
Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry? - rblion
Just curious. I am, like many men, a fan of quality porn and wonder if anyone is trying to solve problems in that industry. Or is too taboo?
======
garethsprice
Cindy Gallop's "Make Love Not Porn"
([http://www.makelovenotporn.com](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 people, payment processing, etc.

The "problems" in Internet porn do not appear related to reducing barriers to
access or better tech, but in solving issues with how people cope with sudden,
instant access to a historically unprecedented amount of material.

Yet again, porn is trending ahead of regular tech use, which is also starting
to deal with the same issues of addiction, information overload, how to
monetize premium content in the face of a vast universe of free, tech
saturation causing detachment and loss of intimacy (and the controversy over
whether it does any of these in the first place).

~~~
chris_overseas
Here's another data point confirming the "regular world" issues you mention:
[http://recode.net/2014/10/17/its-hard-out-there-for-a-sex-
to...](http://recode.net/2014/10/17/its-hard-out-there-for-a-sex-toy-
entrepreneur/)

~~~
couchand
_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.

~~~
pc
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.)

~~~
selmnoo
In the end Stripe could not work with her or other startups that feature "a
naked person" on the product they're selling (the article seems to claim), is
that correct? I'm assuming then pay-for-porn sties are not permitted business
with Stripe either?

~~~
sudokent
They are not, anything classified as "High Risk" cannot be serviced by Stripe,
Balanced, Braintree, etc.

Again, from my research, it is because the partner banks will not allow them
to.

~~~
selmnoo
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?

~~~
devNoise
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.

~~~
cindygallop
Irony: [http://makelovenotporn.com/](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.

------
frankydp
The guys I know in the industry are mostly on the bleeding edge of stream tech
both hardware and software. The sheer size of the industry in proportion to
the entire internet means that some giant portion of all IT in the world work
in the space.

The guys I know all communicate in private communities though, and not for the
taboo reason but because the industry is overtly hostile and aggressive
towards competitors. There are only 3-4 big players and they play dirty(no
pun). They own the pay sites and free sites. They leak their competitors
product on their own free site and pair it with upsale ads to their own sites.
It is very dog eat dog and hard to innovate in because of the players not the
taboo.

~~~
JetSpiegel
I think it's also about the taboo. You can't go to the police and say "Some
site is stealing my porn!" without getting laughed at.

~~~
frankydp
I agree that the taboo exist. But I would suggest that the AE industry is one
of the most aggressive litigators in entertainment, I don't think they are
afraid to use the courts.

------
kingkawn
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 things and more came far earlier in
internet porn than anywhere else, and theres a good chance that whatever edge
they're struggling with will be where the rest of tech finds itself shortly
thereafter.

It's like graffiti in the subway as a precursor to ads for HSBC. It may be
grimy, but they have nothing to lose so there's a good chance what they're
doing is a brilliant move.

~~~
cindygallop
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-...](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-open-
letter)

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-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/designing-make-love-not-porn-2013-4)

~~~
kingkawn
I think it is still the case. The production of porn is democratizing and
becoming a smaller and smaller economic blip as its production dissipates, so
I agree that the economic model is hurting. I also think its serving a
valuable social function which is exposing our expectations and fantasies of
sex as the ludicrous oddities that they are, despite our protestations that we
are mature and civilized.

~~~
cindygallop
At MakeLoveNotPorn we're entirely pro-porn - our tagline is 'Pro-sex. Pro-
porn. Pro-knowing the difference.' And we're utterly non-judgemental -
#realworldsex is all-inclusive, of anything and everything anyone in the world
likes doing. This is what we mean when we say we're not porn, not amateur, but
#realworldsex:

[http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/04/01/what-is-
realw...](http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/04/01/what-is-realworldsex-
the-first-in-an-occasional-series/)

Porn in the abstract is absolutely, as you say, a valuable tool for exploring
our sexuality, finding out what turns us on, learning there are other people
with the same tastes out there. The issue isn't porn, but the absence of an
open healthy dialogue around sex in the real world, which is what lies at the
heart of the business problems this comment stream highlights, which in turn
force the porn industry down worse and worse routes: when you force anything
into the shadows and underground, you make it a lot easier for bad things to
happen, and you make it a lot more difficult for good things to happen.

That same lack of open healthy discussion around sex is why these social
problems exist - the ones that MakeLoveNotPorn is out to tackle:

[http://www.ippr.org/assets/media/publications/attachments/yo...](http://www.ippr.org/assets/media/publications/attachments/youngpeoplesexrelationships.jpg)

------
cassgames
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 prove that adult
games can be a profitable business, so that big players take interest and we
see some major adult titles that are rated "A" not because of the gore and
violence in them, but for the erotica/porn content.

Since I'm only one person, I have to start small, with sub-genres where it is
possible for one person to make something worthwhile in a reasonable amount of
time--currently it's illustrated interactive fiction. So far I've released one
game that is more of a demo than a full featured game. I'm currently working
on my second game which is much bigger.

