YNOT – FleshStarter, an adult-oriented crowdfunding platform announced in July by sex-toy manufacturer Ntimate, has withdrawn from the game only weeks before its planned alpha launch.
“The FleshStarter crowdfunding project has been an active project for our company for about a year,” said Ntimate Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Campbell. “Our intent was to develop an adult-market-specific crowdfunding portal where we could generate funding for our own projects and for the overall adult community.
“After partial development of the site, we became aware of another project also in development, the Offbeatr project led by well-known industry webmaster Ben Tao,” Campbell continued. “We knew the industry needed a crowdfunding site, and were prepared to create one. However, Ben’s team at Offbeatr, frankly, has done a much better job than our team, and we believe the industry is best served by supporting one well-operated site rather than two.”
Calling itself “a Kickstarter for porn,” Offbeatr, which debuted in February, re-launched in mid-August after an overhaul that added a new look and new features. Among the most talked-about of the features is a digital sales component through which project owners may sell custom-made collateral items while they wait for their projects to fund. The uncommon component offers a little extra potential help for would-be entrepreneurs with more ideas than cash: Even if they walk away from Offbeatr with an unfunded project, they get to keep the majority of the cash they earned from the collateral item sales.
FleshStarter already has advised its beta testers to seek acceptance at Offbeatr. Campbell and his staff recommend others considering crowdfunding a project apply to Offbeatr, as well. Ntimate itself plans to seek funding through through its former rival for a new line of stainless steel pleasure products called SteelToy.
“There is simply no reason for us to duplicate Offbeatr’s efforts and split the just-emerging adult crowdfunding segment between two competing sites,” Campbell said. “We are the first to admit that the Offbeatr team has done just an amazing job, has created a beautiful, elegantly presented platform for the purpose, and has totally kicked our butt in the race to launch a great crowdfunding vehicle for this market. We wish them well, and we enthusiastically throw our complete support behind their efforts.”
