Sex With Emily - Femtech: The Future is Sexy

Episode Date: April 4, 2018

Today’s bonus show features Emily as a host of The Future of Femtech panel a few weeks back at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas – a massive gathering of technology, film, culture, and music. Put on by the SAFE app – an app that lets you show your verified STD status for safe dating, the panel featured amazing women founders and entrepreneurs behind companies devoted to women’s health and sexuality – what Femtech is all about. From sex toy companies to dating apps to Kegel fertility trackers, these women, along with Emily, share the same passion for women’s health everywhere in a currently booming industry! Thank you for supporting our sponsors who help keep the show FREE: Promescent, We-Vibe, Sportsheets Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thanks for listening to Sex with Emily. Today's bonus episode was recorded a few weeks back. I hosted an incredible panel at South by Southwest and Austin, Texas. If you're not familiar with this conference, it's a massive gathering of people who are passionate about technology, culture, music, and film, and there's also really great parties. So I was invited to host the future of FEMTECH panel by the Group Behind the Safe app, which is an app that lets you show your verified STD status on your phone. So before you get busy with someone, you can show them your status. So what is FEMTECH you ask? Well, it's essentially technology, products, or software that are focused on women's

health. And this industry has been booming. It's like at 1.1 billion now, but you know, women make up 75% of the buying power, so it's certainly on the rise. So my hope is that this discussion inspires conversation with your friends, your partner, your family, and even your kids. See, the information age is moving so fast, and female and sex-focused technology enables us to manage aspects of our safety and consent, but also pleasure, intimacy, communication, you know, the core relationship aspects that clearly are very close to me.

I love being joined by these badass female founders and entrepreneurs, including Christina Kahojava, founder of Keg, the first fertility tracking keggelle device, Lauren Warniger, co-founder of Safe, the Safe Sex app, Adrian Ashley, founder of Lollie, an AI-driven dating platform built on the blockchain and Alexander Fine, CEO and co-founder of Dane Products, a sex toy company focused on partner-based sex toys. I'm really excited to share this discussion with you.

You'll hear a little background noise as the panel was hosted in a pretty busy space. So I hope you enjoyed the show and I can't wait to hear what you think about it. Thanks! Man obsessed by sex. Eyes that mock our sacred institutions. Betrubized they call them in a fight on day. Hey, Evelyn, you got a boyfriend? Cause my man E here, he just got his heart broken, he thinks you're kind of cute. The girls got a hair stand. Oh my! The women know about shrinkage.

Isn't it common knowledge? What do you mean like laundry? It's shrink? Can we not talk about sex so much? Are you kidding me? Oh my god, I'm so proud. Being bad feels pretty good. But you know Emily's not the kind of girl you just play with.

Okay, so yeah, my name's Emily. Who's the podcast called Sex with Emily. And like Lauren said, and I'm so excited to be here with these amazing women today to talk about FEMTECH, the future of FEMTECH. And so I started a podcast 13 years ago, right, when people were just like what podcasting was for starting.

And the whole point was to make sex easier to talk about, right? Because I think that there's just, you know, it's like the one thing we were talking about earlier, like sex and money. And money might be like a little less heart. Like people, sex is a little easier, but mostly people just aren't talking about it. So we're all here today because we're all in, you know, businesses that are trying to help women, really the business of pleasure.

Like there's not a lot of business that focused on women, their pleasure and safety so we can all enjoy sex more, which is really what my show's about. And so what all these women are here today. And in the last few years really, there's been such an influx of money and funding to healthcare to companies that are supporting women fertility Period tracking sex toys dating apps and so and that is why we are all here today

So I thank you to safe app you guys check out safe. It's incredible app SD testing you can sense your partner make sure that you're good to go you can explain that But everyone if you could go around introduce yourselves and say what you do. And then we're going to have a lively discussion and be answering your questions in about 20 minutes. So, thank you for being here. Thank you, Jimmy, too. Okay. Hello. Hey ladies.

