Yep there is only private money in porn and it’s not easy to come by for anyone. VCs back what makes money. Whether it’s for men or women is of no concern to any of the many investors I’ve ever met. Thanks for producing great work on this website for the industry.

Hi Brian, thanks for your thoughtful comment and adding more context regarding investor interest in telemedicine for male health issues. I’m curious to know more about telemedecine startups perhaps in this space dealing with women’s health issues. Good to know that, as you say, you know of no VC-backed companies in pornography regardless of the person running it.

First, its irrational to compare a company that sold 10 million dollars of physical products in the telemedicine niche (for male health issues) in its first year of operations with another company that sells amateur adult video clips as part of a social network. Few investors invest in adult video websites, whether they are owned by men or women. Many investors invest in e-commerce companies and many now specifically look to invest in companies that will enter the new telemedicine market. Many investors love quick growth. 10m in sales in the first year of operation (forhims.com) attracts investor’s attention. The photo accompanying the article showing that Gallop’s website has 1m in revenues after 5 years. After 5 years, her website has only 200 creators who created content and 2000 total videos. In other words, its a very small business with limited growth potential.

Why has “Make Love Not Porn” faced an uphill battle while Forhims.com gets 10m in funding? I don’t have enough time to write about thousands of companies that got funding and why others didn’t but its normally related to something very simple to understand and coincidentally the only important thing to investors: MONEY. If her website didn’t get funding its because she couldn’t convince investors that investing in her website would bring not just a return but a HUGE return. VC’s seek out companies that can grow by 100 or 1000x and then go public. That’s just how the world works.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for more than 10 years. I know dozens of VC’s and investors and I know hundreds of entrepreneurs. I know several women who lead venture backed startups. They are in attractive spaces for investors like online fashion, organic food, and various types of e-commerce. I even know a few female founders who got venture funding who’s companies are related to sex toys. I know zero VC backed companies that are in porn.

When we don’t succeed at something or don’t succeed fast enough, my experiences have lead me to understand that the problem is most often ourselves. But unfortunately some people would rather blame others for their own failures. That is what has happened here.

I do think that real problems exist in this area regarding how investors deal with male vs. female founded companies but this article does a disservice to the issue by using this example.