~~~
sumedh
> 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.

~~~
cassgames
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.

------
unoti
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 in different venues ranging from phone
sex systems to phone dating systems to sex robots in Second Life, so I've long
ago lost my aversion to such things. But it surprised me how many people seem
to be scared of participating in the industry.

It's easier to make high quality content now than ever before, and it's only
going to get better from here.

~~~
jenmcewen
I'm the co-founder of MiKandi, the adult app store. Adult games are a top
search term in our store. If you're making adult Android or HTML5 games, I'd
love to get in touch. We just made our first game, Fap Ninja. It was
challenging but so much fun to make! If you're looking for artists, I
recommend looking on deviantart, hentai foundry, furrafinity, and pixiv.

------
cindygallop
And to answer your question even more specifically - here's a list of founders
and ventures doing innovative things in this space:

Kit Maloney, Oactually [http://oactually.com/](http://oactually.com/)

Cyan Banister, Zivity [https://www.zivity.com/](https://www.zivity.com/)

Tina Gong, HappyPlaytime
[http://happyplaytime.com/](http://happyplaytime.com/)

Sarah Jayne Kinney, UnboundBox
[https://unboundbox.com/](https://unboundbox.com/)

Dema Tio & Hermione Way, Vibease
[http://www.vibease.com/](http://www.vibease.com/)

Danny Wax & Tyler Elick, Spreadsheets
[http://spreadsheetsapp.com/](http://spreadsheetsapp.com/)

Akbar Dhanaliwala, MinnaLife
[http://www.minnalife.com/](http://www.minnalife.com/)

Kathleen Funk & Alan Harris, XSync [http://xsync.com/](http://xsync.com/)

Colin Hodge, Down [https://www.downapp.com/](https://www.downapp.com/)

Ben Tao, Offbeatr [http://offbeatr.com/](http://offbeatr.com/)

Kaitlin Prest & Mitra Kaboli, AudioSmut
[http://audiosmut.ca/](http://audiosmut.ca/)

Roger McNulty, Gasm.org [http://gasm.org/](http://gasm.org/)

Joe Nelson, TheyFit [http://www.theyfit.co.uk/](http://www.theyfit.co.uk/)

Meika Hollender, Sustain
[http://sustaincondoms.com/](http://sustaincondoms.com/)

Sherif Maktabi, Glance
[http://www.glanceapp.info/](http://www.glanceapp.info/)

Cassie Robinson
[http://www.cassierobinson.net/](http://www.cassierobinson.net/)

Kathy Harris, Slixa [https://www.slixa.com/](https://www.slixa.com/)

Christian Thorn, Pinsex [http://www.pinsex.com/](http://www.pinsex.com/)

~~~
xSync_alan
Hi. Alan with xSync here. We're a sex-positive sextech startup that
synchronizes vibrators to adult videos. Our web service is built on some very
innovative technology.

What Cindy said about how difficult it is for an adult startup is absolutely
true. We're launching our pilot soon, but this technology would've reached
market much more quickly if we were mainstream. We typically can't talk as
openly about our ideas. Some adult startup founders run into trouble with
family and friends. VC is also incredibly challenging because they nobody
wants to be known as "the adult VC" in a financial world that patently
discriminates against anything labeled adult.

At xSync we don't produce our own content or our own vibrators. Our website is
completely clean, but because we have links to the videos on 3rd party adult
sites where users can experience xSync, PayPal or your typical payment
processors aren't willing to let us use their services.

We definitely encourage you to follow all of the innovative companies in this
space, just know that, for the time, our products will take a little longer to
reach market than you might expect.

------
durkie
We're in the process of launching our first product at
Comingle([http://www.comingle.io](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 processor, but I imagine that their hands
are tied by the card networks. I bet Stripe would love to support adult
payments if they could: lots of adult specific processors charge like 14%.
Seems like that'd be some nice action to be a part of, even if only in the
adult industries that are lower risk (the adult industry is huge and there's
no way some dildo shop is as high risk as a cam site, even though every one
treats them the same.)