I make a kiggle device, which apart from helping you exercise your vagina, also tricks your cervic lumiacus. So you get an insight about your intimate health, but also about your fertility, and where you stand in your cycle. So you know how to come see or how to dig the bill. So cool, right? Hi, I'm Lauren Warniger. I am, as I only said, the founder of Safe. Safe is a sexual health tech company.

We have an app that lets you show your verified STD status privately on your phone. You can import your status for free from anywhere and it's also the cheapest easiest way to get tested. I'm Adrienne Ashley. I'm the CEO of Lollie and it is an AI dating app that matches you based on sexual compatibility rather than just geolocation and photo. And then when it's time to do the dean, we blog sexual consent on the blockchain. Hi, my name is Alex Fine. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Dane Products.

We make toys for sex. We are a product development focused with partners in mind. Great, thank you. Okay, I want you guys to start the basics. What does Fentech mean to all of you personally? Well, to me personally, it means that we never had access to a proper technology like in all the other fields.

And very recently, finally, we can make this and everyone is kind of focusing on what no one was really looking at and it's very important. So to me, it's my world. Yeah, to me, healthcare is obviously a massive industry, but there is this huge underserved market of sexual health and women's health. And it's really the intersection of those things, of health that's really related to women,

so sexual and health care overall. I actually call it sex tech. Yeah. And instead of femme tech, because I think men benefit too, when we're happy and we have more sex, and then they have more sex, and then the sex sport, the world goes around better. So I call it sex tech.

I get a lot more shock value out of it. When I say femme tech, I feel like I'm doing too politically correct, which is feels weird when I'm trying to start conversations about sex, because I really want people to be more open, transparent, and cool about it. I mean, I think femme tech and sex tech are different things.

Like femme tech would be the intersection of femininity or for female technology design, for female identifying folk. So, tarpon companies, like Lola, who are disrupting, how we get tarpons, like they're in femme-tac and less in sex-tac. Yeah, and then I would also say though for me, you know, it's a big, like the part of technology, it's like what is really tathic,

I make a really simple hardware to vibrator, it's got an on and off switch. It's not simple, it's awesome. It's awesome, but it's amazing. Simply awesome, get your orgasms. It's the shared real and off switch. It's not simple, it's awesome. It's awesome, but it's amazing. Simply awesome. It gives you orgasms. It's this year at Real Deal. Sure thing.

It's a sex product and we use a lot of tech in it, but sometimes I also struggle with the word tech in there. But yeah, it's a lot of turns. Well that's good, that leads me to my next question. How does your company's particular innovations affect sexual pleasure? Female sexual pleasure, if you'd like her just any sexual pleasure. I make that library and then you put them on the lady bits. So really though, actually what we're doing that I think is interesting.

So obviously that enhances sexual pleasure for female identified people. But it's a little bit more nuanced in that, because we make toys that are designed with partners in mind. So we're developing and designing them, we're asking partners as well how they feel about them. And what we want to do is create products that both genders, both sex, can feel great about using. Nobody feels like they're being replaced.

So I think that's that. Because you're wearable. I mean, just so you guys know, if you didn't know, this most women need more clitorial stimulation during sex. You need to know a fault of anyone else, any size of any other partner. You can wear this during sex.

You get that stimulation and all that. That's new to you. Yeah, there's also a huge disparity in pleasure. Women are four times more likely to say that sex has been not at all pleasurable in the past year. I think that there's a lot of reasons for that. And one way we can fix that is by making products that resonate with them and also help to close the orgasm gap.

I just want to say that. Okay. Following on with the orgasm gap. Lolly is an AI dating app. So we have a very smart interface and it matches you based on sexual compatibility. But we make it so that it's not icky, sticky, gross, and ough. So if you go to some of these naughty dating sites, you are bombarded by a wall of naked body parts. And that's not really how we decide who we're going to sleep with. So instead, we bucket

you by ice cream flavors. So if I say a rocky road and a bubble gum don't go together, you kind of instinctively know that I'm right? even if I don't explain to you the naughty reasons why. And then nobody's wrong, there's nothing bad, there's nothing wrong with you, you just need to find a compatible mate. And what we do is we get rid of all of the noise. So rather than swiping through a thousand people where only maybe one or two might be appropriate, we only give you the one or two. Then you can do a chemistry check on a video chat, decide if you like them and if you like them, either meet them for coffee or say, hey, come over.

