YNOT – After a somewhat quiet debut in February, adult crowdfunding startup Offbeatr is back with a brand-new look and an intriguing way for project creators to hedge their bets.
Calling itself “a kickstarter for porn,” the site now provides project creators with a digital sales component through which they may sell custom-made collateral items while they wait for their projects to fund. The uncommon service offers a little extra potential help for would-be entrepreneurs with more ideas than cash.
Ben Tao, chief executive offer of Offbeatr parent company Extra Lunch Money, said his experience with the site’s soft launch taught him a thing or two about trying to raise funds for adult projects in a society inclined to love the sin (porn) but not the sinner. He told TechCrunch the economy and the wealth of free and pirated adult content online has taken a tremendous toll on the adult entertainment industry, so funds aren’t readily available for research and development. That, compounded by a general distaste for association with anything even remotely related to sex at mainstream crowdfunding resources like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, makes getting new ideas off the ground challenging.
Even Offbeatr faced financial challenges, he revealed, though Offbeatr’s were minor compared to those faced by folks who aren’t adult industry insiders. After a number of mainstream funding resources rejected Tao’s approach, he and his crew finally found a sympathetic ear at LA Startup Club, a mainstream collective that mentors entrepreneurs of technology startups.
“We’ve bootstrapped the business from personal savings and have been making money since we launched,” Tao told TechCrunch. “As you can imagine, seed and angel funding for adult businesses, even if you are doing innovative things, isn’t easy to come by…. I think we’re on our third rejection from Y Combinator and even have been rejected by every Los Angeles startup incubator — and there’s like a billion of them.”
Like its mainstream crowdfunding counterparts, Offbeatr offers producers, performers, artists, authors, game developers, physical product designers, webmasters and other adult product creators a way to raise money for their projects in exchange for unique rewards. Each project receives a dedicated page describing it, how much money its backers hope to raise and what rewards they will give in exchange for pledges from the public.
Supporters use Offbeatr to pledge money to straight, gay and lesbian projects that interest them. If a project reaches its funding goal by the deadline its creator sets, supporters’ credit cards are charged and the project receives the funds. If the goal isn’t met, supporters aren’t charged.
Offbeatr differs from the mainstream in that all projects undergo a public-interest screening before they’re allowed to solicit funds: Site visitors vote for the projects they think are worthwhile. Even if projects are rejected by the public during the voting stage, their creators may receive feedback that can help them improve the offering and try again.
The addition of the digital marketplace component allows creators of projects that are approved to gain a least a bit of seed money. Whether or not projects reach their funding goal, all digital product sales are paid.
Offbeatr actively solicits new project proposals. For more information, visit Offbeatr.com.
