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Key Takeaways
- Josh and Katy Whalen built Joi + Blokes, a personalized telehealth company focused on hormone optimization, longevity and preventative wellness.
- The bootstrapped business has since grown into more than $50 million in revenue as demand for GLP-1 drugs, longevity treatments and proactive health optimization surged.
- The Whalens believe fertility and reproductive health could become the next major frontier in wellness.
Years before “longevity” became a wellness buzzword, Josh and Katy Whalen were building Joi + Blokes, a company focused on helping patients feel better as they age.
The married couple started the business after struggling with hormonal health issues in their own lives. Katy was dealing with postpartum health challenges and perimenopause, while Josh learned he had extremely low testosterone. They said getting answers often meant doing their own research and connecting the dots themselves.
That experience eventually became the foundation for a bootstrapped “his and hers” platform that asks patients to complete detailed lab work and virtual consultations before building personalized hormone and wellness plans around their results. The company has since grown into more than $50 million in revenue.
“We were just trying to educate people,” Katy Whalen said during a recent appearance on the One Day with Jon Bier podcast. “Nobody understood why you would want a big, comprehensive, proactive lab and no one knew what a peptide was.”
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The world catches up
What a difference five years make. Today, conversations around peptides—specifically GLP-1s like Ozempic and Zepbound—are mainstream. What once lived mostly inside wellness podcasts and biohacker circles is now discussed openly by celebrities, major news outlets and even your parents.
For Joi + Blokes, the shift has fueled explosive growth. When the company launched, Josh said much of the work involved simply educating consumers about why hormone health, preventative care and advanced lab testing mattered in the first place. Now, demand for everything from testosterone optimization to weight-loss medications has surged. “It’s a gold rush,” he says.
But it’s also brought new challenges. Competitors have flooded into the space, causing regulators to question compounded GLP-1 drugs. Big Pharma companies like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have also cracked down on clinics they believe are operating too aggressively. Josh said Joi + Blokes received multiple cease-and-desist letters. “We are self-funded, trying to make payroll, so you bet your ass that’s scary,” Katy says.
Related: This Founder Is Taking a Bite Out of the $50 Billion GLP-1 Market By Going Natural
The Wild West days may be over
Despite the heightened scrutiny, the Whalens say they actually welcome more oversight around GLP-1 drugs and peptides, arguing the boom has attracted too many questionable operators into the space.
“We need it to be regulated to a point that it’s sustainable for patients and it’s safe and effective,” Josh said.
He says that the company wants to distance itself from what he described as the “Wild West” side of the peptide industry, where consumers can buy products online with little medical oversight.
Scaling a business strained their marriage
The couple said one of the hardest parts of scaling the company together was that both of them were under constant pressure at the same time. Instead of turning to each other for support, they often hesitated to add even more stress to the other person’s plate because they already knew how overwhelmed the other felt.
There were times they feared the marriage might not survive. At one point, Katy even canceled a planned appearance on the popular podcast The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Show because she didn’t feel comfortable presenting their relationship as healthy while they were struggling behind the scenes. “I’m not going on there and pretending like we’re good,” she said.
But things are improving. They began going to counseling and setting clearer boundaries around work and becoming more intentional about carving out time where conversations didn’t revolve around employees, growth or operational stress.
Related: The Truth About Being in Business With Your Spouse — How to Navigate Work and Life Together
The next big thing
As always, the Whalens plan to stay two steps ahead of the competition. Just as they were early to the longevity and weight-loss boom, they are now betting fertility will become one of the next major frontiers in wellness.
“Our audience has been getting younger and younger since we’ve started,” Katy said, adding that many newer patients are looking to be more proactive about their fertility earlier in life. “So many women and men come to us and say, ‘Hey, we’re not having kids now, but I want to be primed,’” Josh adds.
To meet that demand, Joi + Blokes is expanding further into fertility care, including services tied to egg freezing and IVF support. The company says it wants to give patients a clearer picture of how hormone levels, stress and overall health may affect fertility long before they decide to start a family.
“There’s no more interesting category for men or women right now than fertility,” Josh says.
Key Takeaways
- Josh and Katy Whalen built Joi + Blokes, a personalized telehealth company focused on hormone optimization, longevity and preventative wellness.
- The bootstrapped business has since grown into more than $50 million in revenue as demand for GLP-1 drugs, longevity treatments and proactive health optimization surged.
- The Whalens believe fertility and reproductive health could become the next major frontier in wellness.
Years before “longevity” became a wellness buzzword, Josh and Katy Whalen were building Joi + Blokes, a company focused on helping patients feel better as they age.
The married couple started the business after struggling with hormonal health issues in their own lives. Katy was dealing with postpartum health challenges and perimenopause, while Josh learned he had extremely low testosterone. They said getting answers often meant doing their own research and connecting the dots themselves.
That experience eventually became the foundation for a bootstrapped “his and hers” platform that asks patients to complete detailed lab work and virtual consultations before building personalized hormone and wellness plans around their results. The company has since grown into more than $50 million in revenue.
