Funding an "Adult Oriented" start-up?

No we're not making dirty movies, but, we've created a neat way to syndicate them.

The problem is, we haven't really liked (or felt that we could trust) any of the investors that we've spoken to thus far.

FOSS, CC, Design. These concepts seem foreign to many that we have spoken to.

We would rather not take money from a traditional pornography company or an adult investment firm such as AdultVest. We see ourselves as technologists, artists, and writers who happen to have a clever idea that could change the porn industry.

We don't want put ourselves into a position where we're forced to promote content that we find unseemly.

Our mantra is: "Don't be seedy." And, we aren't.

Mixing money and sex has always been a recipe for disaster. We believe that we can walk that line, but, we want to hedge our bets by finding like minded investors.

How do you go about finding respectable investors for an "adult oriented" start-up?

I don't think the respectable investors would want to sully their reputation by funding porn.

Not true. We just don't want to lie down with the wrong dogs :).

A fried of mine is into the alternative sexscene (SM stuff...) and runs a club and a blog. Through him I hear a bit about the scene and meet some of the people. One thing I have noticed is that there is plenty of money in porn, and most of it is in specialities. The reason for this is that there is an abundance of mainstream porn available for free pretty much wherever you look, but if you're into something weird it is much harder to find, and thus there's a paying market for it. I heard the numbers for a site that does a weekly liveshow with some pretty serious SM and they are making very serious money.

I've also noticed that some of the consumers of the more specialised porn and upscale swingerclubs are wealthy individuals in their 40's and 50's. Naturally these people have a very open view on pornography and adult-oriented startups. If you try networking a bit in the upscale swingerclubs in the big cities and/or the well-run specialised sites you might find an investor. These people are mostly very open and very nice. Probably because they, like the gay community, are an outcast niche that has to constantly defend their sexuality.

stop lying to yourselves. You're in it to make money, so if you have an idea that think will change porn, why not jump in head first?