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Sex And Startups: Female Founders Who Are Revolutionizing Sexual Wellness And Health

Sex and startups are what female entrepreneurs are talking about at Lioness. I love that female founders aren’t shying away from sexual tech and products that enhance and support sexual health, wellness and pleasure. Who better to design products for our needs than us?

This isn’t a new conversation at Lioness. In the past, we’ve highlighted women who have been working on products and/or services:

Elena Berglund, CTO 

Natural Cycles

Elena Berglund

Berglund is the cofounder of the first FDA-approved digital birth control. The “brain” behind Natural Cycles is a smart algorithm that can accurately determine a woman’s daily fertility by analyzing changes in her basal body temperature, which increases after ovulation. To use Natural Cycles, women are required to take their temperature with a basal thermometer first thing in the morning and enter the information into the app. The algorithm uses this information to detect ovulation, thereby identifying “green” days, when no protection is needed, or “red” days, when protection is required or the user should abstain from sex. The algorithm has been intricately designed to account for sperm survival, variation in cycle length, ovulation day, temperature fluctuations and the length of the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle.

“Based on the strength of our clinical data, we are delighted that the FDA granted De Novo classification for Natural Cycles and look forward to working together with healthcare professionals to offer a digital form of birth control to women in the US,” said Elina Berglund, PhD, CTO and cofounder, Natural Cycles. “Our mission at Natural Cycles is to pioneer women’s health with research and passion, and this milestone marks a very important step in that journey.”

Bella French, CEO

ManyVids

French launched ManyVids officially in 2014. The company is an adult clip site, that at that time, had 16,000 independent content creators and over 1.7 million active viewers/members. As we reported, “ManyVids strives to make a difference in the Adult Industry and give those contributing the respect they deserve. The company allows content creators the opportunity to work and succeed as independent entrepreneurs in this industry, for the first time in the Adult Industry.

Bella French

“We had to build a platform that supported sexworkers and enabled them to launch their own small businesses. It was time to show that ManyVids was created by a sexworker for sexworkers,” French said. “The Adult Industry is not going away. It’s important to realize that there are hundreds of thousands of adult performers all around the world. Many of them are ostracized, judged or abused simply because of what they do to earn a living” French explained. She continued, “My team and I are striving to offer a solution to all the exploitation surrounding the adult industry by making ManyVids a safe haven to empower sexworkers and offer them all of the tools they need to become successful, independent entrepreneurs.”

Taking a page from these bold women, this month we’ll focus on sex and startups and female entrepreneurs who are taking the plunge and investing their talents in growing other sex-based startups in an industry that is often dominated by men.

What products are you using to benefit or increase your sexual health and/or pleasure? Share in the comments below.

Until next time … Be good to yourself.

Rock your day!

About the author

Natasha Zena

Around age eight Natasha Zena was told it was a woman’s job to take care of the home and since then she has built a career out of telling women they can do whatever the hell they want to do. She is the co-founder of Lioness, the go-to news source for everything female entrepreneur. Natasha was recognized as an emerging leader in digital media by The Poynter Institute and the National Association of Black Journalists. She has mentored women entrepreneurs and moderated panels at a number of national accelerators, Startup Weekends and conferences such as The Lean Startup Conference, the Massachusetts Conference for Women, Women Empower Expo and Smart Cities Connect. Natasha is also the author of the popular whitepaper, "How To Close The Gender Gap In Startup Land By 2021." In her spare time, she writes short fiction and hangs out with her son, Shaun.

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