 Hi everyone, I'm Raif Derrazy and in this video I am really looking forward to sitting down with our guest Christian Phillip Mercer Hall to talk about his incredible new app being released later this year, 2023, which is built for the HIV community. I've seen a lot of well-intentioned apps pop up, but I've never been as excited or hopeful that an app will fill the need that our community so desperately has. And he has invested an incredible amount of time, money and resources, so we will jump into that as well as getting to know the man behind this tech startup. Alright, Christian, thank you so much for joining. I know you're insanely busy. How are you? I'm very well. Thank you. Insanely busy, like you said, but yeah, I'm really good. I'm really excited. We've got so much going on, yeah, very exciting times. Okay, so I'm going to start with a general question that I ask all my guests, which is, what is your assessment of the current state of the global HIV AIDS epidemic? My evaluation on the global HIV and AIDS epidemic at the moment is that we've made some great grab over the last decade, certainly over the last 40 years, we've come in incredibly long way. I think that now more so than ever, all of the minority voices within this community really need to come together and speak the same truth and really try and get the governments around the world to back our community and the preventative measures, the needs of the people living with HIV within the community. Try to come together as one and help us overcome this epidemic, certainly slow that rate down. But yeah, I think truthfully, from a high level, I think it's a really positive note. I think we should be proud of where we are. There's still somewhere to go, but ultimately, there's certainly some light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, a lot of people have the same responses. Yes, we've come a long way in the last 40 years and there's so much to be excited about and thankful for, but yet, we still have quite a ways to go. I agree with you when you mentioned unity and not just in the sense of appealing to organizations outside of the HIV community, but also within the HIV community. I think there's some fragmentation that's happening and some infighting and we're not as unified as we should be, so yeah. Yeah, sure. So I do want to talk about you personally a bit and get to know your story, how you got into this space. But before we do, just as a little bit of a teaser, can you give me a brief elevator pitch of your app, what it's called, what it's about, and then we'll come back to that. Of course. So Positive First One is the social network empowering the HIV community. Positive First One is like a very centralized resource, a hub for all things HIV. You can find connection, education, guidance and support all in one place. You can consume that education and guidance at a pace that suits you, imagine it being a best friend in your pocket, a voice, a set of ears to listen to you. Anytime you need it. We built in some amazing tools and resources within the platform that we're super proud about and yeah, like I said, it's very much a centralized hub, a resource tool for this community. Okay, great. Awesome. So guys, Positive Plus One is the name of the app. Keep that in mind. We're going to get back to that just a little bit. But first I want us to get to know Christian a little better. So tell me, where are you from, where did you grow up? Okay, so I am from Leeds in the UK, which is a very northern town. Some of you guys watching this might know the football team Leeds United. That tends to go a long way when I'm trying to describe where I'm from. Yeah, and I still live just outside of Leeds, you know, but I'm based in the UK. I'm building Positive First One from here. I know you have some businesses that you've developed already. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Yeah, some interesting stories coming your way. So I actually, I came from a corporate sales background originally, went on to work for a startup company and then took a complete left turn and went into hairdressing specifically barbering, opened up a barber shop with a tattoo studio. That particular business burned down, a deli next door caught fire and burned down. And then I use the insurance money from that and put it into Positive First One whilst also launching another salon, which I've since, you know, gone on the sold. But yeah, so now Positive First One is my main focus. But yeah, I built a couple of businesses. I've been through the blood, sweat, toil and tears that come with that, which has served me quite well when it comes to building this business, that's for sure. And how did you go from taking part in a startup to saying, I'm going to open up a barber shop, did you have experience? Like what, how did that happen, come about? So, gosh, when I was when I was like 19, 20, I played rugby in Australia and we were so, so broke that we couldn't afford to get his haircut. So I basically taught myself how to cut my own hair and how to cut some of the rest of the rumbulats hair and felt that I had a bit of a knack for it. I was a bit of, you know, I felt like a bit of a natural. When I left the corporate world, because I was, I'd just grown tired of the corporate world, I thought I actually went to go get my hair cut. And the guy who was cutting my hair said, next time you come, I'm going to be