[ANN] Pink: Escort startup Series A share sale

[bradpink]

Another one sex project... Which dividends you mean? We will receive % from each prostitutes? Like souteneur? 

Yes we will take a % from each transaction.

[1713532661]

1713532661

[bradpink]

Hmm screening. What kind of screening exactly? As far as I know, people prefer to be anonymous when browsing and visiting "working girls". If the girls are marketing themselves as "escorts" or "sugar babies" instead of prostitu***, then we all have seekingarrangement which has literally thousands of girls. They too have a system in place for screening "sugar daddies". I know, it's probably nothing special, and the website membership costs like $70. Bust just wondering what's the advantage of this platform over seekingarrangement or whatsyourprice?

Most escorts require knowledge of the client's ID. Some require more, like employment information, or even a deposit. This accomplishes a few things. First, it gets rid of timewasters. A LOT of guys call up, talk, just to fantasize about being with a girl. They may even call on the phone just to hear their voice. This is annoying. Some will make appointments, then make up excuses. Escorts also want to know the person isn't LE. They want to know he's safe. That the client will show up on time and pay as agreed.

Sarah, our VP of Product and an active sex worker, has written a few articles about this:

https://medium.com/@PinkApp/providers-for-pink-cd37087eda7a

https://medium.com/@PinkApp/challenges-in-the-business-of-pleasure-d22e9ec03b75

SA does NOT deal with escorts. Anyone selling such services on SA would be banned. For example, SA is not going to end up with an instant book option. Pink is much more transactional and will have better quality clients.

[gembira]

I'm just now seeing the UI preview, that actually looks pretty good. Nice and intuitive. Lots of features is nice, but I'd wait and keep it simple until you have a larger user base.

You are correct. We are focusing on a simple flow for now. Everyone has their own 100 favorite ideas. We will slowly add the best ones.

And which % you will give to tokenholders? In which countries you planning make this?

[AppreciatingValue]

Hmm screening. What kind of screening exactly? As far as I know, people prefer to be anonymous when browsing and visiting "working girls". If the girls are marketing themselves as "escorts" or "sugar babies" instead of prostitu***, then we all have seekingarrangement which has literally thousands of girls. They too have a system in place for screening "sugar daddies". I know, it's probably nothing special, and the website membership costs like $70. Bust just wondering what's the advantage of this platform over seekingarrangement or whatsyourprice?

Most escorts require knowledge of the client's ID. Some require more, like employment information, or even a deposit. This accomplishes a few things. First, it gets rid of timewasters. A LOT of guys call up, talk, just to fantasize about being with a girl. They may even call on the phone just to hear their voice. This is annoying. Some will make appointments, then make up excuses. Escorts also want to know the person isn't LE. They want to know he's safe. That the client will show up on time and pay as agreed.

Sarah, our VP of Product and an active sex worker, has written a few articles about this:

https://medium.com/@PinkApp/providers-for-pink-cd37087eda7a

https://medium.com/@PinkApp/challenges-in-the-business-of-pleasure-d22e9ec03b75

SA does NOT deal with escorts. Anyone selling such services on SA would be banned. For example, SA is not going to end up with an instant book option. Pink is much more transactional and will have better quality clients.

ID? First time I ever heard of this. Deposit ok sure, name ok yeah. But since when do escorts play the police?
And about SA not dealing with escorts.. Sure, they say that on their ToS and whatever, but I know first hand, and I actually ran a test for this, that a lot and I mean A LOT of girls will accept a meeting straight up, with minimal confirmation (usually just a phone conversation and a few pics), and an agreed upon amount of money.
They all know it's all about discretion. And a huge part of the Ashley Madison leak was people being embarrassed when their spouses or SOs found out they used it to cheat and whatnot.
I'm seeing huge benefits for the escort, yeah it's very safe and functional. But for the customers? I don't know. People do like to keep these things a secret. Consumers especially.
Just my opinion based on some experience. I might be right, I might be wrong. If I was 100% sure I'm right, I wouldn't even be posting here. I'm looking forward to being explained and convinced otherwise.

[bradpink]

And which % you will give to tokenholders? In which countries you planning make this?

We are planning to take 50% of profits per quarter and distribute to shareholders.

We will expand to many countries. For now, the focus is Canada, UK/Ireland, and United States. Shareholders can be worldwide.