And when you come over, it's more likely gonna be good because ladies, let's face it, how often has a one night stand been like a one or a two on the Richter scale? Or is it not worth the notch on the headboard? So that's what we're thinking in the back of our mind, why bother, right? So instead of that, we match you with compatibility in minds.

You're more likely to have an eight or a nine or a 10. You have a 10. Tens are great. We want more tens. So it's interesting I'm in sex tech, which is inherently sexy, but I'm also in kind of the least sexy part of sex in some ways, which is STDs, which everybody wants to have sex,

with the most part, but people don't really want to talk about the STDs, they don't want to think about them, they don't want to get them either. So when you create more transparency, you kind of break down those barriers in the taboo and the icky awkwardness of talking about something that is a fact and that is a part of life and a part of sex. So what save does is it makes it really easy and kind of expected. If you can import your status for free from anywhere, there's no reason not to. And from the woman's perspective, it's empowering to be able to not only to be able to ask and know that there's a reason that you can ask, but to demand transparency from your partners and know that if someone isn't willing to be transparent with you about their sexual health status, then why would you risk it and what else are they hiding?

85% of women over the age of 35 will blood test positive for herpes too. Yes, and I was also going to say the thing about pleasure is that it is true that women who feel say in a safe environment they can trust their partner are more likely to have better sex and more satisfied in sex. So having those results and knowing that you're with a safe partner like with your app as well, you'll be successful. I'll cheer you up. I'll cheer you up.

It's also about for the many people that are managing iconic infection, which is a large percentage of the population. It's also that tool that creates, it reduces the stigma and the taboo kind of around it. It's a tool to kind of enable the conversation, so that it's not something that people are just afraid to talk about, because it's not, everything is either treatable or curable, and it's about not being so afraid to even face it

that we are passing along, so that we can feel really comfortable in our skin, whatever our status may be. And that's why we add sex ed because it's totally different than with how many of you have taken a sex ed class in the last 10 years? It's totally true. Right, maybe a couple. So we do sex ed as part of the app specifically so that when you have those discussions, there's

actually some underlying education. Amazing. Whoa, I have my own mind. I don't know. Look at that. I'm not. No, so when I talk to my users, what do they think about the cake, I got very response

all from women like you that it enabled them to quit hormones. And what happened afterwards, they had a change in a taste of guys, and we don't so that's very cool so I mean like there's so many benefits like going natural especially when you can go safely natural and also once you can train your vagina and have like more intense argument that's also amazing so I mean we should just really care about not just like our health but also how we really feel during the intimacy and just take it very seriously because it's important for us as women and yeah we should just know,

know when and how. So yeah I love women and I love my product so I don't know. I hope you can all get it very soon, not just like selected ones. Okay, my next question, we'll have questions in a minute shortly, is so right now women are experiencing a bit of our revolution with hashtag me too and I think going on in culture right now and I'm curious what's the impact been of that on your business right now? Is it working for you? How is it working for you against you? Talk about some maybe some good news around it. Totally.

Where are we going now? I say that Lolli is the cure for the Me Too epidemic. So it gives women the safety, security, and certainty that they need. We need to know, you're not married. Like 30% of the time I get asked out, I find out afterwards, they're married. I'm like, really?

Really? Really? Right? So we can import background checks. So it gives us those conversations. It also gives us, it gives the men, the insurance that they need to know that if they earned that, yes, the night before, and they got that breakfast selfie and everything was good that, yes, stays a, yes, a week, a month, a decade from now. So it works for both people men and women.

