Starting up and growing a new business or launching a new project is a demanding task even in ideal market conditions – and it’s safe to say the conditions imposed on the adult entertainment industry by a global pandemic are far from ideal.
In a sense, entrepreneurship relies on a core ethos which is akin to the U.S. Postal Service’s unofficial creed – “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” – or the more prosaic saying associated with the entertainment business: The show must go on. Or maybe, given the feeling that we’ve all been under a nearly year-long siege by COVID-19, perhaps the legendary Civil War era notion attributed to Admiral David Glasgow Farragut is more apt: “Damn the torpedoes!”
It is in part that indefatigable spirit that has always pushed entrepreneurs in the adult space to launch new platforms, unveil new projects and undertake new campaigns – and there’s never been a time when their determination and drive is more needed than in 2020, a year comprehensively marred by the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdowns associated with it.
The adult industry has always been a place for bold entrepreneurs, however, especially early in its history, when obscenity prosecutions were far more common than they are today and the public was far less tolerant and accepting of adult content than it is now. Perhaps then, it should come as no surprise that despite the immense challenges imposed by the pandemic, adult businesses, entrepreneurs and service providers have forged ahead with new ventures and projects.
In YNOT’s upcoming series of special feature articles, we sit down with a handful of companies and individuals who launched new efforts either during or just prior to the spread of COVID-19 being acknowledged as a global pandemic, to talk about the challenges they have faced, the moves they’ve made to overcome the obstacles in their way and their goals for their new ventures, going forward.
From new cam networks and adult content distribution platforms to innovative legal services and resources designed to help models and performers get critical insurance coverage, these new projects are driven by entrepreneurs and developers who saw a manifest need within the industry, or sensed an opportunity presented by gaps in the market’s existing services.
You’ve likely heard the saying “necessity is the mother of invention” – and the entrepreneurs interviewed by YNOT for this article series would likely agree. Launching and growing their new companies, projects and platforms at a time when the opportunity to meet as a team, or network in person with potential partners and customers, has forced them to innovate in ways they couldn’t have anticipated when they originally hatched their plans.
In some cases, it isn’t that the pandemic has required them to think of new and different ways to do things, so much as it has stoked their inspiration and enhanced their resolve. As one the entrepreneurs interviewed for the series put it, the pandemic “made our messaging and need clearer, for us to create the right offerings to our target.”
What can the rest of us learn from these fledgling efforts, which have launched and grown in some of the most difficult of conditions the adult industry has ever stared down? What lessons have they learned which the rest of us can apply? As you’ll see in reading through the new series, certain traits, strategies and mindsets are beneficial at all times, not just when confronted with the greatest public health crisis the world has faced in the last 100 years.
Will all these efforts go on to become smashing successes? Probably not. The reality presented by a competitive industry, difficult market conditions and unforeseeable complications (like COVID-19) is one in which a high percentage of companies, projects and campaigns fail. But if these efforts do fail, it won’t be for lack of ingenuity, resolve or hard work – bedrock elements which all companies should strive to display, regardless of what they do, or what products they offer.
Look for the first post in this new article series to publish Friday, with more to come through the middle of the month.
