Cindy Gallop, MakeLoveNotPorn - Funding a real sex website

Fundraising Stories with Female Founders

No investors wanted to “touch the business with a barge pole” fourteen years ago, when the company was started by Cindy, due to fear of being associated with SexTech. However, Cindy saw an opportunity in the market. She feels sex is essentially a recession-proof industry and the niche of “socially acceptable” sex, which normalises it and allows people to publicly share sex and advocate for this is needed in society.

Cindy managed to get one private angel investor to invest $3 million. Things are slightly better now than 14 years ago thankfully, but there have still been many challenges due to restrictions around marketing and other elements. The longer-term goal for the business is to create “sex education” content in collaboration with experts through the platform. She’s currently raising investment to achieve this ambition.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• How to be resilient when raising investment
• Why you need to market yourself and your brand constantly to raise successfully
• Why the investors who get it, will champion you in every way!