[bradpink]

ID? First time I ever heard of this. Deposit ok sure, name ok yeah. But since when do escorts play the police?
And about SA not dealing with escorts.. Sure, they say that on their ToS and whatever, but I know first hand, and I actually ran a test for this, that a lot and I mean A LOT of girls will accept a meeting straight up, with minimal confirmation (usually just a phone conversation and a few pics), and an agreed upon amount of money.
They all know it's all about discretion. And a huge part of the Ashley Madison leak was people being embarrassed when their spouses or SOs found out they used it to cheat and whatnot.
I'm seeing huge benefits for the escort, yeah it's very safe and functional. But for the customers? I don't know. People do like to keep these things a secret. Consumers especially.
Just my opinion based on some experience. I might be right, I might be wrong. If I was 100% sure I'm right, I wouldn't even be posting here. I'm looking forward to being explained and convinced otherwise.

Our security tech is far beyond AM or SA. Read our setup. No hard drives storing the database, only RAM disks. Database is behind 2 layers of hidden services. For people worried about a leak, SA is far bigger a target, just like AM was.

As far as escorts requiring ID, talk to Sarah (sarah@pinkapp.io) or @SarahPinkApp on Twitter (twitter.com/SarahPinkApp). Some don't require verification, to their detriment. Or join our Slack.

If you are interested and have a public social media profile, we're willing to pay for a dinner with an escort in a major English speaking city and have the two of you discuss the state of the industry, room for apps like Pink, how SA compares, and on and on. Contact me brad@pinkapp.io to set it up. The main requirements are that the escort has a public Twitter and we both agree on them, and that you publicly talk about the interview afterwards. We'll pay for the escort's time, in addition to $100 for dinner.

As far as benefit to the client, it will be much easier. Especially for last minute bookings. With most sites, you need to go spam several escorts asking for a same day date. Wait an hour, see if some reply. Try to set things up. Deal with people responding who are now annoyed because you are no longer interested. It is like AirBNB before Instant Book. Very annoying and a waste of time for everyone involved. With Pink, this will be far easier.

[AppreciatingValue]

ID? First time I ever heard of this. Deposit ok sure, name ok yeah. But since when do escorts play the police?
And about SA not dealing with escorts.. Sure, they say that on their ToS and whatever, but I know first hand, and I actually ran a test for this, that a lot and I mean A LOT of girls will accept a meeting straight up, with minimal confirmation (usually just a phone conversation and a few pics), and an agreed upon amount of money.
They all know it's all about discretion. And a huge part of the Ashley Madison leak was people being embarrassed when their spouses or SOs found out they used it to cheat and whatnot.
I'm seeing huge benefits for the escort, yeah it's very safe and functional. But for the customers? I don't know. People do like to keep these things a secret. Consumers especially.
Just my opinion based on some experience. I might be right, I might be wrong. If I was 100% sure I'm right, I wouldn't even be posting here. I'm looking forward to being explained and convinced otherwise.

Our security tech is far beyond AM or SA. Read our setup. No hard drives storing the database, only RAM disks. Database is behind 2 layers of hidden services. For people worried about a leak, SA is far bigger a target, just like AM was.

As far as escorts requiring ID, talk to Sarah (sarah@pinkapp.io) or @SarahPinkApp on Twitter (twitter.com/SarahPinkApp). Some don't require verification, to their detriment. Or join our Slack.

If you are interested and have a public social media profile, we're willing to pay for a dinner with an escort in a major English speaking city and have the two of you discuss the state of the industry, room for apps like Pink, how SA compares, and on and on. Contact me brad@pinkapp.io to set it up. The main requirements are that the escort has a public Twitter and we both agree on them, and that you publicly talk about the interview afterwards. We'll pay for the escort's time, in addition to $100 for dinner.

As far as benefit to the client, it will be much easier. Especially for last minute bookings. With most sites, you need to go spam several escorts asking for a same day date. Wait an hour, see if some reply. Try to set things up. Deal with people responding who are now annoyed because you are no longer interested. It is like AirBNB before Instant Book. Very annoying and a waste of time for everyone involved. With Pink, this will be far easier.

