Why Silicon Valley Believes GLP-1s Are All-Purpose Wonder Drugs
A sizable group of the tech elite see the medication as the natural next thing to try in the never-ending quest for optimization and longevity.
Over the past year, investor Brian Sugar has developed what he considers a “superpower,” finding it newly possible to push himself harder than ever before at home, in the gym—and in the office.
What’s given him this boost? He attributes it to a recently acquired prescription for semaglutide, which places him among a sizable portion of the Silicon Valley elite who’ve come to value GLP-1 drugs as more than just weight loss aids. “It’s like you’re almost programming your brain for what you want to feel good about,” Sugar said.
GLP-1s are indeed part of life for many in the tech world. In fact, 50.5% of the nearly 1,000 people who responded to a reader survey by The Information last week said they were currently taking some kind of GLP-1. That suggests the drugs are far more widely used among the technorati than in the general population. For context, an August survey by think tank Rand found an estimated 12% of Americans have tried GLP-1s.
Quite a few people have embraced a microdosing-style approach to Ozempic and other similar medications, staying on lower doses rather than following the general medical recommendation to gradually increase them. Those taking the smaller doses believe they get enough of the benefits while avoiding the more intense side effects now closely associated with the drugs, such as nausea.
Roughly 20% of respondents to The Information’s survey who have taken GLP-1 drugs before said they have taken a lower dose than recommended of the drugs to help manage negative side effects or for other reasons.
Some, like marketing executive Craig Atkinson, said they saw sufficient results with the starter doses and didn’t see the need to up their intake. Atkinson says he’s lost about 15 pounds, but the main benefit has been that he has found it easier to make healthy decisions.
“A lot of what I do is putting myself culinarily and entertainment-wise into dangerous situations requiring a lot of willpower,” said Atkinson, who’s the CEO of digital marketing agency Code3. In other words, he spends most nights dining out with clients like Paramount and Dior. “I just stayed on the small dose, and it was all I needed to just shift the balance of that desire,” he said.
The main effect of the tirzepatide he’s taking, Atkinson said, is the disappearance of the desire to reach for a snack in the middle of the day, even his former favorite, peanut butter–stuffed pretzels. That restraint shows up at work gatherings as well. “I literally cannot do a tasting menu anymore,” he added. (Tirzepatides are another subclass of GLP-1s similar to semaglutide, sold under the brand names Zepbound and Mounjaro.)
Since the Food and Drug Administration approved GLP-1s like semaglutide for weight loss in mid-2021, the drugs have become wildly popular. Brands such as Ozempic, originally sold by Novo Nordisk as a diabetes medication, and Wegovy, the manufacturer’s version tailored for obesity management, are now nearly as recognizable as bathroom-cabinet staples like Tylenol or Claritin.
To many of the founders, investors and executives taking a GLP-1, it’s the natural next thing to try in Silicon Valley’s relentless pursuit of greater mental and physical optimization. It imbues them with more energy for days of back-to-back-to-back meetings, confidence during investor pitches and other perceived benefits.
GLP-1s are a particular favorite of the biohacking set, who are adding the drugs to their stacks of supplements and peptides for a boost of energy and potential longevity benefits.
In many ways, techies are primed to adopt GLP-1s. They’re less cost sensitive than typical Americans and likely more willing to navigate paying out of pocket for the drugs. They’re also more into the notion of health optimization—extending their longevity and experimenting on themselves to stay on the front lines of health and wellness trends.
GLP-1s, or glucagon-like peptides, were used to treat diabetes before doctors started prescribing them as weight-loss drugs over the past few years. They work by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone the body makes naturally, which regulates insulin levels, digestion and the feeling of satiety. Growing research shows other benefits of the popular drugs include a lower risk of dementia and decreased inflammation.
But they aren’t without risks. Taking them requires patients to diligently manage their protein intake and exercise to ensure they’re not losing too much muscle mass, which can lead to the phenomenon now known as “Ozempic face,” where a person’s face sags from losing too much volume. Meanwhile, media coverage and perceived widespread use among celebrities have stoked worries that the drugs will further exacerbate an unhealthy obsession with thinness.