~~~
srybchin
WOW! Looks very interesting!

We are not denying that it's the banks that are the problem. Last I checked,
the money that my company generates is as green as the money as an non-adult
company makes. It's just a shame that banks and companies that work with those
banks, like Stripe, are making blanket statements that all adult related
businesses are risk.

------
shittyanalogy
What are you looking for, innovative content delivery, production style,
search technology, payment schemes?

What problems for example?

All the main video sites you go to are startups that are trying to innovate
and make money. Porn is a very competitive industry. Pornhub and redtube for
example are innovative startups it's just hard to amit it to ourselves because
they are peddling smut.

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

~~~
fidotron
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.

~~~
cindygallop
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...](http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2012/09/20/how-
makelovenotporn-tv-can-help-the-global-economy/)

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-...](http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/05/02/why-im-happy-to-
pay-5-to-watch-realworldsex/)

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

------
MrJagil
[http://www.pornmd.com/](http://www.pornmd.com/) is a very interesting site.

For one, it scrapes all the top sites.

For another, you can see what people search for in which region. I.e. I am in
Denmark and danish people apparently wants to see danish porn. I wasn't aware
of that.

For a third, they have a live-search which is quite interesting. (and
amusingly, read aloud by porn actors here:
[http://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1025156889](http://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1025156889))

For a fourth, they also have a chrome extension, which if nothing else is
curious as the adult industry has so far shied away from apps and such (I
believe because of regulations).

