[ANN] Pink: Escort startup Series A share sale

[Dipsomaniac]

How many people are working on this project in total, roughly?

[bradpink]

How many people are working on this project in total, roughly?

Roughly 10

[bradpink]

That's interesting you have an escort on staff. What's an example of a policy directly influenced by having someone with her experience there that you wouldn't have otherwise thought of?

One thing was health checks. As an outsider, it seems like a good idea. It sounds straightforward. Health checks actually received a very negative response from sex workers. If we advertise that everyone is certified healthy, then clients are more likely to pressure providers into doing unsafe acts.

[Sarah_PinkApp]

That's interesting you have an escort on staff. What's an example of a policy directly influenced by having someone with her experience there that you wouldn't have otherwise thought of?

One thing was health checks. As an outsider, it seems like a good idea. It sounds straightforward. Health checks actually received a very negative response from sex workers. If we advertise that everyone is certified healthy, then clients are more likely to pressure providers into doing unsafe acts.

On top of that, it's virtually impossible to assure health status in any individual in this industry - clients or providers alike.

Other policies:

- Having to sleep with a provider to prove she is a real provider - that was scrapped as soon as I heard of it
- We're actually getting testimonials and feedback from providers, which wasn't done before I arrived
- Tiered screening

[danBitcoin]

Is there anyone you have your eyes on for the CEO position?

Not something we'd talk about until we figure out their exact exposure. Some people are more confident being publicly associated with our project than others.

I feel like this industry gets such a bad rap, and for no other reason than religion. Thankfully, the US seems to be moving away from it's roots.

[Dipsomaniac]

How many people are working on this project in total, roughly?

Roughly 10

How many of those are working full time on this project?

[deeltje]

That's interesting you have an escort on staff. What's an example of a policy directly influenced by having someone with her experience there that you wouldn't have otherwise thought of?

One thing was health checks. As an outsider, it seems like a good idea. It sounds straightforward. Health checks actually received a very negative response from sex workers. If we advertise that everyone is certified healthy, then clients are more likely to pressure providers into doing unsafe acts.

On top of that, it's virtually impossible to assure health status in any individual in this industry - clients or providers alike.

Other policies:

- Having to sleep with a provider to prove she is a real provider - that was scrapped as soon as I heard of it
- We're actually getting testimonials and feedback from providers, which wasn't done before I arrived
- Tiered screening

Fascinating insights. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[celestio]

With that much knoweldge and expertise on security, why not just be a security company instead of the escort app? Have you thought about that? Could the revenue be higher, and there wouldn't be a need for hiding?

Most companies do not want this kind of security. They view security as a cost. Look at Equifax. Hacked and their share price is doing just fine. There is no reason for these companies to care. If Equifax goes out of business from the hack maybe there will be a need. It is not even the right design. Pink trades availability for security.

A lot of our security is to fight against law enforcement. This is a problem few companies have.

That's a damn shame too. A mess up that huge should have buried that company way under ground.

[bananafana]

What kind of patents does Pink have filed, if any?

[Dipsomaniac]

How many people are working on this project in total, roughly?

Roughly 10

How many of those are working full time on this project?

Just curious about this.

[danBitcoin]

That's interesting you have an escort on staff. What's an example of a policy directly influenced by having someone with her experience there that you wouldn't have otherwise thought of?

One thing was health checks. As an outsider, it seems like a good idea. It sounds straightforward. Health checks actually received a very negative response from sex workers. If we advertise that everyone is certified healthy, then clients are more likely to pressure providers into doing unsafe acts.

I never would have guessed about the health checks having negative consequences. Great call on bringing someone with experience in.

[bradpink]

How many people are working on this project in total, roughly?

Roughly 10

How many of those are working full time on this project?

Just curious about this.

Approximately 10 people working on the project. We won't go into personnel details, sorry.

[deeltje]

It's interesting your servers don't even have hard drives and is all based on RAM. That must take a lot of RAM. Is this a fairly common practice?

[bradpink]

It's interesting your servers don't even have hard drives and is all based on RAM. That must take a lot of RAM. Is this a fairly common practice?

It is cheap enough to get 32 GB of RAM. This is enough to run our apps or a database for now. It is not common because it is difficult to operate and most companies do not need the security.

[whoeier]

Interesting story, is the platform intended to go worldwide?