opening up my own shop. This is where I'll be. And I left that haircut thinking I could do this. I was at a bit of a loose end, I didn't really know what to do with my life. You know, did I go back down corporate? I tried something different. And I asked him, I reached out to him and said, if I pay for my own course, would you guarantee me a job? And he actually came back to me and said, I don't have any staff yet. You want to be my apprentice? And that's how I got involved in hairdressing world. But given the business acumen that I'd acquired through, you know, working for startups, working in corporate business, I have an ability to see things from a commercial point that a lot of hairdressers and salon owners didn't. And I, yeah, it didn't take me very long before. Actually, you know, some of the places where I'm working, I could do this better myself. And that's exactly what I did. Fantastic. OK, so what inspired you to create this app? It's another left turn that there's a missing link there. Yeah, there is, yeah. So when I worked in the in the corporate world and lived in the centre of London, and a colleague of mine who became a friend, a real socialite, we used to go out a lot, we had some great times together. Suddenly, when A-Wall from work, I couldn't seem to get a hold of him, tried to call him, tried texting. I eventually went to HR and said, look, I know you're not allowed to give me his address, but I am concerned for him. Wrote him a letter and sent it through and there's just like, you know, speak to me, I just want to make sure you're OK. And upon receiving that letter, he actually called me and invited me round and I went round to his house. And when I arrived at his front door and he opened, he was a shell of his former self. And at that point, I knew something wasn't quite right. We went in, we sat down and he shared with me that he was now living with HIV and that he'd taken that time to come to terms with what that meant for him. And I basically had a conversation and said, how can I help? And two key questions that came out of the back of that conversation were, how do I tell anybody and where do I meet somebody? He was a young guy, he still wanted to meet someone, still wanted to be in love, still wanted to have sex and, you know, and still wanted to live a full, happy, healthy life. So I went out and looked online and kind of find anything that really seemed to meet those needs properly. I then reached out to a lot of charities and support services, spoke to them, convinced them to let me sit into their support group sessions, asked the people attending those sessions, very similar questions and got very similar answers. And this has been something that I've played on my mind, you know, at the time, and I'm not shy to admit this, I didn't know anything about HIV. I didn't know anything about building a tech company. But, you know, I knew that I just wanted to help in any way that I could. And having uncovered a couple of truths, I was surprised to see that there wasn't something like positive plus one that existed already. And, you know, whilst I was, you know, whilst I was working in the start role and acquiring some of those other skills that it was really, you know, making me believe that actually maybe I could do this. And then, you know, I'd be really trying to get into the community. And the truth is, as a person not living with HIV, as a white, heterosexual look, I felt like I actually faced a little bit, a little bit of the door closed in on me initially because people maybe thought that I was trying to, you know, do this for the wrong reasons. And it's taken me time to overcome that and to, you know, to look like I am authentic and for people to believe that, you know, I am in this for all the right reasons. So whilst I was building the barb shop, you know, I really started to knuckle down into positive plus one and maybe what that idea would look like and what its main objectives were. And then fortunately, unfortunately, when the salon burned down, like I said before, I re, I used some of those, the money from my insurance and I chucked it into positive plus one because I believed in it. I believe that it's got the power to do amazing things and not really then set the ball rolling. And yeah, it gave me some good traction, enough traction to go on and raise some more money. But yeah, ultimately look, I set out to build this business to help one friend and it just so happens that that one friend shared a lot of pain points and a lot of people around the world and that's what positive plus one is for. Great, yeah, I mean, you're, when you said that you didn't know much of anything about HIV, I think a lot of people can relate to that. Even myself, even though when I was in my, I would say late teens, early 20s, I was doing volunteer work for a nonprofit that was solely focused on educating 18 to 24 year old men about STI prevention, including HIV. I was doing that for like two years at least. I still didn't know a single thing about what it meant to actually, once you're diagnosed, what happens? I didn't know a single thing. I thought you would be dead in two to three years. I didn't know anything about medication. I didn't know about U equals U, any of that. So it's, you know, it just speaks to a big void in a gap in education, I think, not just here, but everywhere in the world. That's part of the need for something