Table of Contents
What we are doing
Why we’re doing it
How we’re doing it
Who we are
NYC T Party 7/8
What we are doing
T Party is a company with the mission of improving male health naturally and measurably. We are starting off by creating content with this newsletter and hosting testosterone blood testing parties, aka “T Parties.”
We are not limiting ourselves to what we will one day do — we have interest in coaching programs, software solutions, supplements, meal kits, diagnostics tests, and more.
Above all, we are focused on solving the problem of declining T levels. Naturally and measurably. What matters less is what we do, but why and how we do it.
Why we’re doing it
Testosterone levels have decreased 20-30% in the last 40 years (and sperm count levels have decreased 50-60% in the last 40 years). What’s even worse is that this phenomenon appears to disproportionately trend with younger men. Average is now low.
Low testosterone symptoms include:
decreased libido
erectile dysfunction
fatigue
low energy
irritable mood
depression
decreased confidence
decreased self-esteem
reduced muscle mass
increased body fat
and decreased bone density
The problem we are solving is helping men get their T levels back to a normal place, which will improve physical health, mental health, and sexual health.
After talking to hundreds of men both online and offline, we’ve identified three initial problems:
Lack of trusted, evidenced-back information. This space is completely saturated with misinformation, bro science, and snake oil. It’s shocking how many claims and supplements there are, but how few have been verified by blood tests.
Lack of convenient, cost-effective, and trusted blood tests.
On the primary-care provider side, testosterone tests are not typically included in blood panels men may get at their annual physicals. Furthermore, we’ve heard of many cases where primary care doctors simply refuse requests for testosterone tests.
If you want to order your own tests, you have to pay out of pocket. And while the consumer diagnostics and blood testing market is growing, it is still not clear who the best provider is, what tests one should take, how accurate those tests are, what is a fair price, etc. The vast majority of people have not ordered their own labs by themselves yet, and it’s not clear where to start.
Lack of spaces to discuss men’s health. As mentioned already, doctors in the US are not taking this problem seriously enough, and they are typically too rushed to give meaningful time to patients anyway. Real name social networks are not great places to share personal, potentially vulnerable information. And anonymous internet forums are usually quite degenerate and toxic.
How we’re doing it
Naturally. There are tons of companies already selling hormone injections and prescription medications to the point of commoditization. Not only are there enough of these companies, these are ultimately band-aid solutions. They do not address the root cause, which is insufficient endogenous production from poor lifestyle and/or environmental toxins. Moreover, these band-aid solutions often have lasting side effects that make them less viable for men under 40 and for men who want to have children.
Measurably. The entire space of testosterone and supplements is littered with bro science and snake oil. It is absolutely shocking how little claims have been verified, not even in a clinical or research sense, but in terms of personal blood tests. I have taken 20 testosterone blood tests since February and directly facilitated 43 blood tests. You don’t need to trust or believe anyone — not your doctor, not the FDA, not the insurance companies, not researchers — when you have a few objective, quantifiable data points about your own body.
Who we are
My name is Jeff Tang and I am the founder of T Party.
I started testing my blood in February of 2023 out of curiosity for my own health, the drive to max out my performance as a startup founder, and the desire to catch preventable chronic disease early to avoid the expensive and confusing hell-scape that is the American healthcare system.
My initial levels were ~750 ng/dL in San Francisco. As I improved my health, habits, and environment over the next 2 months, I reached a level of 1096 ng/dL (the healthy upper limit usually said to be around 1000 ng/dL). What was interesting is that this corresponded with a meaningful improvement in my well-being, energy levels, mental state, dating life, gym performance, and more. The positive feedback loop and virtuous cycle reinforced itself and became addicting, for lack of a better word.
I posted my blood test results to social media (as well as a thirst trap), and over one hundred guys messaged me for tips on how to increase T. I was surprised that I got so many inquiries — wasn’t there enough information out there already? Well, it turns out most of that info is junk.
yday i bet $100 i would get to 1000 ng/dL total testosterone in a month
earlier that day i took a blood test
today's results say i have 1096 total T 🥳
2/21/23 - 791
2/23/23 - 725
3/7/23 - 815
4/1/23 - 511
4/10/23 - 864
4/18/23 - 1096(all fasted in the morning)
— Jeff Tang (@tangjeff0)
Apr 20, 2023
As I talked to these guys, I discovered the vast majority said they had never taken a blood test before. So I wondered — if I ordered blood tests for them, would other guys join me in taking a blood test?
