Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 136 posts

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#71

Post by sumedh »

cassgames wrote: post #51

My problem with modern porn as an industry is the low production values. Even big (ish) budget movies suffer from bad acting and ridiculous plots. Adult games only exist as a hobbyist past-time--they are few and far between and you have to be really "hard core" to be able to enjoy them. So, I'm trying to solve the problem by creating adult games that have realistic plots. My goal is to try and create a niche and prov…

> Even big (ish) budget movies suffer from bad acting and ridiculous plots.

Probably because most of the audience does not care about acting or the story.

So before you invest your time and money make sure the users actually want good acting and a story in porn.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#72

Post by cassgames »

JohnBooty wrote: post #57
sudokent wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who is trying to a create a new, unique, non-janky, adult website I have learned a lot in the last 10 months. And I have never worked in this industry so it has been a serious learning experience. The biggest issue for me has been the banks. My assumption is that Stripe and other players would be "ok" accepting payments from "High Risk" merchants. But they cannot, their partner bank will not allow it. I la…

I know you've probably learned this already from your experience, but for other readers: The (possibly) surprising thing here is that banks aren't moralizing here. You can walk into any adult bookstore and pay with a regular old credit card just fine, thank you. Visa and Mastercard are not averse to allowing you to pay for porn. The reason why banks and credit card companies don't want to be involved with online porn…

A startup idea: create a "dynamic pricing" adult payment processor that would try to undercut the competition by adjusting the amount they charge merchants depending on their chargeback history. You know, sort of like the insurance companies do (insurance is cheaper for those without claims). This way you differentiate between the true high risk merchants and those that are labeled as such just because they are adult.

Undercut the competition which charges upwards of 15%, using that process. Make a killing.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#73

Post by cassgames »

sumedh wrote: post #71
cassgames wrote: post #51

My problem with modern porn as an industry is the low production values. Even big (ish) budget movies suffer from bad acting and ridiculous plots. Adult games only exist as a hobbyist past-time--they are few and far between and you have to be really "hard core" to be able to enjoy them. So, I'm trying to solve the problem by creating adult games that have realistic plots. My goal is to try and create a niche and prov…

> Even big (ish) budget movies suffer from bad acting and ridiculous plots. Probably because most of the audience does not care about acting or the story. So before you invest your time and money make sure the users actually want good acting and a story in porn.

I don't know of any other way of making sure other than putting out a pilot release and seeing how it does. So far the stats look pretty good: lots of people have played my pilot game and liked it. I've received a handful of donations, and since donations rarely work in general, I think there's an opportunity worth exploring.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#74

Post by cindygallop »

I'm delighted you ask that question! I can tell you that there are plenty of us, but that as #sextech entrepreneurs we fight a battle every day to build our startups. Every piece of business infrastructure any other startup can at least take for granted, we can't, because the small print always says 'No adult content'. This is me and other #sextech founders interviewed about this by Fast Company:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3029634/bottom-line/the-difficult...

and the Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-val...

Silicon Valley welcomes innovation and disruption in every other area of our lives except this one - which is why I gave this short talk at New York Tech Meetup back in Feb on why the Next Big Thing in tech is disrupting sex, and intro-ed Colin Hodge of Down and Dema Tio of Vibease to demo their products (go to sex+tech in player):

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/entry.jsp?calendar_event_id=...

and why I organized a 'Changing The World Through Sex' track at Social Media Week New York also in Feb:

http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/events/?id=139287#.UqhnJP...

You can get a sense of the various #sextech startups who demo-ed in 'Sex Tech Shark Tank' here :)

http://seen.co/event/social-media-week:-sextech-new-york-cit...

We welcome as many people as possible to join us in disrupting sex and porn - for anyone interested, this is my talk on 'The Future Of Porn' at SXSW last year:

http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/2013/cindy-gallop-celeb...

and I spell out the business opportunity in my open letter to David Cameron and Silicon Valley published by Wired last year - 'Don't Block Porn, Disrupt It':

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-...

One day I want to start the YCombinator for porn - who's in? :)

http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/makelovenotporn-founder-wa...

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#75

Post by cindygallop »

pc wrote: post #25
couchand wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rybchin said she suspects it has something to do with tech being dominated by men, who might be nervous about working with a sex-toy startup: “All these companies are run by men, and they don’t appreciate a woman’s pleasure.” I don't know whether this really is the underlying issue, but damn, it's unfortunate how plausible it is. And the reaction from Stripe to the reporter's request for comment all but confirms.

