did investing in adult-tech projects work out for you? (not for me)
 

hi everyone.
I know that this is a forum for and about webmasters, but maybe some of you are also investors?

so,

you may know or not, but I am the co-founder of SkyPrivate (premium cams site based on Teams/Discord apps).

Like many veterans (or maybe OG sounds better?) in the adult industry I also invested along the years in in-house projects and also in external projects as an angel investor.
Most of them, or better said, all of them did not work out. so statistically i am doing good and the next one(s) have better chances of succeeding.


But i learned that the mistakes i did were:

• - for the in-house projects: i did not have a new co-founder that would have skin in the game and co-invest too. I just put some project managers to lead them but an employee is not a leader and does not have the same persistency in pushing the project till the tipping point.

• - for the external projects: i did the right thing to be the passive angel investor but available to the founders of the projects. my mistake was to not see that those founders did not have enough experience of the adult industry nor were they super passionate about our industry. So, I am opening this topic because I am very curious about your experience.
  

Did you invest in early stage adult-tech projects?

Are you still actively looking around for adult-tech projects to invest into? In what sub-categories? Fans, cams, AI chat, or what?

Do you feel like early stage investing can work for adult industry the same way as it works for mainstream tech industry? Or maybe most of you that did good investment were later stage investments or buyouts?

We started out with a single creator and expanded from there, fortunately without the need for outside investment. It's still an ongoing effort to handle marketing but I'd like to hear more about your experience. What worked and what didn't?

Very insightful post.

I think you hit the nail on the head regarding founder involvement.
Having someone you just put in charge is radically different from someone who shares the vision AND the financial burden.

I also believe in the “momentum/persistency trap” :

Founders start with high energy, but that 'mojo' quickly fades when they hit the brutal reality of banking compliance, tax complexity, and human management.
When the revenue isn't instant, many just quit because they weren't prepared for the administrative grind or they rely on other platforms to do the heavy lifting.

Your perspective as an angel investor is particularly interesting to me because we are about to enter the fundraising phase for our own project, and understanding the 'investor's psyche' in our sector is crucial.

I'd be curious to get your take on two points:

- Founder Profiles: When you look at projects today, how do you judge the balance between 'Adult Industry knowledge' and 'Tech/Product expertise'?

- Market Segments: Do you feel that high-barrier-to-entry segments (like custom VR or specialized Tech) are still attractive to angels, or has the 'Fans' era changed the investment landscape forever?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. We need more of this transparency when talking about investments!

1. adult industry knowledge - if the investor has this, it's easy to see if the founder also has any knowledge and/or experience. if they talk about user behavioural, that is a positive signal.

2. market segments - i feel that those segments are not attractive to angels and i see that many are just going after the hot topic "fans" projects.