I mean, yes, can't stay, yes. I mean, yes. Can turn into, oh wait, no, I only said yes because I was going to marry you and now that you're with somebody else, that was right. I mean, I guess I would say for me, the Me Too movement has been really, really empowering. I feel like there's a lot of things that we've been saying that are now being heard a little bit more easily. So there's a lot of challenges we're talking about sex on platforms. We have a lot of ad regulations. So we can't do ads on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. No retargeting. No MTA. There's just a lot of challenges, a lot of things that you would do if you were any other startup often we can't. And I've been saying for the past few years that if we don't have conversations about

sexuality in the open, we're gonna have to have them in dark alleyways and then that turned into, oh I guess I mean locker rooms is really what I meant and now it's you's closed doors. So whatever it is, we really need to be having these conversations. We need to be creating a dialogue. I don't think any app or any product is going to solve it. But allowing these brands that care about this issue to have a space to talk about them, that's huge.

And I see those changes coming. I also think that the whole Me Too revolution has helped with this, the conversation about consent. Yes and no, apparently or too ambiguous. It's a little dystopian but we need an app to actually log consent because a no is really, we'll try harder. Well, no, a no is a no, right? And it forces the conversation of what do I really want? And what is actually appropriate engagement and behavior on both parties? If a guy treats you a certain way, is that OK?

Well, that's just how it is. It's like, well, but is that OK? So in your app, though, is it so it's educational as well, but is that okay? So, right, so in your app though, is it so it's educational as well? You're saying that people are getting, because I think people, even the whole thing around consent, I think I wish there was like another people don't really get conversations.

Right, it's the whole, it spawns conversation and it gets you thinking about what do you really want and then it gets you thinking about, you know, what are you willing to say yes to, right? And committing to the yes, if it's a yes, then it's a yes, if it's not a yes, it's a no. And being okay with owning that it's a no. I think getting women more comfortable,

understanding that women are a way to say no. Charis, they know. I think that this has kind of been twisted. Like we talk about sex education, how badly we need it. I mean, I started my show because I was having 13 years ago. I was like, people say sex is amazing. I'm not having the best sex of my life. Anyone else. And so I thought not a lot of great sex education, but still I find women of all ages are like, there's still this sense of like, it's not okay to say no or we feel guilty or we owe

it to our partner and it's just really hard being pleasers of its society the way we're raised. So I think it's important we're having these discussions and all these products, everything you guys are doing are giving women more options. And what do you really want? I mean, if you're thinking in your head, I wish you would just do XYZ and you never ever say it. Just tell them now. How about say it?

Her, him, anyone. Yeah, say it. I don't know why they have it all. Well, that's what I think we all tried to encourage that. Like, life's too short for bad sex. Like, if you're having sex and in the moment, there's something that you want, or you go home and you're thinking about it. Like, there's so much, there's so much to gain

by just learning how to even talk about it. And I think that's what we're all doing. It's kind of a set of times. I'm not talking about 100, and he's gonna be like, oh, he's like, thank God, because we expect them to know they don't know. We're all different. Yes, Lauren.

It has been a huge shift, I think, and what, like, the meeting movement, I think is spawning a larger movement. It's sort of intersects with the sex-positive movement that's been happening. It's an interesting for us. We do these big activations. We do the huge thing at Sundance this year.

It's all around empowering women to respect themselves, protect themselves, be safe and feel safe. It was interesting all the people coming through. They were like, oh, so are you? Did you start this because of the knee-toe movement, time's up and all this. I was like, I mean, no, like we've been working on this for years.

It's quite interesting that the rest of the world had, you know, it was realizing that this is an incredibly important conversation to have at the same time. So, I mean, absolutely. And it's in, you know, from a, it's injuring work and from a professional perspective that kind of leads into the personal perspective

and kind of practicing what you preach and being empowered on the consent side, on the what you want and sex side, on the, you know, being transparent and requiring transparency from partners and helping the people around you to do the same. So, Desert, Desert, you're up. You can mark consent. So you said you can have a... It's such an interesting thing We have we've debated that point a lot. There's actually been on pretty major dating up that wants to partner that will do it if we add the

Consent piece in my issue with it is and I'd love to talk to you more about this is my my fear is that It's always gonna be a girl. It's always gonna be a guy, but let's you know bear with me here It's girl consent to guy. He's it's a really to be a guy, but let's bear with me here. It's girl-consensed to guy. It's a really nice date and whatever, and they're going to have, they're going to do it. And I don't see a situation where at least in some senses that girl doesn't get raped and he said, I've already got you. That's because they don't do it right. So in our app, you open consent.