Trying to guess who among friends and colleagues is taking a GLP-1 has become a favorite Silicon Valley guessing game. Sugar, the investor, has assembled a list of telltale signs.
“You won’t be able to tell by the amount of food they’re eating—they’ll be smart about that, obviously,” he said. “But if you look at their fingers—their fingers will look like they were in the pool for a while, because you’re dehydrated, and a lot of people don’t take care of that. And then the other thing is, your epidermis becomes thinner.” That makes lots of people taking the drugs feel colder, Sugar says—but that’s often easy to hide in the land of fleece vests and company hoodies.
“I think a ton of people are just keeping it really, really quiet,” Sugar said. “It was actually hard for me to find people that would want to talk about it.”
One venture capitalist who frequents an Equinox gym in San Francisco’s Marina District told me about noticing a curious uptick in ripped physiques at the gym in recent months. (Doctors warn their patients a lot of the pounds they shed on GLP-1s can come from muscle loss, so many of them make a concerted effort to counteract that by hitting the gym.)
“This is San Francisco. Where the hell are these people coming from? We don’t have people here like that—that’s an LA thing,” the venture capitalist said.
Among the founders who aren’t bashful about discussing their GLP-1 use, Taylor Offer is blunt about why he’s taking the drugs. “I want to get every edge I can,” he said.
Offer, who started and ran Feat Clothing before selling the apparel startup to a private equity firm last year, considers himself fit and active. And he hadn’t ever thought about taking a GLP-1 until a recommendation to take one came from the same doctor who has counseled him on peptides and other supplements, like creatine and MOTS-c, a peptide that ostensibly improves metabolism and energy.
He said the small dose of GLP-1 makes him feel “like a superhero” and frees up mental bandwidth he used to expend thinking about meals and snacks.
“I spent a lot of my mental energy thinking about food—when my next meal would be, what I’d be eating,” he said. “And when I started thinking about how to optimize myself even more during the workday, I was really like, if I don’t snack or go for those foods—if I don’t eat a large lunch and feel sluggish—those are optimizations.”
In the past, Offer, who’s currently working on a stealth project backed by Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun incubator, had tried Adderall and other stimulants for focus, which left him dealing with ups and downs. With the GLP-1, “I don’t go up and down. I feel good all day, every day, which just feels nice,” he said.
Dan Freed has been taking a GLP-1, too—a weekly microdose roughly half the size of the typical starting dose of 0.25 milligrams—as an experimental addition to his ever-changing peptide lineup. That array also currently includes pinealon, which aims to help with cognitive function and provide anti-aging benefits, and selank, which some users say can help treat anxiety and enhance the body’s natural mood-boosting mechanisms.
“It quiets noise around unhealthy behaviors,” said Freed, founder and CEO of Thesis, which makes a line of nootropic supplements to support cognitive function. “I could expend that mental bandwidth on other things.”
But Freed plans to stop soon because his weight is dipping too low. “It’s hard—like, if you’re just not hungry, it’s hard to make yourself eat, especially when you’re short on time,” he said.
Freed only bought one vial, but he said that even if he were to continue with the dosage he’s currently taking, the supply would still last him around a year. While he considers taking GLP-1 an interesting trial, he’s already looking into other peptides that could produce slightly different results, like glutathione, which can help with tissue repair and immune system function, and tesofensine, a drug originally developed to help treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases that’s now in clinical trials as a weight loss drug.
Others have found that GPL-1s provide a critical missing piece for managing other health conditions.
Fatemeh Khatibloo started taking a GLP-1 a few years ago to help keep her blood sugar levels in check after a diabetes diagnosis. Khatibloo, an executive leading Salesforce’s responsible AI strategy, said doctors didn’t realize that her weight gain and diabetes were the result of perimenopause until taking Wegovy helped her lower her A1C levels, demonstrating that insulin resistance was the underlying problem.
“I had done everything. I had made the lifestyle choices and the diet choices and all of that stuff,” she said. “But it turns out that insulin resistance is a huge part of perimenopause and menopause.”