If laws and the risk of FBI etc seizing the data, why not locate the company to a more ok country, like for example the Netherlands? Who allow this kind of technology as long as it is proven to not support trafficing etc.

[bradpink]

Interesting story, is the platform intended to go worldwide?

If laws and the risk of FBI etc seizing the data, why not locate the company to a more ok country, like for example the Netherlands? Who allow this kind of technology as long as it is proven to not support trafficing etc.

Eventually we will launch most major cities. For now, we are focusing on CA/IE/UK/US. We should have between over 10 cities online (conservative) by the end of 2018.

We do take advantage of jurisdictional friction to aid us. But we cannot count on these countries protecting us. We will be operating worldwide, and local laws such as NL has won't apply overseas. The US is known to play dirty. So while we could take advantage of our citizenships, only hire people with certain citizenship, live there and never travel ... it is playing a dangerous game. At best we would end up in a long legal fight. Even if we win, that is a waste of money and time.

[whoeier]

Interesting story, is the platform intended to go worldwide?

If laws and the risk of FBI etc seizing the data, why not locate the company to a more ok country, like for example the Netherlands? Who allow this kind of technology as long as it is proven to not support trafficing etc.

Eventually we will launch most major cities. For now, we are focusing on CA/IE/UK/US. We should have between over 10 cities online (conservative) by the end of 2018.

We do take advantage of jurisdictional friction to aid us. But we cannot count on these countries protecting us. We will be operating worldwide, and local laws such as NL has won't apply overseas. The US is known to play dirty. So while we could take advantage of our citizenships, only hire people with certain citizenship, live there and never travel ... it is playing a dangerous game. At best we would end up in a long legal fight. Even if we win, that is a waste of money and time.

true and untrue,

The law in the Netherlands is quite clear upon data-storage on who is the rightfull owner, as long as the company is registered in the Netherlands, it will be a hard and harsh fight for the US and other country's to lay down a claim upon data, especially when it is not again the local law of the Netherlands.

I'm aware that not everything is as "ok" as we sometimes believe, but keeping stuff liquid on RAM-drives means u'll have multiple servers hosted across the globe and perhaps an server nearby your location to collect a backup in case of.. well you know

[bradpink]

The law in the Netherlands is quite clear upon data-storage on who is the rightfull owner, as long as the company is registered in the Netherlands, it will be a hard and harsh fight for the US and other country's to lay down a claim upon data, especially when it is not again the local law of the Netherlands.

I'm aware that not everything is as "ok" as we sometimes believe, but keeping stuff liquid on RAM-drives means u'll have multiple servers hosted across the globe and perhaps an server nearby your location to collect a backup in case of.. well you know

The moment we ever move from that safe spot, the US would grab us. The US might play dirty tricks, accuse of us other things ... whatever they can. The best approach is a layered one. There are benefits to customers too: No subpoenas or warrants possible.

RAM drives mean we have an constantly-streaming encrypted backup system, yes. And it does mean if something fails, we end up needing to manually enter the key to restore. I believe this tradeoff is worth protecting everyone's data.

[Dipsomaniac]

How many people are working on this project in total, roughly?

Roughly 10

How many of those are working full time on this project?

Just curious about this.

Approximately 10 people working on the project. We won't go into personnel details, sorry.

No need to apologize. I'm sorry for prying so much, I've always been the nosey one of the bunch lol

[danBitcoin]

The law in the Netherlands is quite clear upon data-storage on who is the rightfull owner, as long as the company is registered in the Netherlands, it will be a hard and harsh fight for the US and other country's to lay down a claim upon data, especially when it is not again the local law of the Netherlands.

I'm aware that not everything is as "ok" as we sometimes believe, but keeping stuff liquid on RAM-drives means u'll have multiple servers hosted across the globe and perhaps an server nearby your location to collect a backup in case of.. well you know

The moment we ever move from that safe spot, the US would grab us. The US might play dirty tricks, accuse of us other things ... whatever they can. The best approach is a layered one. There are benefits to customers too: No subpoenas or warrants possible.

RAM drives mean we have an constantly-streaming encrypted backup system, yes. And it does mean if something fails, we end up needing to manually enter the key to restore. I believe this tradeoff is worth protecting everyone's data.

Nobody can every say you guys haven't gone the extra mile for security, that's for sure.