Most of the major condom brands are marketed with a sense of aggressive masculinity: Take the Trojan Man, for example.
L. is a startup launching out of our Summer 2015 class that’s making condoms with both men and women in mind. L. makes discreet, stylishly designed all-natural and vegan-friendly condoms that prioritize women’s comfort. L. has a quickly growing e-commerce subscription service, and its products are also on sale in more than 1,000 brick and mortar stores including CVS, Target, and Whole Foods.
Also, L.’s business model comes with an important perk: For every condom purchased here in the United States, L. sends one to a developing country in need. L.’s larger aim is to make safe, healthy, female-friendly sex a global human right.
TechCrunch’s Sarah Buhr wrote about L. this past week:
“L. founder Talia Frenkel was a busy photojournalist, documenting the
latest floods, fires and other natural disasters for the United Nations
and the Red Cross when she was sent to photograph women and girls dying
of HIV/AIDS in Africa in 2008. This sexually transmitted disease is the No. 1 killer of women of reproductive age on a global scale, according to the World Health Organization.That sobering statistic stirred something inside of Frenkel. ‘I
didn’t realize the No. 1 killer of women was completely preventable and I
think that really inspired me to action,’ she told TechCrunch.Frenkel
bootstrapped L. more than a year and a half ago with the goal to save
these women from a disease they didn’t have to get with the proper use
of contraceptives. She does this with a one-to-one purchase model. One
L. condom is donated to a woman in Uganda for every condom ordered
through the L. platform.L. deploys the condoms through a network of more than 2,000 female
entrepreneurs working on the ground in Uganda. The women sell the
condoms at a low cost, thus creating a long-term and sustainable
business that can empower these women and help educate others on the
proper use of the condoms.”
Read the full story on TechCrunch here.