You have your fun. And when you're done, you close consent. You have your fun. And when you're done, you close consent. You check out safely. So while you're actually having sex, our little Alexa-like feature is listening for a safe word. And if there's a safe word, it's going to call you and say your cat's in the vet you got to go and help you get out and extract you.

Or call 911, knock on the door. Hey, something's not good. It's an interesting take. I have guy friends who are like, oh hell no, they won't even allow Alexa in their house. Let alone let's me them having sex. Because it bring up, it's the opposite of the me, I think the me too, it has been such a positive thing. But there is this other side of it that from, you know, when it's in the tech field and all the male investors that are saying, oh, I'm afraid to take a meeting with a woman alone kind of thing. And I think it's bullshit, but it is like this counter side of it.

So are we creating fear? I hug them and I watch them like the sheer panic cross their face. And these are people that I know and they're like, like, I'm hugging them and now I have boobs, so it's like a problem. It's the strangest thing. It really is a cultural shift at the moment. But we consider consent over the entire piece and you don't get consent logged on the blockchain until there's a safe checkout. It makes sense. I think there's all this working together to solve this issue is how do we create a space for you? There's so many, most men are good and most women are good and how do we create that space

but also allow for the bad actors tonight. Well, those are the only people that we allow on the app. We have a no-douch bags policy. So that helps. And we start with having the women invite their friends and you're vouched for. And if your friend turns out to not be great and is a problem and goes through our whole grand jury process of getting kicked out, then you get a demerit and you get three strikes, you're out. Keeps people from inviting assholes. I just want to add to me to a movement that I think not just about the sexual content but also many other things that affect us. We used to be forced in women, like choice of birth control, like the way you're treating your body,

like no one ever asked as of as this. Now you're just like, yeah, this is the option, take it, or you couldn't even choose like your birthing position or whatever. And I am so happy that it finally is okay to say. Yeah, it's my body. I want to choose my birding position. Yes, I also like, I'm not taking pill, even when my doctor tells me you have to, everyone is taking pill, are putting eye to the inside. No, no, I have this option. Like, no, I'm not doing it. So I think it's finally like, it really enabling us to

say, like, what, we really want something else else and we just don't have like this one choice and I'm so happy that this finally happened because it was so weird before. We're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors. I love them, you love them, we're all in love, thanks for supporting them. And when we come back, you'll hear the next part of the panel discussion. We talk about, well, there are bad actors in the dating relationship world, there are also a lot of really good people with good intentions. Also why investors are excited about female founders and their innovations and the challenges around that?

We also talk about what's next in the world of FEMTEK and SEX TEK. Well, I have a question to you guys. Why do you think this is happening now, like, this groundswell? Like, women have always made almost 50% of the population, right? And now there's been like a billion dollar funding recently. That's the last few years before me, too. We're really in the last few years. So why do you think there is this groundswell now where people are really funding and coming

towards helping, you know, female, female fentech sex tech companies. Can I start? I'm interested. Yeah. So because I actually started to like fundraise last year and we started fundraise. And when I was meeting investors I realized that it's not just me too, but they also realized that women are very good entrepreneurs and they are less likely to fail and bankrupt. And so it's actually a good investment and a very good return on your money less likely to fail and bankrupt and so it's

actually good investment and a very good return on your money just to invest in woman so I don't really see like it might be connected to me too but I really think it's a monetary. I don't think it is because like the last two three years but it's it which is great news for women but I'm wondering what you guys think. I think that there has been you know decades and decades of work on human beings trying to expand their awareness, trying to understand that different human beings have different experiences and come from different places.

