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Ask HN: Who funds adult sites? I'm, uhh, asking for a friend

8 points by SwellJoe 12y ago

I have some friends who are workers in the online adult industry, mostly performers but also contract worker engineers, and they'd like to build a more ethical adult site. Whenever I talk to people about building new businesses, I'm usually able to at least point them in the right direction on both technical topics and on funding questions. In this case, I get to the part where I would explain, "You'd want to get your working demo site, so you can show it to angels to raise enough money to launch and run it for a few months so you can prove the idea has legs...at which point you either grow from revenue or you raise more money, or a little of both, or you know it's not going to fly and you need to go back to the drawing board." But, I have no idea who funds in the adult industry. I remember reading an article a few years ago claiming that even major VCs often have rarely talked about adult industry funds, but I'm not finding that article, and since it doesn't get talked about, I don't know who among the people I do know would fit that description. Bootstrapping probably isn't an option for them, for a variety of reasons. Banks are right out. Anybody built a business in the adult space and raised money for it?

anigbrowl 12y ago
Pornographers. No, really - because of the factors you mention, porn tends to get made by people who have a bit of money, go into making porn, and re-invest the profits from DVD or subscription sales. I'd say this is more true than ever nowadays because it's so cheap to make something and a lot of people aren't that concerned about aesthetics or quality. I'd guess your main problem is that at the low end of the market the money comes more from advertising than subscriptions, but 99% of the porn ads I've ever seen were ugly and tacky and often really offensive, which doesn't sound compatible with your desire to build and ethical site. Anyway, people who make porn have to have some sort of declaration on their website about all the participants being over 18, and that includes the legal contact point for the publisher by law, so I guess you could scope out a bunch of upmarket porn sites and get in touch with the publishing companies. Drop me a line if you want. I'm interviewing someone this weekend who's involved in that sphere and who's also an activist, so that person might have some ideas.I've never worked in that area myself. Also, here's an article I came across recently that seems like it might have some useful context for you: http://grantland.com/features/porntopia/ http://grantland.com/features/porntopia/
ElAngelo 12y ago
Before building your own porn site, woudn't it be smarter to join as an affiliate of an existing paysite and learn the basics? Content creation, layout, traffic,...You're going to be spending quite a bit of money, before you're even launching your own site and these days it certainly ain't easy to make a profit with online piracy. If you do insist on creating your own site, then I suggest taking a look at your competitors first. Check the porn list of http://theporndude.com/ http://theporndude.com/. They list the best porn sites online. Good luck.

8 points by SwellJoe 12y ago

anigbrowl 12y ago

Pornographers. No, really - because of the factors you mention, porn tends to get made by people who have a bit of money, go into making porn, and re-invest the profits from DVD or subscription sales. I'd say this is more true than ever nowadays because it's so cheap to make something and a lot of people aren't that concerned about aesthetics or quality. I'd guess your main problem is that at the low end of the market the money comes more from advertising than subscriptions, but 99% of the porn ads I've ever seen were ugly and tacky and often really offensive, which doesn't sound compatible with your desire to build and ethical site. Anyway, people who make porn have to have some sort of declaration on their website about all the participants being over 18, and that includes the legal contact point for the publisher by law, so I guess you could scope out a bunch of upmarket porn sites and get in touch with the publishing companies. Drop me a line if you want. I'm interviewing someone this weekend who's involved in that sphere and who's also an activist, so that person might have some ideas.I've never worked in that area myself. Also, here's an article I came across recently that seems like it might have some useful context for you: http://grantland.com/features/porntopia/ http://grantland.com/features/porntopia/

ElAngelo 12y ago

Before building your own porn site, woudn't it be smarter to join as an affiliate of an existing paysite and learn the basics? Content creation, layout, traffic,...You're going to be spending quite a bit of money, before you're even launching your own site and these days it certainly ain't easy to make a profit with online piracy. If you do insist on creating your own site, then I suggest taking a look at your competitors first. Check the porn list of http://theporndude.com/ http://theporndude.com/. They list the best porn sites online. Good luck.