like this. Yeah, that's one of the things that really stood out to me was that, you know, post that diagnosis, a lot of people were handed a pamphlet on, here's the medication and, you know, this is how you adhere to this medication and there wasn't really much out of my route to care. There wasn't much in the way of the guidance to be like, these are all of the local organizations around you and this is how they can support you. We built that into the app. Here is, you know, here is some education and some information for you to be able to consume ahead of going to see someone face to face and talking about your newfound status with a person you've never met before. We built that into the platform so you can hear other people sharing their story about their journey of post-diagnosis living with HIV right through to, you know, to the first time they next had sex or went on a date or whatever it might be. Yeah, we built all those things in the positive world solely for those reasons, to help with that area of unknowns, those multiple questions that you'll have after that diagnosis. Yeah, I think there's something uniquely vital for the HIV community. It's something known as wraparound care. People have different similar terms for it, but essentially it's this idea that for those of us living with HIV, it's not just about going to a doctor, getting your script, your medication, getting on medication, doing your lab work periodically and then you'll be off on your way. It's this idea that there's, especially for people living with HIV, there's so much complexity there and so many socioeconomic factors and all these things impact and have influence on how well someone stays on treatment, takes care of themselves. So there's stuff that needs to address stigma and self-stigma and having social support and taking care of people's mental health and housing and food insecurity and all these things will impact whether someone adheres to their medication and help, like you said, with romance and dating. So it seems weird. I think if you're outside of the HIV community or you're not familiar, it's like, I don't understand why they need all this help in all these different areas. It doesn't make sense. Someone might have a different disease and it's like, none of that is really considered, but it's proven and it's shown that all of these things impact the success rate of people getting on medication, staying on treatment and doing well as they live with HIV. Yeah, yeah, sure. And I wanna posit a question to you. It's a little pointed, but I think it's important to ask and I'm sure you'll have a great response to it, which is, and I know that people are gonna watch this and say, look at this white, straight, hetero cis male taking command of this app and why should he be the one to be the leader in this way? Why you? Yeah, that's a great question and it's one I've been asked many times and that's one that I'm actually, I'm most excited to answer. I think it's fair to say, and I'm sure, and many people have agreed with me in the past, the white heterosexual community tend to be one of the most stigmatizing communities in the world of all things. And I'm a white heterosexual male and an advocate and an ally for people living with HIV and the HIV community. And I'm trying to use my voice as a person, not living with HIV, but educated well enough. I'm trying to use my voice to speak to those people who would typically stigmatize and say, I am just like you and you should, and I'm well educated on this and I don't stigmatize this community and I think that you should do the same and I think that is exactly why I am the right person. People tend to listen more to people they align with. I think we can all agree with that. And I'm on a self mission to make sure that I can tell as much of the world and educate as many people from all different backgrounds but I suppose certainly the ones that stigmatize the most that you need to change your opinion of what you think HIV is because it is no longer a death sentence. People can have condom-less sex and not pass on the virus, some of these stupid myths that it can be passed on through. Kissing or sharing a toothbrush, they're wrong. Sharing a glass of drink, hugging, all of those things, you're completely wrong. HIV has changed and that is exactly what I'm trying to get across. Yeah, you're right and it's funny because I actually, the one really distinct time that I experienced stigma for HIV was actually going to a barber shop. So it kind of ties in with how you can impact that as well being a representative and being visible in the straight male community to normalize that. I was going to a barber in LA and pretty regularly for a while and we had developed a bit of a rapport. I was going maybe like once a week I would say and close enough that he gave me his cell number and I could just text him, you know. Yeah, and little by little, I was telling him more and more about myself and then on that last time I told him that I was living with HIV and I did all this advocacy work and I showed him, you know, my socials and he looked at it and he was like, wow, like, he was just like, wow, man, that's like, that's so incredible that you're doing all that. I don't know how you're, where you find the strength to do that. I wouldn't be able to do that. And I just got this feeling that he like kind of revered it in a way and it was kind