And then there's value in that. I think that the Civil Rights Movement, as well as earlier feminist movements, have really helped build that. And then it just kind of feels like a swell right now, but it's been there for a long time. I don't know what they call it, but it's been there for a long time. I think I'm gonna call it but you know it's not like me to the tipping point almost like it's a tipping point like all of a sudden something just finally catches on and me too was simple enough to do to state that like hey by the way this happened to me too which by the

way you know I've been sexually assaulted if that happened to me me too? Yeah, and I'm like oh me too bad as bitch, you know I say no all the fucking time Say no as much as I should have said no and that's like I little bit of self-playing that I shouldn't do and I feel like Whatever it was that there was just something there that gave people The space to speak up and now I think people are just hearing it and I think that there are a lot of really amazing men out there who are Ready to hear it now. Yeah, I think that again, it's about education too It's not like the men are all douchebags or whatever We were never taught how to interact in different ways like it just there's a lot of learning education

It's gonna be happening now, which I think it's exciting. I'm not just bad like you're talking about bad actors There are a lot of really good people that do have bad moments, or don't know, or are learning, because, you know, we like to pretend that this conversation about consent is so easy, but if it was so easy, we wouldn't be fucking it up all the time. I'm cursing, I like really switched it on apparently. Yeah, it's so complicated. It's complicated, I guess. It is.

It is. Oh, yeah. She didn't want to parently. You can talk in here. You can talk to like, yeah, totally cool. It's complicated. I guess, and it is new on this. We women do want to be polite and caring and loving to their partner. And then our toll to be persistent and give it a second go. So that's a problem. And let's talk about it. And we're telling you.

And a lot of time it worked, right, with women. We're like, no, I get it. It's murky. And political correctness doesn't help. I will just say, I was teaching a class for Intel. And I was taught, I accidentally dove into the Me Too situation. And I said, you know, you have to treat it like dog training, right?

And I was trying to be funny. But you have to do those corrective things in the moment. Like if a guy goes, wow, your boobs look really nice in that dress. He meant it as a compliment. He didn't mean it as inappropriate, but you need to go, whoa, dude, that was like a little Weinstein. And like something. And the HR people went absolutely bad, said they're like, oh my god, we cannot send that out to anybody, because they know better. They're not allowed. We have rules, and there's protocol, and they are not allowed to say anything like that, and they know better. And I'm like,

if they knew better, they wouldn't do it. They really don't. They don't have the EQ. You're talking about a lot of tech guys that don't necessarily know where that line is because they're really not clear. And it's not that they're mean, they're just sometimes inappropriate. So you got to correct it in the moment. Bring it back to the question and the investment

into this industry, how does industry is growing? There's like, of course, let's do that. What is this bit that should have been, yeah, let's talk about the investment. Because it's growing a lot, but it's still pretty small. And I think, but what I found interesting, female founders, it's difficult enough. It's what 3% of overall funding goes to female founders.

There's many, many reasons. Many other panels talking about that here. What's really interesting is when you add the sex then to that, and you're talking to a new investor, or whomever it is, and you're already a woman, and they're not expecting the word sex to come out of your mouth with me. They're not expecting the word STDs to come after that either.

But it's almost been, I think, somewhat, like, a positive thing. Once I started owning it myself, I think it's almost easier to kind of break down multiple stereotypes in one go, because they don't exactly know how to categorize you. I mean, when we went out and raised a little bit of money and we weren't really able to raise as much as we wanted,

at the time, and we had run a crowdfunding campaign at a time that did $575,000 in 45 days. We essentially shipped all of our products on time and we were running a profitable business that was growing and we still had a really hard time getting institutional money, even though we had, it wasn't just what I was saying, sets. I was saying profitable.

You know, and it was hard, and you know what? My business part and I, we owned 90% of our business and now we're still profitable And we're growing and it's awesome and I'm super happy that that didn't happen for me I don't have a bunch of white dudes telling me what to do. That's very cool. Yeah, yeah What's the intentional? We'll celebrate it now It's so funny how they sometimes don't like... Yeah, but you know how many people would buy this.

