{"id":2192,"date":"2011-02-14T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/?p=2192"},"modified":"2011-02-11T23:35:23","modified_gmt":"2011-02-12T06:35:23","slug":"how-texting-can-lead-to-safer-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/how-texting-can-lead-to-safer-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"This Valentine’s Day: How Texting Can Lead to Safer Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today is Valentine’s Day and while many of you will be going out with your partner or spouse of many years, some of you out there will be going on a first or second date. Google, Facebook, and Twitter will probably tell you a lot about this new person in your life. But there’s one thing those channels won’t give you information on: sexual history. Qpid.me to the rescue!<\/p>\n

This week, I interviewed Ramin Bastani, founder and CEO of Qpid.me<\/a>, a service that helps people make better decisions before having sex by verifying their HIV\/STD results via text messaging. Qpid.me’s About Us<\/a> page lays out the company vision: “We believe that if people have more (safer) sex, the world will be a happier, healthier place. A place where Qpid.me will be the norm: a paradigm shift in what people do before having sex, where people trust… but verify before having sex.” We’re all for a happier, healthier world, so let’s see how Ramin plans to make that Vision become a reality!<\/p>\n

Andy Smith: Your company was born as the result of a particular experience.<\/strong> <\/strong>What inspired you to start\u00a0Qpid.me?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ramin Bastani: A slap in the face was the inspirational moment. And that story is better seen on my video (above) than read over text.<\/p>\n

Qpid.me uses text messages to exchange STD information. Why did you<\/strong> <\/strong>choose this form of technology? Did you research your audience before<\/strong> <\/strong>deciding on which media channels you were going to use for this<\/strong> <\/strong>service?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t do any formal research, but knew that people always have their cells phones & that most people use text messaging. At our core, we empower people to make better decisions by having the information they want at their fingertips\u2026and carrying around a paper with your latest HIV\/STD results is awkward and can easily appear promiscuous. So text messaging made sense.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, people flirt using text messaging and we encourage our users to play a modern, flirtatious version of \u201cI\u2019ll show you mine, if you show me yours\u201d with their results. And we\u2019re working on improving what I call the *sharabilty* of the results (i.e. via an iPhone app, an icon and or link on your dating profile, Facebook app, etc) to make it easier and more a part of your normal behavior.<\/p>\n

Qpid.me is still in beta. How are you creating buzz about your product?<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s viral! Not the best choice of words to use, but true. If you use our service, you\u2019re likely sharing it with a potential partner and or others (people have been sharing them on online dating profiles).<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sex sells and we\u2019ve been fortunate to get a lot of attention from tweets, blogs & conferences including Health 2.0, Mobile Health at Stanford, Sex::Tech and the Centers for Disease Control STD Prevention.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Forward thinking public and private health clinics have been getting the word out to their patients to sign up because they not only see the value in what we\u2019re doing, but they also see us as a way to disseminate the HIV\/STD results via text messaging (which they aren\u2019t able to do because of HIPAA and tech-wise).<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aside from utility,\u00a0qpid.me<\/a> also has an underlying social goal: to reduce the risk and spread of STDs. What are your thoughts on the<\/strong> <\/strong>relationship between for-profit companies and social initiatives?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a broad topic. How I think about it is that the big winners of the future will be companies who provide something that dramatically improves lives in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n

Specifically, I subscribe to Umair Haque\u2019s Awesomeness Manifesto<\/a> that, \u201cAwesomeness happens when thick \u2014 real, meaningful \u2014 value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re trying to do with Qpid.me. and I have never thought of us specifically as a socially minded company, just a company that see\u2019s tremendous value (socially, emotionally and financially) in helping people make better decisions before they have sex.<\/p>\n

Aside from Qpid.me, what is your favorite example of a company that<\/strong> combines a social goal with a for-profit business model? Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

PatientsLikeMe.com is a good example. Their tag line is \u201cpatients helping patients live better everyday.\u201d They enable their users who suffer from the same diseases \/ conditions to connect in an online community. I especially think what they\u2019re doing is great, because they also crowd source information on what the drugs work best, what treatments were most effective, etc which enables their users to make better health decisions going forward.<\/p>\n

6. Today is Valentine’s Day. Any words for all the lovers out there?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spread the love, nothing else!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Valentine’s Day and while many of you will be going out with your partner or spouse of many years, some of you out there will be going on a first or second date. Google, Facebook, and Twitter will probably tell you a lot about this new person in your life. But there’s one … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “This Valentine’s Day: How Texting Can Lead to Safer Sex”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[134,61],"tags":[139,136,135,140,137,138],"class_list":["post-2192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-studies","category-interview","tag-dating","tag-design-thinking-2","tag-qpid-me","tag-relationships","tag-sex","tag-text-message"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BBCq-zm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2192"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2202,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192\/revisions\/2202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}