Monji Dolon, founder of Measured, a New York–based telemedicine startup, hopes his weekly 0.2 mg microdose of GLP-1, which he thinks has already sharpened his mental acuity by allowing him to “read and focus and write more effectively,” can also reduce his risk of future heart issues.
“As a South Asian male, I’m predestined to take statins at some point in my life because of cholesterol issues,” he said. “I’m supercurious to see if this can help prolong or delay…having to take statins or completely reduce that.”
As it happens, Dolon doesn’t just take a GLP-1. He sells them, too.
While he originally founded Measured as a coaching app for diet and exercise routines in 2021, the startup expanded into a GLP-1 telemedicine offering that offers access to prescriptions for the drugs and help navigating insurance coverage for them. The company doesn’t yet have an official microdosing option, but Dolon says Measured is considering launching one to help expand access to the drugs.
“I’ve met many people who were reluctant to take GLP-1s because of some of these reasons, who, when hearing about microdosing, are OK with it and are excited about it and actually want to try it,” he said.
Measured and a host of other telehealth startups are trying to get in on the sales boom GLP-1s have created for the big pharma companies that make the brand-name versions of the drugs. Hims, a Thrive Capital– and IVP-backed startup that went public through a 2021 special purpose acquisition company deal, is perhaps the best-known competitor. GLP-1s accounted for an estimated 30% of its $481 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a Morgan Stanley analysis.
Noom, a Sequoia Capital–backed telehealth company, added GLP-1s last year and recently launched a GLP-1 microdosing offering, which the company says can help patients keep costs down and manage side effects while still seeing results. Noom has refocused its mission to emphasize the role weight loss plays in overall health and longevity and aims to help users develop other healthy habits like increased exercise and protein intake, CEO Geoff Cook said.
“Motivation—that’s the one thing that really we try to be differentiated on and to impart to the member,” Cook said. “When you think about what a GLP-1 is doing, it’s affecting your motivation. Reduction of food noise is changing your motivation.”
Most doctors stress that microdosing GLP-1s is experimental and something they don’t officially recommend, since the approach’s safety and efficacy haven’t been fully researched.Anne Komé, a clinical pharmacist for the University of North Carolina’s health system, wrote a letter in the journal Diabetes Care earlier this year arguing that microdosing could make sense for some patients, but only in specific scenarios under close supervision.
Alloy Women’s Health, which focuses on telehealth services and prescriptions for women in perimenopause and menopause, launched GLP-1s recently as a complement to the company’s core hormone replacement therapy offering, which helps treat menopausal symptoms by replacing hormones such as estrogen that dip as menopause progresses.
“HRT solves all of the symptoms of menopause except weight gain,” Alloy co-founder Anne Fulenwider said. “It’s not just about getting as small as possible. Most people that we hear from—the weight loss is a very important element, but it almost becomes secondary to kind of a new lease on life in so many different ways.”
Sugar, the venture capitalist, finds himself thinking often about the commercial potential in the GLP-1 craze. Roughly one in five companies Sugar meets with these days is making a product that could address GLP-1 side effects or changes, he says. That focus is part of his effort to bet on the changes in consumer behavior he anticipates will result from increased adoption of the drugs. Sugar is already an investor in fast-growing gummy vitamin brand Grüns, which touts itself as an easy way to get daily vitamins and minerals, and which has marketed itself as “Ozempic’s new bestie.”
Despite the benefits he’s seen personally, Sugar is planning to gradually taper off and stop taking the drug. While most of the side effects have been fairly manageable, in large part because of the low doses he’s been taking, he said, some of his hair has started to thin recently, which he fears might be a side effect.
“I have a pretty thick head of hair,” Sugar said. “That’s, like, my identity.”
Still, he thinks the drug has definitely boosted his self-confidence, which he has especially appreciated lately as he’s been pitching potential investors for Sugar Capital’s third fund. Besides, health markers like triglyceride levels and metabolic age have improved, and he has been able to stop taking prescriptions for conditions such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
“After I went to the doctor and my numbers came back, it was like, ‘Wow, this is a secret that shouldn’t be a secret, because it’s not only for vanity,’” he said.
