Betalist refused to feature my sex-tech startup as it's “Explicit” – Thoughts? | Hacker News Reader

Betalist refused to feature my sex-tech startup as it's “Explicit” – Thoughts?

9 pointsdarrenjsmith5 comments

Looking for some advice! I'm building Blindfold Club http://blindfold.club/ - We deliver monthly audio foreplay scenarios that give couples new ideas to try in the bedroom.

Betalist recently refused to feature the startup because, quoting Marc, "I'm not comfortable featuring a product that's as explicit as yours."

I've copied in the emails I received from Marc for reference. I hope it possibly helps future Sex Tech companies understand some of the challenges they might face launching their products.

But what do you think? I guess I'm going to be hitting hurdles like this constantly as I push the business forward. Do you think the name conjures up explicit thoughts that are inappropriate to most people?

I don't blame Marc from Betalist for not featuring us. Ultimately it's his decision and his company! But it's a shame that he decided not to share it because he was worried about his audience retweeting it + viewing it in the office VS the value of sharing a legit startup try to make peoples lives just a little better. Unfortunately, that's the state of the world right now. Even though sex is universal, our society is atrociously bad at having open and honest discussions about it. It scares and offends. It's an emotional topic!

What do you think?

I'd love feedback on the name..? I'm also using 'Pillow Talk' for another project - maybe this is a softer and more approachable name than Blindfold Club?

Any insights / thoughts / ideas greatly appreciated!

— Hi Darren,

Unfortunately I won't be able to feature Blindfold Club on the site. Although we're relatively flexible in what we allow on the site, I'm not comfortable featuring a product that's as explicit as yours.

This is not a value judgement, but rather a practical consideration. Many people in our audience read the website at their office, and some people even automatically share the startups we feature. I feel like many wouldn't feel comfortable doing that with Blindfold Club hence us choosing not to feature it.

I hope you understand. I've issued a full refund which should appear on your bank statement within 5-10 business days depending on your bank.

Marc

—

Hi Darren,

The primary reason for me not feeling comfortable featuring it, is because we have a large group of people automatically retweeting our posts. This means we don’t just have to consider what WE find appropriate, but also what we believe our audience would feel appropriate sharing with their followers.

I realise how frustrating it must be to have totally legit product many people could benefit from and then not getting the visibility you deserve due to an (outdated) taboo, but I hope you also understand where I’m coming from.

I’m sure you’ll find plenty of other publications that are happy to feature you though (have you considered podcasts sponsorships including an audio fragment?). Wish you the best of luck and if there’s anything else I can help you with don’t hesitate to let me know.

Marc

Featuring snippets on podcasts is a brilliant idea for marketing your service; talk about an awesome reply.

As far as the name goes -- you want to convey that it's about foreplay without getting nitty gritty. Perhaps something to do with "tension, lead-up" Fornikeet? Fornicate is the past tense of fornikeat. Just some funny ideas to maybe help your brain storm

What an exceptionally considerate reply. Very respectful and thoughtful.

I really like the product idea. The name, not so much. I understand that you'd like the capitalize on the current 50 Shades of Grey hype but that will eventually die down (quite frankly I hope sooner than later because I think the film's success can at least partially be attributed to the same kind of prudishness that caused your problems with Betalist).

Though I have no particular experience in that industry I have a feeling that you can forget about most 'traditional' techy / startupey marketing channels for this kind of product. Techcrunch covered a few sex tech startups in the past though I'm not sure if their attitude has changed since they're owned by AOL.

Twitter could be another option, even porn stars and callgirls / callboys seem to be allowed to market their services there.

Otherwise, you just have to get creative. Try to get local news coverage or hold presentations at tech / design / startup conferences (if applicable).

I'd recommend targeting the user group who would be interested in your product, rather than the usual startup suspects.

There are a lot of very large sex blogs and sex-related communities out there, and they're not at all shy about products with suggestive - or indeed extremely explicit - names.

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