Another interesting take is [http://www.porniq.com](http://www.porniq.com) The
site speaks for itself.

~~~
brettz
Those are Pornhub/Mindgeek projects. We are hiring if anyone is interested.

------
byoung2
There was an interesting discussion about technology stacks in porn here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6137087](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6137087)

------
snug
My girlfriends company, [https://zivity.com](https://zivity.com) is testing
out some waters on a few things. Zivity has been around for awhile, where you
pay for votes and you vote on your favorite sets, and pays out pretty well to
their artist. Right now they are testing a sexy crowdfunding site, where you
vote for which theme you want to win. Live Preview/Beta
([https://fund.okidokiokami.com/](https://fund.okidokiokami.com/))

------
dematio
The adult industry isn't lack of innovation, it has pushed the wide
implementations of VHS, Online payment, Virtual Reality, teledildonic, etc.

The much needed disruption is how to bring positive impacts to the mainstream
market by using sex technologies, without leaving the sex element. How to use
sex technologies to help couples to stay intimate, increase safe sex
awareness, help individuals to understand his/her sexuality, sexual wellness,
help men to understand female orgasm (no, it's not about bigger dick), etc.

In the recent years, we started to see sex-positive startups stepped up to
this challenge. From MakeLoveNotPorn, Jimmy Jane, Crave, RevelBody,
HappyPlaytime, PerfectFit, DOWN (Bang With Friends) and many more. I'm the co-
founder of www.vibease.com, the world's first wearable smart vibrator. I
created Vibease because I was in a long distance relationship and I couldn't
find any solutions that was easy to use and not invasive. Eventually we
'pivoted' to create immersive pleasure experience for women using audio
erotica.

Cindy Gallop from www.makelovenotporn.com has been a great advocate to disrupt
the old adult industry. She successfully brings the hard topic, porn to be
discussed in the society. She takes the good parts of porn and leaves the bad
ones behind, to encourage a healthy discussion about sex.

The challenge is that these startups always being treated like the old shady
sex business, especially from the mainstream and holy (aka. hypocrite)
institutions. The best way to overcome this problem is to pitch it boldly and
hide nothing.

------
Faploid
Hi guys, great discussion! @Striking, thanks for mentioning our company
Faploid! Due to the overkill of free porn online these days, piracy and the
overkill of scam websites, we decide to create
[http://www.faploid.com](http://www.faploid.com).

Faploid hasn’t officially launched, but has already build an active audience,
is socially accepted and actively mentioned and promoted by various mainstream
media outlets. Faploid’s users are as diverse as the content we serve. They
are socially engaged, digitally equipped and searching for safe and quality
adult content in an user friendly environment.

All content including movies, pictures, articles and more are based on our
user's taste and interests. Faploid evaluates millions of new adult content
every day and uses this information to match content to their personal
interests and then delivers them automatically to their personal Faploid
magazine.

Our users aim high and for that reason we only work directly together with the
best publishers/content owners in a variety of niches from A to Z. For them
Faploid isn't only a trusted partner in brand building, but also a quality
partner in sending them traffic of people who are seriously interested in
their content and willing to pay for safe and quality adult content.

After a long time of developing and deal making, we're in our run up to public
launch. In the upcoming months, partly because of the enormous positive
attention we´ve received from both (mainstream) business and consumer side, we
will invite all the subscribers on our waitinglist step by step.

Cheers, Team Faploid

------
vextape
I'm someone making porn but trying my hardest to fund it without making it a
business. It became important to create a model that wasn't reliant on profit.
I try to treat it as a co-op.

Often it feels like the issue with the industry is that it's so uncertain
financially that it's too scared to make content for anyone other than the
assumed stereotype porn consumer (straight dudes mainly) so there's over
saturation of very similar, repetative content which breeds a strange, one-
upmanship quest for never ending novelty.

The ease of access to consistently good and cheaper video equipment (dslrs
that support video etc) mean that the people making the most interesting work
exist outside of the industry, uploading onto tumblr or sites like clips4sale.
Basically they're Etsy of porn, allowing independence from selling the rights
to your work to big companies. They take a bit of searching but they're like
gold dust when you find them.

our work is: [http://afourchamberedheart.com](http://afourchamberedheart.com)
[http://fourchambers.tumblr.com](http://fourchambers.tumblr.com)

------
frequentflyeru
It just surprises me that mainstream brands haven't embraced advertising on
porn sites. There is no reason why there couldn't be a Hulu style high end
porn site with real ads from like Budweiser, Old Spice, Mountain Dew, Red
Bull, Comedy Central. There might be backlash for the first company to
advertise but after that I can't imagine people would care.

~~~
cindygallop
Porn sites have tried, but it's really tough. We want to help break down the
social barriers that prevent that. However, here is one mainstream brand who
wholeheartedly embraced that and wrote up the
BEST.ADVERTISING.EFFECTIVENESS.CASESTUDY.EVER. This is Eat24's hilarious
report on 'How To Advertise On A Porn Site':

[http://blog.eat24hours.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-
websit...](http://blog.eat24hours.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-website/)

and here's what we plan at MakeLoveNotPorn as our version of advertising -
Forget Sex In Advertising, How About Advertising In #realworldsex?

[http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/09/25/forget-sex-
in...](http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/09/25/forget-sex-in-
advertising-how-about-advertising-in-realworldsex/)

------
benjora
Hey! We have a company called [http://Enjora.com](http://Enjora.com), which
tries to give a whole new way of watching porn, and separate itself from the
malicious and low-end porn tube sites by giving credit not just the actors and
producers, but provide the users full-length adult movies. Enjora.com is a
streaming service, like Netflix, where you can watch high quality porn videos
from multiple productions companies for a low monthly fee. Although we are
still in the development process, we already contacted a lot of producers, who
realised that its win-win-win situation because the users get their movies in
HD, without annoying ads, on a well designed easy to use website. You can
follow channels, porn-stars, and multiple fetishes. Apart of the search
engine, we are planning integrated payment methods like mobile, crypto-
currencies, and Paypal which makes easier - and more trustable - to pay for
our service.

