DeepSummary
Caroline Spiegel, the founder and CEO of Quinn, an audio erotica app, discusses the origins of her company and the challenges she faced as a female founder in a taboo industry. She started Quinn in 2019 while a senior at Stanford after experiencing female sexual dysfunction, realizing there were no products catering to women's sexual needs. Quinn provides short, immersive audio stories designed to help listeners reach orgasm.
Spiegel talks about the difficulties of raising money for a company that many investors dismissed as a porn site. She advises female founders to seek out investors who have established careers and are less risk-averse. Despite the initial skepticism, Quinn has grown 400% year-over-year and now has over 300,000 subscribers.
Spiegel shares her insights on resilience, authenticity, and harnessing a "chip on the shoulder" mentality to fuel her determination. She emphasizes the importance of believing in the mission and not shying away from embarrassment or rejection as a founder.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Quinn, an audio erotica app, aims to provide a safe and appealing alternative to traditional adult content platforms.
- Overcoming skepticism and embracing authenticity are key for female founders, especially in taboo industries.
- Resilience and a 'chip on the shoulder' mentality can help founders navigate challenges and rejections.
- Raising money as a female founder in a taboo space can be difficult, even from female VCs concerned about reputational risk.
- Audio erotica is an emerging genre that Quinn believes will be the future of adult content.
- Incorporating personal passions and humor into leadership can foster authenticity and creativity in a company's culture.
- Setbacks can reaffirm a founder's identity and determination, while success can sometimes be problematic if it leads to complacency.
- Trusting one's own taste and envisioning oneself as the customer can lead to better product decisions than trying to emulate successful companies.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Challenges or low lows served as a way for me to reaffirm to myself who I am. And I think sometimes success or when things are going well, it can be frictionless in a problematic way.“ by Caroline Spiegel
- “I do think that the medium and the genre of audio erotica, these short audio, immersive audio stories designed to get the listener to orgasm, I do think that's the future of the adult content space as we know it. So I think that's honestly where the growth is. I see us as sort of the first company to bring adult content into the mainstream, into the tech conversation, into the true mainstream consumer space.“ by Caroline Spiegel
- “There's actually no reason to prank someone.“ by Caroline Spiegel
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Episode Information
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Vox Media Podcast Network
2/4/24
Ed speaks with Caroline Spiegel, founder and CEO of Quinn, an app for listening to audio erotica. They discuss what differentiates her company from existing adult content sites like Pornhub and OnlyFans, what it's like to raise money for a company that VCs might not take seriously, and how to get over embarrassment as a founder.
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