Hula – a Sexy STD app
Ramin Bastani can’t escape the tag of being “the safest man in America to have sex with.”
As founder and CEO of Hula, an app that helps dating couples check out STD status – and prove to prospective partners they are clean – he’s been tested more often than most in the name of company research.
Hula allows users to find a reliable STD centre, get the results online and share verified STD status in confidential coded files.
Who Wants To Get Lei’d?
Sharing the encrypted records is simply a matter of gesturing on the app to unzip one another’s profiles, an interaction Bastani likens to “a flirtatious version of the childhood game “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”
Named for the leis he hands out at presentations (the punchline to his opening “Who wants to get lei’d?”) Hula has close to $1 million in angel funding and is currently in talks to incorporate results into dating apps and sites.
Serious Mission To Reduce STDs
STD status reports come directly from clinics – users can’t upload their own results—so STD statuses are, in effect, verified by Hula, which also reminds users to get tested again in the future.
“The incentive is to be tested more often and have more recent dates on profiles because it makes you more attractive on dating profiles and in person,” Bastani told Fast Company.
“I think we can reduce most major STDs by 50% in a few years as it’s adopted in dating sites.”
Hula is only available in the US at present – but we can see benefits in some bright spark adopting the idea for Down Under, where STD rates are higher than in the US or Europe.
