages of online disruption with few aspirational brands being launched to date. Unlike many of the incumbent brands targeting “tough guys”, Manual embodies — and celebrates — a new kind of masculinity: open, positive and proactive, where owning your health and happiness maketh the man!
We are thrilled to back these seasoned entrepreneurs in such good company!
Our mission at Felix is to support entrepreneurs with big ideas, to help them build strong brands that stand out and that move the world forward. We love passionate, mission-driven founders, who can scale with their business (And we mean it … you can find these exact same words in our Manifesto). We have been incredibly impressed by Manual’s team vision and pace of execution. Manual has a real shot at building a lifestyle category leader, an iconic brand, both through content and commerce in a similar way to Goop in our portfolio. George and Michalis have done an amazing job so far, assembling an A-level team and launching their product on the market in a very short time frame. But hold on, the best is yet to come and we are delighted to invest in such good company alongside Cherry Ventures and Cassius, two VC funds who share our passion for the team and business.
In Felix’s office, we are very excited to support Manual’s launch and can’t wait to see them expand their new products!