of a positive experience and there was nothing weird about it. And then the next week when I tried to set up an appointment and texted him and reached out, I got no response, there was nothing. And so I thought, okay, he's busy, you know, barbers can be a little flaky, whatever, from my experience here. So I'm like, okay, whatever. So I reached out again. I did it several times and I just wasn't getting any response. I thought, okay, well, there's gotta be some kind of logical reason. Maybe he went on a vacation, I don't know about. So I call the shop and I say, hey, I'm looking for so-and-so. And they say, oh yeah, he's here, he's working with somebody right now. You want me to have him give you a call back? I say, sure, I wait, no call back. So needless to say, after about two months, I realized I had been cut off, basically. And I know that was because of HIV and obviously the shop was just not willing to do anything about that. And that's shocking to hear. And actually, from the flip side of this, is when I started the deposit person and having the ideas, I was telling everybody about it and really gauging different people's opinions and ideas and thoughts behind it in the barber chair as the barber stood behind it. I have a very eclectic mix of clients, different people, different backgrounds, so diverse. I want to start to tell people, strangely enough, two of my clients, and I wasn't very busy at the time, two of my clients had then shared with me that they were living with HIV. And that was an amazing experience for me because they felt comfortable enough with me to be able to share that with you, with myself, as you did with your barber. I suppose that the main difference is that I wanted to know everything and more from the first couple of times. And you created that safe space for them to open up. Yeah, for sure, yeah. And I think by me having those conversations in that barber shop, at any time there was five working members of staff and then there was five different clients sat in the chair and maybe a couple of clients sat behind waiting for their haircut. We had these challenging conversations, these debates, and it was a great environment for me to really, that's where my advocacy probably began. Showing telling people who wouldn't normally be educated on all things HIV, telling them, updating them on what actually that now looks like, what the landscape actually is, and choose that. So yeah, quite a funny way to put it really, that might have been exciting there, but yeah. I think in many ways, barber shops are a little microcosm of a particular world of men. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, I mean, my story ends well because I found, I did find a new barber, amazing guy. He's one of my close friends now and he also will talk about it openly in the barber shop. He owns the barber shop as well. So that's great. But even with him, he did tell me one time, because he's on social media and he'll put me on his page sometimes and other clients as well. And he said that one of his other clients said, hey, I saw that guy on your Instagram and I see that he's living with HIV. Aren't you worried, like, what if you cut him with your buzzer or your scissors or something like that and his blood? And then you use it on another client, aren't you worried that there might be something happens there? And he's like, no, no, he's like, that's not, that's not how it works. That's not a thing that you need to worry about with barbers. I think actually a very clear thing to make out and this is something I tell people quite a lot. Contracting HIV is very difficult. It's very difficult. It's not just the, it's not airborne, like it's a blood-borne virus and it's very difficult to contract. So a lot of these stupid myths and ideologies and theories that people have is crazy. But yeah, undetectable, equal, untransmittable and that the truth. Yeah, exactly. Okay, well, thank you for answering that sort of pointed question. Let's jump into the app. So Positive Plus One is slated to officially launch this year. Do you have a good timeline? Yeah, so we're looking mid-November to go live to the public. We anticipate no later than the 17th of November, so put it in your diaries, we are coming at ya. And just to be really clear as well. So Positive Plus One is for both people living with and affected by and working within HIV. If you are living with HIV and you have questions and you wanna be directed to some resourcing that can help you, you can join Positive Plus One and find those things. If you have a friend, family member, a spouse, you know, whoever that's diagnosed with HIV, that's living with HIV and you want to learn more and you wanna understand what it means to how you can best support that person, then you can join Positive Plus One. If you are a person working within HIV and you wanna be up to date with, you know, the most groundbreaking and, you know, listening, hearing from the biggest thought leaders in this space, that Positive Plus One is for you. I'm so proud of what, you know, the team and myself have achieved with this. We have focus groups like Crazy. We've spoken to hundreds, if not thousands of people right from across the board, across the world. Again, you know, I make this very clear, HIV doesn't discriminate and neither does our platform. HIV doesn't care who you are, where you're from, what age you are, you know, what background you're from. