The Memo reports: Persuading investors to give you their cold hard cash is difficult for any new business. But it’s even more of a challenge if your business is considered ‘x-rated’. Whether you’re creating innovative porn, sex toys, or adult events, many traditional backers still want to steer clear of so-called ‘reputational risk’.Now there’s a new platform hoping to syphon much needed funds into this sexy sector.
In the future, Maskell wants to expand from reward crowdfunding to equity crowdfunding, and even into other frequently restricted financial services.
Filling financial holes
Maskell knows first-hand experience of how difficult x-rated fundraising can be having worked in the adult sector for over 18 years. He says it’s the “biggest problem” he’s seen.
He’s faced crowdfunding sites who’ve hidden his sex-related campaigns away from members, and even saw one totally pulled when it attracted press interest.
But he’s far from alone in his struggles.
Serial entrepreneur Hermione Way found it incredibly difficult to get investors to back her former erotica company Vibease, she tells The Memo.
“We pitched over 100 investors and got 100 ‘no’s before we got a yes … there needs to be more options for funding for startups of an adult nature, so I welcome sites like AdultX.”
MysteryVibe co-founder Stephanie Alys, who successfully raised €50,000 on Born.comback in 2015, also said it was great to see a platform dedicated to helping young sex-tech businesses grow.
Crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and IFundWomen are, however, starting to accept and champion projects within the space, she said.
“No matter what the product is, we all have one thing in common; we’re fighting taboos surrounding sex and pleasure. Funding & mainstreaming these businesses will only help us to do that,” she told The Memo.
Financing a more pleasurable future
But it’s important to remember there’s always more than one way to skin a cat.
And while MakeLoveNotPorn founder Cindy Gallop says she applauds what Jason Maskell is doing with AdultxFunding, his approach is certainly not the only way forward.
“The ghetto-ization of ‘adult’ doesn’t help us,” she told The Memo. “When you concept and design ‘adult’ infrastructure around existing bias and prejudice, all you do is reinforce it.”
“I want business and society to open up to and embrace the potential of sextech, and so my focus is on mainstreaming it – that’s why I’m raising the world’s first and only sextech fund, AllTheSky Holdings.”
Launched earlier this year, All TheSkyHoldings will fund innovative sextech ventures, with a focus on female-founded businesses.
“I want to demonstrate how socially beneficial and massively financially lucrative this area can be, both so that one day all crowdfunding platforms embrace sextech, and so that entrepreneurs everywhere can get funded starting open, healthy, ethical, transparent sextech ventures.”
Slowly, it looks like it will become easier for sex-focused businesses to raise the funds they need to make your future more pleasurable.
And now, with crowdfunding, you too can help fill that hole.«