Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry? • Hacker News Board

ufmace wrote: post #59

tormeh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think men are just wary of being seen as creeps. At a recent job search lecture at my uni we were told to never have a picture on your CV, with this as example of how it goes wrong: "Let's say you're a beautiful woman and you send a company your CV with pic on it. Now, the reviewer of your CV is male and if he asks you in for an interview the other employees at the company might suggest he did it because of the way…

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…

Interestingly, the public perception that you're tainted can make your company a good investment for the savvy (/thick-skinned) investor:

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/investing/investing-in-sin-s...

Since a lot of people wont touch sex (or tobacco, oil, military, etc.) investments, you can get these at a discount compared to other companies with similar numbers but in a more mainstream category.

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

#83

Post by cindygallop » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 7:59 PM UTC

devNoise wrote: post #50

selmnoo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm, okay. Though, it's not clear to me why porn sites en masse would be classified as "High Risk"? Are you sure this is always the case? How are current popular porn sites doing this? And, now that Stripe is quite big, don't they have some leverage over the banks to be able to say they do want porn sites et al. to be able to work with Stripe?

The porn sites are classified as "high risk" because the banks believe/know that type of business has above average chargebacks. Apparently banks want to keep their chargebacks to a minimum.

Irony: http://makelovenotporn.com/ wants to make sex and the discussion around it socially acceptable and socially shareable - our mission is to change the way the world has sex for the better, via socially-shared #realworldsex. As such, we operate completely openly, transparently, legally and ethically, and I can count the number of chargebacks we've had in 20 months of operating on the fingers of one hand (couples watch our videos together, our community isn't hiding etc etc). But the financial world refuses to even have a conversation about the fact we do business differently and don't encounter the same risks. Which is why people regularly tell me we need to find a politician/lobbyist who'll support us, a la bitcoin/Uber lobbying, to redefine what constitutes 'adult content' and the legislation around it.

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

#84

Post by cindygallop » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:01 PM UTC

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…

As per my commment below, we get virtually no chargebacks at http://makelovenotporn.com/ because we are a different kind of business operating in a different kind of way - out in the open, socially acceptable/shareable - but the financial institutions' compliance departments won't even have that conversation. :(

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

#85

Post by cindygallop » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:09 PM UTC

durkie wrote: post #24

We're in the process of launching our first product at Comingle( http://www.comingle.io ), making Arduino-based, open source and hackable sex toys. We're making a sex toy platform (our library is named OSSex of course) so that it won't matter if your sex toy is made by guys. You can reprogram it to your liking, attach sensors that respond to your feedback or even build your own. It is super hard to find a payment pro…

Yes, Stripe would love to. It's their bank that refuses. Patrick Collison really went to bat for us but couldn't win.:(

Ben Milne of Dwolla supports adult ventures, and we work with them, but unfortunately as a startup themselves they only operate in the US currently - we're global and need global solutions.

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

#86

Post by cindygallop » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:11 PM UTC

chimeracoder wrote: post #17

garethsprice wrote: post #4

Cindy Gallop's "Make Love Not Porn" ( http://www.makelovenotporn.com ) is trying to solve some of the issues around the rise of Internet pornography (addiction, detachment from intimacy, unrealistic/degrading portrayal of women, etc). She's approaching it from a great, sex-positive way but is having issues whenever the company touches the "regular world" - hard to get funding, taken seriously by non-adult industry pe…

I read a really enlightening article on the challenges that "adult" startups face when they try to do things the legitimate way[0] (as opposed to using underhanded, duplicitous, and/or legally questionable tactics). It's rather sad that these startups are essentially punished for not wanting to deceive their business partners about what they do. It sheds a lot of light on why the adult industry ends up with a rather…

Exactly. Which is why the Daily Beast wrote this piece on us and other #sextech entrepreneurs on 'Silicon Valley's Soft Sex Ban: Why The Digital World Needs To Stop Failing Sex':

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

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

#87

Post by cindygallop » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:12 PM UTC

unoti wrote: post #30

I'd love to make XXX videogames. There aren't many serious players in that space, and I'd love to go after it. I can't do it alone, though, I need artists and a couple other capabilities besides software development. When I pitch the idea to people I'd like to work with on this, they don't want to participate in that space. So yes, there's definitely a stigma for a lot of people. I've done a good amount of sex things…

Would love you to do that. Huge opportunity. Email cindy@makelovenotporn.com.

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

#88

Post by cindygallop » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:18 PM UTC

fidotron wrote: post #37

tormeh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their websites are horrible, though, and the content is pretty meh.

Their analytics is top notch though. The whole thing is based on what pays, and from what I've heard from friends in the industry the last couple of years "If it's not gay it doesn't pay". There is simply so much free stuff around that there's not much to be made in the mainstream.

This is MakeLoveNotPorn's revenue-sharing business model (we're part of the sharing economy, just like Uber and Airbnb):

http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2012/09/20/how-makeloven...

Our business model is the opposite of the porn industry's, where pornstars, no matter how well-known, get paid by the scene, on a payscale that may range from a few hundred dollars and tops out at a thousand or two for a scene, even for the most famous and celebrated pornstars. That scene goes on to be viewed billions of times on Brazzers, Naughty America, whatever, but the pornstars never see a cent from any of that. There are no residuals in porn - if there were it would be a very different industry - which is why pornstars need to supplement their income with live camming, dancing, Fleshlights, hushed up escort work etc.

With our model, the more people who enjoy your videos, the more you stand to make. We're only 20 months old in public beta, tiny, bootstrapping and battling every day, but in a world where the received wisdom is 'Nobody pays for porn' they're paying for #realworldsex. Here's one of our members on 'Why I'm Happy To Pay $5 To Watch Real World Sex':

http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/05/02/why-im-happy-...

and a number of our MakeLoveNotPornstars are already making four figures at each payout. (We are the answer to the economy :))

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

#89

Post by sudokent » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:20 PM UTC

cindygallop wrote: post #77

sudokent wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'?!!

What merchants are those? I've read through many acceptable use policies and haven't seen "No Adult Content" yet.

Thanks!

edit:s/man/many/

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

#90

Post by cindygallop » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:20 PM UTC

robzyb wrote: post #12

staunch wrote: post #3

VR porn is a new area with difficult problems to solve.

I think that there's opportunity in teledildonics as well. If it wasn't for it being, well, teledildonics, I'd be interested in pursuing it.

That's precisely why you should. :) Seriously, I and my team and every other #sextech entrepreneur are working to change the public attitude. For the people ahead of the curve - OH MY GOD THE MONEY TO BE MADE :)