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter and Positive Plus One is a safe space for everybody. And, you know, we wanna be, we aim to be as inclusive and diverse as possible. Fantastically well said, exciting. So you will have, can you kind of describe how, just so we get a better idea of how the app is structured? Is there, like, I understand there's resources, is there places where people can go to chat, like live with other people? Yeah, so you can find connection of any kind on Positive Plus One. If you wanna make some friends, it's be a great place to start. If you wanna, you know, start to build some romantic connections, I'm, you know, I'm not the person to say what you can or cannot do that. If that's what you wanna do, then you go for it. But yeah, look, I suppose this is very much worth saying. The platform is free. It's free to download, it's free to become a member, it's free to chat, it's free to use the resources. We, you know, we understand the needs of our community and we want it to make it as accessible as possible. For transparency, we generate revenue through advertising. We are considering some paid subscription features in further down the line. You know, we do have some ideas that may be introducing dating things where you can refine down to things that I would call as deal breakers. Again, that's just not an idea that we're talking about in the background, but right now our MVP, our call feature, our call platform, is a place where people can meet, chat, connect, find education, guidance, everything you need, all in one space. Amazing. My understanding is that there's also a place for people who are creating content related to HIV to also be able to share that in the app, is that correct? Yeah, of course. What we most want from people joining the platform is if you feel comfortable enough to do so and you're ready to maybe take that next step. Positive Puzzle One is a very safe community and it's built specifically for the HIV community. And by sharing your story and telling your truths, you're empowering somebody else. You'll maybe be able to share that you overcame a certain hurdle and that will be the exact thing that someone else at the other end needs to hear. And we all need that at different times in our life. We all need somebody to say, I've been through what you're going through and I made it out the other side. And you know, we want people to be on the platform and creating content that sharing those stories and those truths and that authentic journey. We want people working within HIV, healthcare providers to be sharing stories and maybe challenges that they overcame from a medical standpoint. You know, if you're a pharmacist or a peer support worker or a healthcare practitioner of some kind, maybe sharing your stories and your thought leadership around how to best overcome some of these challenges and hurdles and how to best serve people living with HIV or affected by HIV. We want it to be a place where everybody can come and everyone, I'd love to be able to say every time you went on to positive response, you were able to learn something beneficial. So will there be some kind of sort of a feed, I guess, for lack of a better word, where you're seeing the latest posts from like, you can follow profiles and they can follow you kind of like other social apps? Just like other social networks or the social platforms, the truth is without plagiarizing, we, you know, took a look at some of the best platforms and what they did very well. And we, you know, we brought those kind of features and things that feel familiar into our platform. So yes, there is a feed. Yes, you are able to follow people. You're able to connect with people, which means once you've connected, you're actually able to send messages. You know, you're able to like people's content. You're able to comment on people's content. You're able to bookmark people's content, share it to other friends outwardly, out on the platform or inwardly to other people within the platform. You're able to find events that might be events that, you know, it might be a driving cinema that's local and it's happening. We, you know, we've got a great tool that we use that's going to help you. Basically, if there was an event or something like that and you both, you and one of the other connections have liked that, it will give you a prompt to say, why don't you both go together? Again, I'm at my empowerment, you know, to be strong with a woman, that kind of thing. And then yeah, there's just so many, there's so many great features that we built in. It's not going to feel out of the ordinaries for anybody thinking, you're going to get into the platform, you're going to feel very familiar and just like how you know how to use it straight away. Okay, I'm glad we touched on the social component because, you know, there are a number, like I mentioned in the introduction, there are a number of apps that have come out over the years aiming to connect people to resources and create the safe space and whatnot, but it's very static. You go in, there's certain sections you go into, certain buttons you can press and it is what it is and that's kind of it at the end of the day, but this sounds and feels very dynamic. It's constantly moving and changing and there's new things coming in and you're seeing new posts and messages and you can connect with people. So