Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian gets another job

Alexis Ohanian still has another job: board member of a health care start-up.

The co-founder of Reddit is now a member of the board of directors of the new company Ro. Ro's first brand, Roman, was launched last year to help men with erectile dysfunction.

This is the second board of directors where Ohanian is headquartered after Reddit, the popular discussion platform it co-founded in 2005. It is also

"It's the first time I join a company that I have not created," Ohanian told CNNMoney.. Ohanian noted that he spent a lot of time with Ro after his fund became an early investor in the company's $ 3.1 million cycle.

On Tuesday, the new parent company announced its second brand – Zero – which aims to help men and women quit smoking. He also announced that he had raised another $ 88 million financing, part of which came from the start-up investment firm of Ohanian, Initialized Capital.

Ro is barely alone in his efforts to attract men concerned about their health. He, launched at the same time as Roman, offers products for hair loss, skin care and erectile dysfunction.

With Zero, Ro expands. But co-founder Zachariah Reitano notes that erectile dysfunction and smoking cessation can be linked.

"We saw a large percentage of our members smoking and it was one of the causes of their [erectile dysfunction]"said Reitano, noting that Roman has facilitated" millions "of interactions between patients and doctors so far.

"It's one of the biggest lifestyle changes that anyone can do to improve their overall health," said Reitano.

Of course, tobacco dependence has no impact on men. This is what has brought the company to create a distinct brand for men and women.

Zero shares the same infrastructure as Roman. It connects patients with its online network of doctors and pharmacies to assist with diagnosis, ongoing treatment and delivery.

Reitano describes the business model as being similar to the OpenTable reservations platform, which allows restaurants to pay for access to their software and network. The company offers "kits" – a combination of clinical treatments, such as prescription medications and nicotine replacement therapy, as well as an app to track a user's progress. A kit lasts three months and each month costs $ 129. A doctor then assesses the progress of the patient.

Doctors for Roman and Zero pay to access Ro's platform and have no incentive to continue prescribing drugs. They are rather compensated for each interaction with a patient.

But Reitano warns that this is not a panacea for smokers: "You must want to stop." But he hopes that applying "software and infrastructure" to existing methods will help more people stay on track.

"Like most people, I've lost in my family people I loved to smoke in. If you know someone who smokes, you know how much that addiction is real and how much it's hard to beat, "said Ohanian. "I've also seen communities on Reddit who have built a very good network of pseudo-anonymous people who help each other to smoke."

FirstMark Capital venture capital firm led Ro's new funding cycle. The firm's chief executive, Rick Heitzmann, also joined the company's board of directors.

CNNMoney (New York) First published September 18, 2018: 9:00 am ET