------
brettz
We do pretty innovative and fun things at Pornhub. We're hiring too if you're
interested.

~~~
parados
I'm curious, assuming you are hiring tech staff, do you find any difference in
the quantity or quality of applicants compared to other, non adult, tech
companies?

~~~
brettz
Quantity and quality is the same. We are in Montreal though so there is not as
much talent as other cities.

------
throwawaycx
One thing I thought about was to have a reverse porn search(by using an image)
See that reddit has an /r/tipofmypenis , where people are seeking the porn
they once saw, or they have a picture of it.

It would be quite powerful if it work with publishers and has face recognition
ability, so when people upload a screenshot, they can be directed to the porn
video over at the publishers.

Also, it is strange how one cannot search by body type by specify a 3D model
of the body... we can only use descriptive terms.

------
striking
[http://faploid.com](http://faploid.com) has been in beta a long time but it's
gotten awards. Hopefully it works out soon.

------
SilviaSerra
I think Erika Lust's Xconfessions.com is one of the better approaches to
rethinking pornography I've seen so far. Using the public’s own sex
confessions, published on the site anonymously every day, Erika has
established by far the most sophisticated and innovative crowdsourced erotic
cinema ever seen. Each month, she picks two of the best submissions and turns
them into beautiful, original and edgy adult short films.

------
manny5d
There was a talk at SXSW this year that was called the "Relieving Frustration
The UX of Porn" that showed insights on how the Porn industry was innovating
in UX design and showed how mainstream sites were following in its footsteps
it was a good talk.

[http://www.slideshare.net/SteveJohnson35/relieving-
frustrati...](http://www.slideshare.net/SteveJohnson35/relieving-frustration-
poir)

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

~~~
kefka
Given my new position at my workplace, I now have access to all sorts of
gadgets and tech stuff.

One thing I've been playing with is a EEG headset with Oculus Rift. My initial
idea is to utilize brain patterns with Oculus content to increase certain
emotions.

For example, when one is playing Doom 3, the monsters come out closer and
scarier when you are already frightened. Or if you're bored, nothing happens
to try to increase suspense.

Of course, this could easily be taken to the adult industry. The same feelings
of heightened sexual arousal could be coupled with more intense visual
stimulation.

~~~
therobot24
EEG is a mess of noise - it's easy to determine things like 'up', 'down',
'left', and 'right'. If you're really precise (user isn't moving very much and
has one of those caps that uses electro-gel) you can infer activations of
certain parts of the brain, however i don't know how correlated they'd be to
non-strong emotions like boredom.

------
stared
It seems that porn business pushed technology for e-payments and data
storage/transfer:

[http://www.enterprisefeatures.com/2011/06/ten-
indispensable-...](http://www.enterprisefeatures.com/2011/06/ten-
indispensable-technologies-built-by-the-pornography-industry/)

I have no idea if now they are frontiers of innovation.

------
k__
I don't know if they are a startup but the page of chaturbate feels linke one.

Like the idea of shared cams where all people can see even if just a few pay.
Also That the people on the cam can do their own thing.

Most innovative idea I've seen in That sector for long.

------
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...](http://www.fastcompany.com/3029634/bottom-line/the-difficulties-
of-running-a-sex-inspired-startup)

and the Daily Beast:

[http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-
val...](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-valley-s-
soft-sex-ban.html)

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=...](http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/entry.jsp?calendar_event_id=14-402301-2014-02-05&source=NYTM)

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...](http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/events/?id=139287#.UqhnJPRDuAh)

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...](http://seen.co/event/social-media-week:-sextech-new-york-
city-2014-6240)

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...](http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/2013/cindy-gallop-celebrates-
real-life-sexuality-sxsw)

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-...](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-open-
letter)

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

[http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/makelovenotporn-founder-
wa...](http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/makelovenotporn-founder-wants-to-
make-the-y-combinator-for-porn/)

~~~
rblion
Thank you so much for all the information you've provided Cindy, I was not
expecting this much of a response. I basically got nothing on Reddit.

I'm going to study everything in this thread and use it for my startup. I have
some ideas of how human sexuality can be explored through using technology
without losing our humanity. Hopefully, we can all change the perception of
porn and the dynamics of the industry.

I will post again in due time. :)

~~~
xSync_alan
I'd recommend connecting with a few amazing & sex-positive accounts on
twitter.

