A college dropout is trying to bring the spotlight back on stigmatised subjects that men don't want to talk about: Erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. And the ones doing the talk for Bold Care are Ranveer Singh and American adult actor Johnny Sins
Left to Right -- Rajat Jadhav, Co Founder & CEO; Ranveer Singh, Co Founder, (Center); Rahul Krishnan, Co Founder; Mohit Yadav, Co Founder of Bold Care
Getting a superstar and a porn star together in a commercial must be a coup. Right? Well, Rajat Jadhav is clear about what he would consider to be a coup. “Getting men to talk about their sexual problems and tackle them head on would be a much bigger victory,” reckons the co-founder of Bold Care, a D2C men’s sexual health care brand that has suddenly caught the attention of the online world with its disruptive and cheeky advertising campaign, which brings together American adult actor and model Johnny Sins and Bollywood celeb Ranveer Singh. “It was not a gimmick or a stunt just to attract attention,” says the serial founder, who is trying to remove the stigma around topics such as erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation.
A college dropout-turned venture capitalist (VC), Jadhav failed in his first two startup ventures as a founder. “I am trying to shatter taboos and make people talk,” says Jadhav, who ran a fledgling e-pharmacy business in college, and years later co-founded Bold Care with Rahul Krishnan and Mohit Yadav in 2019. Bold Care started operations in July 2020, got a clutch of angels and VC funds, including Rishabh Mariwala-founded Sharrp Ventures, and now has managed to get Ranveer Singh as a co-founder. Though in the game for close to four years, the sexual wellness brand largely remained inconspicuous. “So it took a porn star and a superstar to finally become visible?” I ask, requesting him to share the backstory of roping in Sins and Singh.
Porn actor Johnny Sins in the Bold Care ad.
Jadhav, though, first tells us about the trigger behind starting Bold Care. The roots lie in his second venture, an e-pharmacy started in 2015. Though the platform was rudimentary in nature and it was early days for e-pharmacies, around 60-65 percent of volumes were driven by sexual health-related orders. “That was the aha moment,” he says, adding that his venture couldn’t succeed because it lacked funds and focus, and the founder dropped out of college and joined the VC world.
During his second stint as a VC, he bumped into one of the legacy health care companies and was stumped by the data shared by them. Around 20 percent of the volume on their platform was around sexual health, and they funneled those to other companies who dealt with sexologists. “This gave me immense hope that there is a big market,” says Jadhav, who saw the taboo around the topic as an opportunity. “The best way to engage with a censored or a tabooed topic is humour. It makes you feel comfortable and opens you up,” says the founder, alluding to the cheesy advertisement with Sins and Singh, who has been involved in the business for a year.