Thank you for your reply. Also, thanks for the offer to meet an escort to talk about your value propositions. I'll pass on that, and I hope it's not a bluff on your side. If it's not a bluff, it goes to show some level of commitment you have for this project. That's great.
Is there any information on your team's infrastructure?
How many developers?
How many marketing people?
Do you have some escorts already signed up and ready to use the app upon release?
What would be a general strategy of marketing to clients?
Also, I'm still a bit concerned about the ID verifications and linking social media profiles to the app if you want to be a client. Maybe it's just me with the trust issues 
I get it, the app isn't happening without it, just wondering what's the % of people that want to remain anonymous when doing this sort of stuff. Is there a study on this?

[Zeatorius]

I'd like to be involved if you can ensure the security of the service providers, how would you achieve this?

[danBitcoin]

Will you invite more advisors to your team?

I'm also curious about this. What areas do you see yourself needing more advisors in, in the future?

After we finish our B round we're going to be doing a CEO and CFO search.

That should be exciting. I hope you guys have the funds by then to get someone awesome.

[PaintBalls9]

You would have to put a massive focus on avoiding charges of soliciting. If not, you are finished.

It is all in the wording used. Prostitution in many western countries in  not illegal, only the soliciting bit is.

Get from A to B without looking like you are selling appointments for sex is the only way you can get this to appear legal.

Hard, but some brothels mange it.

[crypto_bit]

Do you support transsexual workers? XD

BTW I still think it should be an ICO not IPO

[Dipsomaniac]

Another one sex project... Which dividends you mean? We will receive % from each prostitutes? Like souteneur? 

Remember, these are escorts!  Prostitutes get paid for sex, escorts get paid for their time and company.

[bradpink]

You would have to put a massive focus on avoiding charges of soliciting. If not, you are finished.

It is all in the wording used. Prostitution in many western countries in  not illegal, only the soliciting bit is.

Get from A to B without looking like you are selling appointments for sex is the only way you can get this to appear legal.

Hard, but some brothels mange it.

We are an extrajurisdictional company. If our opsec fails, then the core team will be prosecuted. That is the entire idea of this company. Otherwise existing sites like SA could just fund an app like this on the sly, but they'd never be able to provide real customer service, instant booking or make money off the transactions.

In Canada, selling sex itself is legal, but everything around it is illegal. There's no legal way for our company to operate there.

Almost no one "manages" it. They operate illegally but at such a small scale no one cares (until they do).

[bradpink]

Do you support transsexual workers? XD

BTW I still think it should be an ICO not IPO

Yes we will support all kind of people, but our focus at launch is cis hetero, female provider.

In practice ICO v IPO is the same for us. We use the term IPO to make it clear that we're selling equity in the company, not a pointless token. Nobody in the world wants to pay for things with service-specific tokens. Except the companies selling the tokens!

[deeltje]

We are an extrajurisdictional company. If our opsec fails, then the core team will be prosecuted.

Interesting. So your whole team is okay with this fact? What kind of charges and penalties do you expect you would be facing?

[celestio]

I'm just now seeing the UI preview, that actually looks pretty good. Nice and intuitive. Lots of features is nice, but I'd wait and keep it simple until you have a larger user base.

You are correct. We are focusing on a simple flow for now. Everyone has their own 100 favorite ideas. We will slowly add the best ones.

What are a few of your favorite feature ideas you can think of that won't be in the initial launch?

[AppreciatingValue]

We are an extrajurisdictional company. If our opsec fails, then the core team will be prosecuted.

Interesting. So your whole team is okay with this fact? What kind of charges and penalties do you expect you would be facing?

Good question.

[bananafana]

What made you decide to take the blockchain route? The potential for anonymity?

[bradpink]

We are an extrajurisdictional company. If our opsec fails, then the core team will be prosecuted.

Interesting. So your whole team is okay with this fact? What kind of charges and penalties do you expect you would be facing?

Most of the team does not know each other. Principle people are very few. Most people are trustless contractors that have little to zero liability.

Will not comment on what penalties and charges. But I will say: Morality over legality. Laws we break are to benefit people only and we do not use our anonymity to go around committing crimes.

[bradpink]

What are a few of your favorite feature ideas you can think of that won't be in the initial launch?

Here is a fun one: Machine learning for profiles. Determine what physical aspects a client likes in addition to which kind of photos. For instance, pictures focusing on the chest, selfie-style. Then auto-optimize custom provider profiles for that user so evey provider puts her best, uhm, foot forward. This is a win for everybody. Providers get better sales. Clients find out that they really do like a certain provider, even when she would pick photos that do not necessarily do it for that client.