ABSTRACT
Patrick Schaller sat in his hotel room, punching his laptop keyboard and cursing the lack of ergonomics in the desk chair design. He was waiting for his business partner, Nathalie Fabre, to arrive so they could discuss a new supply contract that looked problematic for their fl edgling company, Protectom. Protectom was a French company specializing in condoms for the young gay scene. Schaller himself was not young, but he had the passionate conviction that condoms saved lives. He was HIV positive. He had started Protectom in the belief that he could truly save people like himself who in the past had not thought of condoms as relevant to their lifestyle-hence the name “protect homme.” He realized the limitations of the name, such as the greater share of women buyers today, increasing sophistication of competitors like Hot Rubber, and the unsexy idea of protection, but knew that the brand had grown strong fast and it was too risky to change it now.
