cindygallop

Thank you so much for recommending us! MakeLoveNotPorn is 'Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.' We're pioneering the whole new category of social sex (what Facebook would be if Facebook allowed us to socially sexually self-express). If porn is the Hollywood movie, we're the real world documentary :) Our mission and manifesto is here: https://socialsexrevolution.com/

MakeLoveNotPorn / Full Stack Developer / Full time / New York or remote /

https://www.makelovenotporn.com/ launched in 2009 with this TED talk: https://blog.ted.com/cindy_gallop_ma/ The extraordinary global response led me to turn MLNP into a business. We're the world's first user-generated human-curated social sex videosharing platform (kind of what Facebook would be if it allowed you to socially sexually self-express and self-identify), celebrating #realworldsex as a counterpoint to porn - we're 'Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.' We're socializing sex to make it easier to talk about, in order to promote good sexual values and behavior. We operate a revenue-sharing model: members pay to rent and stream social sex videos, and half the income goes to our contributors, or as we call them, MakeLoveNotPornstars. In the era of #metoo, everyone's talking about consent, but nobody knows what it actually looks like in bed: every video on MLNP is a demonstration of consent, good sexual values, good sexual behavior in action. We're spearheading the Social Sex Revolution: the revolutionary part isn't the sex, but the social. More info on what we're doing here:

https://nowthisnews.com/videos/future/make-love-not-porn-fou...

+ TechCrunch on our funding round last year:

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/21/sex-the-final-frontier-cin...

Our developer job spec and how to apply is here: https://makelovenotporn.tv/jobs

Terrific! Do email cindy@makelovenotporn.com when you're ready to talk :)

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

90% of the audience at any Oculus Rift presentation/demo are thinking 'Sex' :)

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...

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...

I actually would prefer not to name names because am in discussions to get over that hump...but I've unfortunately encountered this in several.

And on this topic - can I introduce Peiqi Su's fantastic ITP installation, the Penis Wall? :)

http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2014/peiqi-su/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJw-JUmjq0U

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...

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...

Thank you so much for referencing us! :) #realworldsex

Not quite :)

Sex Tech Is Untapped: These 11 Players Are Trying To Change That

http://blog.referralcandy.com/2014/06/03/sex-tech-is-untappe...

That's precisely why you should. :) Seriously, I and my team and every other #sextech entrepreneur are working to change the public attitude. For the people ahead of the curve - OH MY GOD THE MONEY TO BE MADE :)

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...

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-...

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

Would love you to do that. Huge opportunity. Email cindy@makelovenotporn.com.

Exactly. Which is why the Daily Beast wrote this piece on us and other #sextech entrepreneurs on 'Silicon Valley's Soft Sex Ban: Why The Digital World Needs To Stop Failing Sex':

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-val...

Yes, Stripe would love to. It's their bank that refuses. Patrick Collison really went to bat for us but couldn't win.:(

Ben Milne of Dwolla supports adult ventures, and we work with them, but unfortunately as a startup themselves they only operate in the US currently - we're global and need global solutions.

As per my commment below, we get virtually no chargebacks at http://makelovenotporn.com/ because we are a different kind of business operating in a different kind of way - out in the open, socially acceptable/shareable - but the financial institutions' compliance departments won't even have that conversation. :(

Irony: 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.

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/

Cyan Banister, Zivity https://www.zivity.com/

Tina Gong, HappyPlaytime http://happyplaytime.com/

Sarah Jayne Kinney, UnboundBox https://unboundbox.com/

Dema Tio & Hermione Way, Vibease http://www.vibease.com/

Danny Wax & Tyler Elick, Spreadsheets http://spreadsheetsapp.com/

Akbar Dhanaliwala, MinnaLife http://www.minnalife.com/

Kathleen Funk & [name-redacted], [comapny-name-redacted] [url-redacted]

Colin Hodge, Down https://www.downapp.com/

Ben Tao, Offbeatr http://offbeatr.com/

Kaitlin Prest & Mitra Kaboli, AudioSmut http://audiosmut.ca/

Roger McNulty, Gasm.org http://gasm.org/

Joe Nelson, TheyFit http://www.theyfit.co.uk/

Meika Hollender, Sustain http://sustaincondoms.com/

Sherif Maktabi, Glance http://www.glanceapp.info/

Cassie Robinson http://www.cassierobinson.net/

Kathy Harris, Slixa https://www.slixa.com/

Christian Thorn, Pinsex http://www.pinsex.com/

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-...

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-...

Um - I've been battling the 'no adult content' clause for several years now, and unfortunately I can tell you that's not the case. I can't even open a business bank account for http://makelovenotporn.com/ - I've been turned down by everyone including the startup banks (I met with both Silicon Valley Bank and Square One Bank and they refused to let us bank with them).

This is the post I had to write to our members on 'Why We Make It So Hard For You To Give Us Your Money':

http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/07/30/why-we-make-i...

We at MakeLoveNotPorn are working to change that. My piece for the UK Independent on 'It's Not That Porn Degrades Women, It's That Business Degrades Porn':

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/its-not-that-por...

We're keen to use bitcoin and have been talking to various people about this for years. Would you believe bitcoin merchants are also susceptible to 'No adult content'?!!

Alas no, but I can tell you that many of the entrepreneurs doing really interesting things in this space are female :)

Absolutely - I am enormously grateful to Patrick and the team for doing everything you possibly could to persuade your bank to change their mind. Still gutted we couldn't make it work, and determined to generate as much social acceptability and revenue as we can to change their POV :)

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...

and the Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-val...

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=...

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...

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...

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...

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-...

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

http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/makelovenotporn-founder-wa...

Thank you :) Do also check out https://makelovenotporn.tv/

No, he's for real. We're meeting for coffee next week. :)

Thank you for recommending me! :) I've now brought MakeLoveNotPorn.com to life as https://makelovenotporn.tv/ - do check it out.

I took part in a HuffPoLive chat with Isaac, the author of the post on Salon, Naomi Wolf and John Stoltenberg, 2 days ago - here's our discussion:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/internet-porn-men-p...

Do check out my venture https://makelovenotporn.tv/ 'Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.'