• by Les Luchter , Staff Writer, June 27, 2024

Earlier this year, we wrote about PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a drug that prevents people from getting the HIV virus -- but which, after a decade, still needs to make more headway in the gay community.

The telehealth company featured in that article -- Renegade.health -- has since folded, but we don’t foresee that happening to Mistr, the PrEP provider we’re featuring this week.

For one thing, the six-year-old Mistr is backed by founder/CEO Tristan Schukraft, a serial entrepreneur who’s been busy lately building a gay hospitality empire of three hotels, seven restaurants and five nightclubs -- including the Abby bar in West Hollywood and the Tryst Hotels, a luxury chain now open in Puerto Rico, coming in September to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and in 2025 to New York’s Fire Island, where Schukraft says he now owns 75% of the commercial district.

Secondly, “our marketing is our secret sauce,” Schukraft tells Pharma & Health Insider.

The recipe for that sauce includes widespread use of sexy male brand ambassadors that Schukraft calls “Mistr models.”

You could see the Mistr Models spreading awareness about the importance of being PrEP’d this past weekend at Chicago Pride Fest and San Juan Pride -- or this weekend, walking alongside Mistr Jeeps -- and perhaps doing summersaults -- at the NYC Pride and San Francisco Pride parades.

“When I started this, nobody wanted to be a Mistr model because there was a stigma around HIV prevention,” Schukraft says. “At the end of the day, HIV prevention was not sexy.”

The Mistr models have changed that perception, he says. “We’ve eliminated the stigma,” he explains, to the point where he now gets calls and texts all the time from men wanting to be Mistr models.

Although the chance of that happening is small, the models (there are now 12 of them) “do get replaced annually, so there’s hope.”

The Mistr models come with existing social media followings, which Mistr leverages to its advantage, but Schukraft notes that many men now want to become Mstr models “because it will increase their following.”

“People will come to an event just to meet the Mistr model” he relates. “That’s how you know your marketing has been successful."

The models, Schukraft says, participate in 16 or 17 activations in each of 55 cities annually.

Besides Pride Month activities (“it’s like our Christmas”), they show up year-round at bars, nightclubs and other locations, he explains.

“People are naturally attracted to them because they’re cute and in a Speedo” he says. But more importantly, “Their personality opens the door and educates people on our product and PrEP in general."

Those educational conversations have been changing, Schukraft acknowledges. “When we started, it was about PrEP and our platform. Now, a lot of people understand the benefits of PrEP, so it’s more about how to get PrEP easier at no cost through Mistr.” (A for-profit company, Mistr makes its money through government subsidies.)

In addition to personal appearances by the Mistr models, the company’s marketing includes social media video content using drag queens, particularly from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Among gay men, he points out, the “only thing more popular than cute guys is drag queens.”

Mistr also does paid advertising (with all creative and media handled in-house).

“We’re everywhere,” Schukraft declares.  “You go out to a nightclub, you’re going to see us on the TV screen. You might see a billboard. We do Citi Bikes in New York.”

And Mistr now also has a few physical facilities, making service even easier for those living nearby. Now numbering six locations, Schukraft says an expansion plan is coming.

Then there’s the hospitality business, which also serves to promote Mistr.

“You go to the Abbey, it’s no mistake that you’re in the bathroom and you see a Mistr poster,” says Schukraft.