I work at Stripe. Some details in the article aren't very accurate. But, more broadly, we actually work hard to push against the rules in many cases. (Cindy Gallop, mentioned earlier in the thread, can attest to this -- we spent ages trying to figure out a way to accept payments for her startup.)

Absolutely - I am enormously grateful to Patrick and the team for doing everything you possibly could to persuade your bank to change their mind. Still gutted we couldn't make it work, and determined to generate as much social acceptability and revenue as we can to change their POV :)

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#76

Post by cindygallop »

tormeh wrote: post #65
ufmace wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially so with something as big and public as backing or working with a sex toy company. No matter what way you go with it, somebody's going to try to jump down your throat. Often several different groups, for contradictory reasons. Is it any wonder that most men, and anybody whose job involves making sure your company isn't the target of a negative media frenzy, doesn't want to touch this stuff with a 10-foot po…

You know, it just hit me that having an all-female company would be really advantageous in this way. The grass is always greener etc. but from this side of the fence it looks like it makes you bulletproof to this kind of things.

Alas no, but I can tell you that many of the entrepreneurs doing really interesting things in this space are female :)

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#77

Post by cindygallop »

sudokent wrote: post #38
tiagotalbuquerq wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

she would stop crying and use cryptocurrency.

I don't believe that BTC has enough market penetration to solve her problem. When I've interviewed potential users concerning my product, the response has been "Isn't Bitcoin a scam? I saw on the news it is a scam" "I want to just use my CC" "What is Bitcoin?" That said, I still will launch with BTC support. Because I believed the hype and coded the solution before doing interviews... sigh

We're keen to use bitcoin and have been talking to various people about this for years. Would you believe bitcoin merchants are also susceptible to 'No adult content'?!!

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#78

Post by cindygallop »

itengelhardt wrote: post #62
rcfox wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem (to me) is the criminalization of porn and prostitution in the US. Porn is illegal in the US?

You are right. I should have said "stigmatization".

We at MakeLoveNotPorn are working to change that. My piece for the UK Independent on 'It's Not That Porn Degrades Women, It's That Business Degrades Porn':

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/its-not-that-por...

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#79

Post by cindygallop »

bilbo0s wrote: post #56
couchand wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rybchin said she suspects it has something to do with tech being dominated by men, who might be nervous about working with a sex-toy startup: “All these companies are run by men, and they don’t appreciate a woman’s pleasure.” I don't know whether this really is the underlying issue, but damn, it's unfortunate how plausible it is. And the reaction from Stripe to the reporter's request for comment all but confirms.

She's trying to fix the wrong problem. The men in charge of those businesses don't care what you sell. They only care not to get in trouble with the businesses they work with up the line. She should make her business acceptable to the banks... and I guarantee the tech companies will be HAPPY to take her money.

Um - I've been battling the 'no adult content' clause for several years now, and unfortunately I can tell you that's not the case. I can't even open a business bank account for http://makelovenotporn.com/ - I've been turned down by everyone including the startup banks (I met with both Silicon Valley Bank and Square One Bank and they refused to let us bank with them).

This is the post I had to write to our members on 'Why We Make It So Hard For You To Give Us Your Money':

http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/07/30/why-we-make-i...

Re: Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

#80

Post by cindygallop »

kingkawn wrote: post #16

Porn sites are janky, unpolished, often half-broken, and prone to suddenly disappearing as quickly as they appeared. This is what innovation looks like. I think they are the definition of innovation in online content delivery of any kind. Live video streams, monetizing content, creating minor internet celebrities who can live off of their online work, confronting head-on issues of privacy and censorship. All of these…

Funnily enough, while that used to be true, it's no longer the case. The tech world has advanced to the point that it's outstripped the porn industry, which is struggling for the business reasons I outline here in my open letter in Wired, 'Don't Block Porn, Disrupt It':

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-...

That's what makes #sextech a huge, huge opportunity - including bringing everything that innovates, does well and makes money in every other sector online - including great design. This is my co-founders, Corey Innis (CTO) and Oonie Chase (UX Lead) talking to BusinessInsider about how you design and build a sex site that isn't a porn site:

http://www.businessinsider.com/designing-make-love-not-porn-...

Post reply on HN