On the front lines of the battle for supremacy being waged by Roman and Hims and other brands that want to cure your everything.
BY AMOS BARSHAD FEB 14, 2019
Above a slice of midtown Manhattan full of proudly stubborn vestiges of a scruffier, older New York—wholesale perfumeries, a hodgepodge of shops selling bedazzled ball caps—sits the headquarters of a start-up company called Roman and its parent company, Ro. A swarm of people sprawl and huddle throughout the dinged-up open floor plan. Whiteboards are filled to the edges with urgent scribblings: “Relieve stress.” “Let’s take care.” A bubbly publicist finds me and—while unabashedly and repeatedly using the expression “start-up life!”—redirects me to a teeny corner conference room. The vibe, clearly, is less magazine-photo-shoot-ready curation and more Dude, we’re growing so fast. A flex of a different sort, but a flex nonetheless.