A few weeks later, I went to a founder retreat in Ecuador, and tested this exact hypothesis. I ordered a mobile phlebotomist to come to our hotel, and 19 guys did their blood test with me. At 8am on a Friday no less. Everything at this retreat was essentially sponsored and free, but these founders decided to spontaneously do blood tests if all they needed to do was pay for it.
3/4 Lastly, I'm setting up 2 blood draw parties, 1 in Medellín & 1 in Miami (early June)
This started when I ordered mobile phlebotomists to a founder retreat 3 weeks ago. I was shocked when 20 of 30 male founders joined me to test their T! http
— Jeff Tang (@tangjeff0)
May 19, 2023
Next, I wondered if we could have a more organized “T Party” that intentionally created space and time to talk about male health, rather than just hijacking a retreat ad hoc. So a few weeks later, I went to Medellín, Colombia and planned a real “T Party”.
I knew exactly a single person in Medellín before this event, and only through phone calls and texts. I had only been in this new city for 3 weeks, yet 24 people came to this event. No one from my pre-existing networks, whether it be Twitter or the startup world.
The feedback from the event was a resounding “hell yes.” Every person was contributing their own stories, questions, and concerns about health. We started with testosterone, which naturally led to sleep, nutrition, recovery, and more. Some of us stayed for hours after the event, continuing to chat and hangout. People were asking when the next one would be. Many people who couldn’t make it were bugging me about doing another one.
It was clear that if I could provide the space, then guys would not stop talking their heads off! It was clear that there wasn’t anything out there providing a similar function.
Now I want to bring T Parties to America and beyond.
just held my 2nd T Party 🍵 💉
- 24 guys tested
- first T Test for 90% of people like my 1st event
- discussed approaches to optimizing T naturally, endocrine disrupters, and supplements
- served home-made kefir, beef patties (heart, spleen, kidney) and pork loin (blood, liver),… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…— Jeff Tang (@tangjeff0)
May 27, 2023
Again, after talking to hundreds of men online and offline, I’ve noticed three initial, glaring problems to solve.
Lack of trusted, evidenced-back information.
Lack of convenient, cost-effective, and trusted blood tests.
Lack of spaces to discuss men’s health.
As such, I believe high-quality content solves problem #1. I hope this newsletter will be a good starting point.
Second, I hope T Parties will solve problems #2 and #3, by simultaneously bringing tests to the people and creating spaces to discuss men’s health.
Some basic starting metrics to see if we are solving these problems:
How many tests we’ve facilitated. We have directly facilitated 43 tests so far (> 60 if including my personal tests).
How much testosterone we’ve increased in ng/dL. About ~300 ng/dL for me. We’re developing a cohort-based coaching program to boost guys’ T as much as humanly possible in 4 weeks, with weekly blood tests. Stay tuned!
Feedback on the events. We got 5/5 from the 4 people who responded to the Medellín T Party. Let’s keep that up!
There are probably better metrics than these, but these are just starting ones. Probably a lot of what I’ve written in this post will change and evolve, including the format of the newsletter, the problem statements, and more.
Ultimately, I am not a doctor or researcher. I am just a guy who likes experimenting with his health and productivity (and unfortunately for you overshares it!).
At the end of the day, I just want to self-actualize. I want to maxx out my performance and fulfill my potential, and for me that means helping others do the same.
Last note, I should mention I want to help all people self-actualize, not just men. Both Roman and Hims started with products for men — erectile dysfunction and hair loss — but evolved into the more general Ro Pharmacy and Hims & Hers.
That’s all to say, this is just the start.
NYC T Party 7/8
Join our NYC T Party on 7/8 or fill out this form to sign-up for future T Parties in other cities.
We’ll also be posting more information on optimizing health naturally and measurably on this newsletter. In our next post, I will annotate the data below, sharing what experiments I tried and their effects (or lack thereof).
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