that sounds way more vibrant and alive. Yeah, yeah, I'd like to think so. At any point, if anything feels stagnant, rest assured that I'm going to be doing something about it. Me and the team are going to be working hard to make sure that it doesn't feel that way. That's for sure. Yeah, amazing. Will there be, and maybe this is more of a selfish question, be monetization opportunities for influencers and or creators in the app? Yeah, we are, that's something that we are considering right now. Myself and the product team are trying to find a balance between delivering the product that we have as a core feature and future roadmap. I think we very much like the idea of being able to share revenue with content creators. It makes it very easy for us to say to people, come and create some content on our platform because there's a ability to earn on there, just like YouTube does. We really like that business model. I think one thing that we're actually, we're planning on doing as well is introducing brands that have this corporate social responsibility, diversity and inclusion. We actually want to act as a facilitator for those connections. So if a brand, let's say Nike as an example, went to come on and wanted to say that, look, we support this community. We want to act as a bit of a guide, a connector for, and say, well, based upon what your aims are and your objectives are, we think that these creators will be the best people for you. And then sort of mediate that collaboration between the two brands. Okay, that is a fantastic idea and that excites me. So thanks for sharing that. My pleasure. Well, is there anything that we haven't touched on today in this interview that you'd like to cover before we wrap things up? I suppose this is an ask for your subscribers, the people watching this video, the people listening, whatever medium it is that you are using. The success of Positive First One right now is very much dependent upon people telling other people, people sharing this podcast, this interview, far and wide to people that they think might need it. And basically being an advocate for Positive First One, helping us get and generate that word of mouth. I use this analogy, this metaphor quite a lot. We've all been into a great looking bar, but if the bar's empty, people don't stick around for too long. And that's what we don't want. We've got tens of thousands of people pre-registered, ready to use the platform, which we're very excited about. We want to be the end of 2024. We want to be around the 200,000 users mark, if not more so. And we can only do that with your help. So effectively, please tell people about Positive First One. The link you can pre-register at positivefirstone.com. And yeah, and if you are a person who already creates videos on other socials, telling your stories about HIV, please send to Positive First One, creates some content for us. It's safe, it's secure. We have lots of verification methods in there to keep your privacy, private life private. So yeah, help us, help us, that'd be great. Fantastic, and where else? So I have the link for Positive Plus One, I'll have that down below so that people can register for that and get the latest. Are there any other socials or anything like that you want to drive people to as well? Yeah, I mean, if you type into Instagram with Positive Plus One, TikTok, we have Positive Plus One, Twitter, X, we are Pods Plus One, LinkedIn, if that's your chosen social, we're getting Positive Plus One. We try to keep it as you, it's the same right across the board, but yeah, just type in Positive First One and I'm sure you'll probably find it. Okay, I'll make sure to have links to all of those in the socials down below in the description box below this video. All right, Christian, any final parting words for our viewers? Thank you for listening. Thank you for hearing my story. Thank you for being a part of my journey and thank you for supporting Ray from everything that he does. I think he does a great job of being open and sharing his truths and his authenticity and I think he should support him as much as he can. Well, thank you, I appreciate that. I forgot to mention Christian and I actually met at AFAN, which is the Aid for AIDS, Nevada, fundraising black and white party. He randomly reached out to me on LinkedIn, said, hey, you wanna go to this thing? It's this weekend, we'll fly you out. And I'm like, sure, let's go. And I just hopped on a plane. I'm not one to normally do very spontaneous things, but I'm very glad that I did. It was very apparent very early on that he has an extremely big heart. He's very well-intentioned. He's got a lot of skin in the game and so I'm really excited about this. So thank you so much, Christian, for sitting down with me amongst your busy schedule. We'll have to do a follow-up to this once the app is live and then hopefully you can, maybe we can put together a demo or something so we can really walk people through and they can get a sense if they're not already registered by then. All right, everyone at home, thank you so much for watching. Please like this video if you liked it. Subscribe if you haven't already and hit that bell so you get a notification every time a new video comes out. You don't wanna miss it. And please share this with anyone who might find value in this content. That's the best way that you can support me and my channel. Until next time, cheers.