Like, come on, we are half of the planet. Like, it's spending more of household income too. It should be way more than the billion. And there's been a groundswell, but there's a lot more that we should be doing. Yeah, and they actually, like, they have the existing information. They know that women are the decision makers of the almost all spending. And they're like, still like, hey, I really, you have the access to the information. They know that women are the decision makers of the almost all spending And they're like, hey, you have pretend to wow I was with them

It's so crazy 50 VCs this morning for breakfast And I'm one of a handful of women They're mostly white guys And I'm Ballsy, pitched them and like the look of fear like and one of them That I was talking to the other day. He's like yeah, the Saudis give us money They'll give give us money for self-driving cars because they don't want the women driving

But they want the women to be able to go out and go to work and things like but not drive themselves But go be able to go to work so self-driving cars. They'll do but sex no I mean they're just it's so interesting, because it's not just the VCs, it's where do the VCs get money. There's also the morality clause. So there's also something called the St. Claes or a morality clause that's often tied into a lot of contracts. It's just there because like, obviously,

anyone wants to invest in, right, no gambling, no sex, sometimes no politics, no guns, sometimes no cannabis, cannabis. But isn't it interesting that sex is in the same category? I mean, I'm a fan of cannabis isn't like, it's drugs, sex, like drugs, guns and gambling are, those are sins, like, we can agree, we can like our vices, but like,

we all pretty much came from sex here. Right, sex, if anything, has increased humanity. I don't think people have died. I'm sure someone's died from sex, but like... No, for them. They've gone to the hospital to eat a show. Many a story. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy, you know, look at that comparison. I often see sex companies being stigmatized a lot more aggressively than gun companies on platforms,

which just drives me indignation. You know? Can you guys speak of the other platforms? I'm curious, what has been successful for you guys? Because being in this industry, sex, there are a lot of limitations, like advertising in Facebook, or there's a lot of other barriers

and hoops we have to jump through. So, you could talk about some of those challenges and now you're overcame them. So when it comes up? The consent conversation? Viral. Everybody loves it. Media going for it. God forbid I match you based on sexual compatibility so you can have an orgasm. Oh no, frickin' way they can't talk about that. They not talk about that whatsoever, but consent. We can talk about that.

Facebook let you can advertise condoms, but you cannot advertise condoms ripped for her pleasure. So yeah, it's not a pleasure. That's why you can't. You can't see no pleasure. They think it's for all pleasure. But if we look at it, there's no way this is not negatively impacting women more

than it is negatively impacting men. To me, that seems like a clear thing that's what's happening from it. But Facebook, I think, has a lot of things happening right now where they're trying to be a little bit more careful about what is advertised and what is pushed. And I'm excited about that and happy about that. But I think they need to open it up and be a little bit more nuanced. They shouldn't have just cold, hard.

If you sell this product, no. And if they're going to do that, guns, OK. But things that just make people happy, it's challenging for me. I don't get it. I feel for you. I mean, if you're interesting, how come social media, the Ben stuff like, when you talk about your health down there, or like about the child labor or something, you know, you're just getting bent and like,

wow, that's interesting. We are not even supposed to talk about it in private groups because it's not appropriate. Now it started to change and I also like, there was a huge petition on Instagram like, that Instagram should allow like, other pictures like like when we deliver babies or like what when we take breastfeeding take care of our vagina like that's all should be allowed and I mean like yeah you should support it. But it's naked! Oh yeah wow! What do you yeah everyone was born when they so what? Yeah that's interesting for us because we like I think of all of us, you have the biggest challenge with online marketing, right?

And for me, I get to straddle this. It's sex, but it's healthcare, and it's epidemic, so I do. But I want to lean not farther into that, because that is the mission behind our company, but also it's hard to, it's consumer advertising advertising played and it's hard to really talk to your consumers when you're having to kind of filter it and put the things on. So we're still working out some of it. And it's really, Tati will do it without actually showing

and telling, but it doesn't make any sense to me. So I would actually very much enjoy just chatting with you out of later. I think it's us. I just have to say this. So, you know, our product, it also has vibrations for good user experience. And of course, I can't say this. Like, we can't, you know, we have to target, oh yeah, you know, it's very beneficial for your intimate, intimate life and fertility.