@cindygallop @makelovenotporn @happyplaytime @mikandistore @oactually
@simplysxy @missemmamcg @orgasmatronics @xSyncTech

There are so many more, but that should get you on track to surrounding
yourself with people who want to positively effect change through sex tech.

------
throw_away4778
Not really a start-up but a Django one-weekend project:

"isexdb is the biggest global directory of adult entertainment locations
worldwide"

[http://www.isexdb.com/](http://www.isexdb.com/)

Programming mostly done by my buddy.

------
sysk
For your reference, [http://www.gfy.com](http://www.gfy.com) is the "HN" of
the adult industry.

~~~
hackerboos
More of a board for adult affiliates.

------
pygeek
Glad someone asked, its just the thing we need to innovate!

~~~
cindygallop
Exactly. The Next Big Thing in tech is disrupting sex. :) #sextech

------
RevelBody
Great stream of comments, I figured I would weigh in with our experience.

I founded Revel Body (www.revelbody.com) with the goal of using our new
vibration motors to build better vibrators. We have been working on increasing
the sensation and versatility of our products (more power and a broader range
of vibrations than existing products) and removing the drawbacks of noise,
reliability, numbness, etc. Right now we build and sell the most powerful,
quiet and reliable battery-powered vibrator on the market. It is strong enough
for muscle massage and can do things like create underwater suction and
vibration (using the backside).

Unlike a lot of brands in the 'sex toy' world, our branding and design
aesthetic are purposely designed to be clean, healthy and accessible. We focus
on health and wellness as a way to enable consumers to buy and try our
product. We want to remove barriers from people trying our products. We
believe that the industry could double in size if people we not embarrassed to
buy these products, so we are focusing on enabling that. We need to remove
stigma, give people permission, etc. Focusing on the many almost endless
medical benefits of regular orgasm is our focus right now.

These products are about as intimate a product as anyone can use, but they
tend to be called 'sex toys'. This does not do justice to some of the better
products our there, but probably is good for cheaper/mass market items. Toys
are cheap and do not do anything important, and these are not just for sex in
the traditional sense. Some brands are starting to use 'pleasure product', but
we are looking for a new name for a high quality category of products like we
build. Personal Appliance is too bulky. I would love if someone could put
together a new for this category of product which really captures what these
products can do.

We launched on Indiegogo, because the biggest crowd funding site would not
allow 'sexual' related products. We blew past our goals nicely, but do not
think kickstarter will come around and allow other sexual related products.

Unlike other sexual products, we have had good success at raising equity
capital. We have done three small rounds which closed very fast and we ended
up leaving many investors on the outside. I think our experience was different
because we had a technology disruption story that made sense as well as being
able to point out the many ways in which the industry is mainstreaming and
growing rapidly. These points create a path for a company that can disrupt and
industry as well as lead the charge to make it mainstream, which will lead to
a great exit when a big consumer product is looking to enter this industry
(they will want the best brand and technology). Other companies like Crave
(raised $2.4M to angels), and Pipedream and Peekay show that mainstream PE
money is entering this space.

There are ways to position companies for investment if you understand how
investors view these kinds of investments; they are looking for an exit based
return and to be part of something cool. Think of what kind of company would
be bought (build versus buy decision). On being part of a cool startup, I
think it is difficult to imagine better cocktail party talk than being part of
a disruptive vibrator company. Companies in this space will probably do better
with angel investors than with VCs, many VCs are funded by institutional funds
which limit investment into 'morally questionable' activities (think fun stuff
like sex, drugs, tobacco, rock and roll).

Like other sexual start-ups, we have had a lot of issues with other companies
not wanting to do business with us because our sexual nature or
association/proximity to porn start-ups. This includes banks, merchant
accounts, advertisers (Facebook included), retargeting ads, etc. It is
ridiculous but if you plan for it, you can work around it.

Lots of interesting things going on here...

------
jenmcewen
Oh man, you've just opened the floodgates. I just love to geek out on this
topic. :)

I've been in the adult industry for almost a decade- both in "hardware" (sex
toys) and software (mobile app store, video streaming). What sort of
innovations are you looking for? Content, social, tech?