You have all these information, power, but user experience. Oh, wow, no, no, no. And, you know, our rhythms are good for women's health though. I mean like, for depression, it's good for anxiety, you know, it's good for your skin, but you don't look at it like that. And that's all legit. What do you guys see? It is orgasms are healthy. Talk about the vibrations. What gets you guys excited about this industry? And what do you see the next five years where it's going? Like what's the things that you're most excited about where it's going? I mean, it's all happening. I feel like the things that you're most excited about where it's going?

I mean, it's all happening. I feel like we're here. We're talking about it. Women's Day's been bigger and bigger. There's clearly more space for it. And I can just tell you in the past three and a half years that I've been doing it, the reactions I'm getting, it's just changing.

Like, it's so, you can just feel it. You can just feel it. So I'm so excited to make more money. What? Awesome. We can just feel it. So I'm so excited to make more money. Awesome. I think in the next, you give me five years? Yeah, three, five years. You can do what you have to.

Five, I'm open to wherever you're driving right now. Whatever you're feeling. Hashtag brand new Congress. Female centric. How about having women on the commission on the status of women? That would be awesome. Politically, I think that everything has shifted.

I think actually, if we can go there with the politics, I think we are now pissed off enough to actually get changes made that we want, that we need, that are going to benefit all of women. And I think if Facebook will let me advertising givin' app, which they wouldn't, is like trying to advertise a dating app. They're like, nope, sorry, your industry is banned. What?

What? I think they have for sure. I think totally changed that. My girl was sucking on a lollipop and apparently that was just a little too lascivious for them. So I would like to see more people be more open and have better conversations and more open conversations and be able to talk about sex like they talk about, you know, what are you having for dinner?

Yeah, I'm really excited for the, I think we're starting to scratch the servers of the taboo and the stigma to start going away. It's just starting. I think there's a really long way to go, particularly when it comes to the STD side of things. I think it really intersects well with the rise of the sex positive movement and as that's happening and as safe as a tool is becoming available and women in particular, but all people are being able to actually ask their partners and have an answer that they can actually trust and also have a tool to talk about it when they are positive for something.

I think there's a transparency and power of a thing that is really starting. I think in five years, I would just love and I think we will see where it's just expected and it's normal and it's a conversation that you have just like any other. Yeah, that's what I think we're all doing, what I want to say is that I think what we're going to see is that it's just going to become more normal. Of course, you talk about consent, of course, you talk about your S.D. status, like you're going to use protection toys or people aren'tD status. You're going to use protection. Toys, people are going to think

they're going to be replaced by toys. They're going to see that it enhances their relationship. So all good stuff. But we can say that. Yeah, I'm so happy that it's finally like, I see Sake's deck is getting like really techy. And I think it's just like, it's not happening like in five years. It's happening already now. And the Farmer companies, they are in the unseignated, they have losses. And women are getting off the pill,

and they want to go natural and know their bodies. And the really thing that this field was so neglected. And for example, the chips that we use, they have been using food industry for ages. No one ever bought it to really provide us with some high tech. So now I really hope it's going to change and the way that we can check what is the battery on our phone, how to call an Uber. You could also manage your body this way. They're naturally high tech and finally very cool.

I really hope the change is already here and we just don't have to wait five years. I also feel like it's interesting because they had the cryptocurrency was right before us. I feel like that just the decentralization of power in general of money will definitely be helpful for the sex toy industry because while institutions don't really like to talk about sex, people really like to have sex, so that's effective. That's a standard. I was going to say, you're your product and your product need to go together so that you're rewarded when you successfully squeeze it the right way and that vibration stops, then your vibration starts and then you get the, I think that's

a thing. I think it's a thing. Thank you everyone. Thank you again to the Safe app for asking me to host and all of the female founders who join me. Also, thank you to River Ecosystems for additional support. The Safe Movement is supported in part by the American Sexual Health Association's Yes Means Test Campaign and Trojan Connubs. These organizations have joined forces to address the STD epidemic, which has reached an all-time high in the United States with one and two people getting an STD by age 25.

Thank you also to my team for producing and editing this show. Was it good for you? Text Ask Emily 279 Emily 27979.