A sex toy company I find innovative is Revel Body. Most vibrators use a rotary
motor that spins an off-kilter weight to create the vibration. Revel Body
developed their own patented linear motor that uses magnetic fields of
alternating polarity to slide a weight back and forth in a linear motion. It's
super quiet, more powerful and last longer than the older motors. They also
designed their own chip to give the user precise control of the frequency and
speed. I would have loved to have used RB's motor in the toys I designed.

Lovepalz has the Zeus and Hera toys that couple hardware with software for
long distance partners. Minna toys have pressure sensitive control panels.

The folks at Utherverse created an immersive adults-only virtual world. I
believe they launched a major overhaul to their platform last month. They've
also built a VR compatible platform specifically for the Oculus Rift universe.
In terms of VR porn, Utherverse is at the forefront.

For software, I think we tend to look at consumer-facing sites and products,
but there's a wealth of tech innovation happening behind the scenes.
SendFaster, while not an adult company (but a tech co that powers a number of
adult sites, mine included) has amazing TCP acceleration and image compression
software.

While not a startup, Streamates developed their own live streaming technology
that's used by millions of visitors daily.

Speaking of my company, I co-founded the MiKandi Adult App Store. We launched
almost 5 years ago as the first adults only app store, before Android really
hit it big. Being early adopters of Android and one of the few third party
Android app stores at the time, we really dove head first into it. Under our
belt today, we've got app distribution, mobile video streaming, in-app
billing, notifications, DRM and content management, and soon-to-launch an
ebook reader, mobile game creator, and comic reader and creator. We've tried
to push other tech forward but are usually shot down soon after launching
them- our Google Glass adult app, Tits & Glass, and our third party Chrome app
store, MiKandi Mint.

As far as the problem we're trying to solve, it's less about a problem in the
adult industry as much as it's a problem in the mainstream tech and banking
industries, which is being discussed a lot here. I wrote about the hostile
business world here: [http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/sextech-startups-in-
a-hos...](http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/sextech-startups-in-a-hostile-
business-world)

------
sklogic
[http://www.kamaxcitra.com/](http://www.kamaxcitra.com/)

------
resca79
I have not the competences to do something like that but in my opinion this is
original hacking. In a small town of Sicily (near where I live) some guys are
making incredible stuff with retro - computing. They have restore hold
computers like PDP11, apple one with all original components.

[http://museo.freaknet.org/en](http://museo.freaknet.org/en)

~~~
resca79
Sorry for this comment, I wanted comment another article( iphone issue)

------
detcader
Is porn really "taboo"? Or is the idea merely useful for justifying the state
of the industry? What is OP's response to Robert Jensen [1], Germaine Greer
[2], Corina Taylor [3], Clara Bennathan [4], Meghan Murphy [5], and Gail Dines
[6] [7]?

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxBJf9UtWg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxBJf9UtWg)

[2]
[http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/24/society](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/24/society)

[3] [https://www.thepinkcross.org/pinkcross-
articles/october-2011...](https://www.thepinkcross.org/pinkcross-
articles/october-2011/ex-porn-star-corina-taylor-story)

[4] [http://www.bad-housekeeping.com/2014/01/08/violence-
teenager...](http://www.bad-housekeeping.com/2014/01/08/violence-teenagers-
and-gonzo-porn/)

[5] [http://feministcurrent.com/9087/meghan-murphy-on-elliot-
rodg...](http://feministcurrent.com/9087/meghan-murphy-on-elliot-rodger-
misogyny-and-porn-culture/)

[6]
[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/05/convers...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/05/conversation-
gail-dines-anna-arrowsmith)

[7]
[http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/pornographyisale...](http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/pornographyisaleftissue.htm)

~~~
icebraining
I don't think you know what "taboo" means. It doesn't mean it's not harmful.

~~~
hawkice
Wiki says: "A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief
that such behavior is either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary
individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment."

This clearly does not describe pornography, not even the Pope thinks this.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
I'm not sure if you're a native English speaker or not, but the meaning of
taboo extends farther than this. A simple definition would be something like
"something prohibited to do/mention in respectable company"

