I had 25,000+ at my peak so they must have had at least a 6 figure recurring member base.

Thanks. All ideas are good.

Question is at the very bottom. :)

Lots of people talking about membership headcount and porn related investments... this is a porn forum but since the title is about asking you anything, let me gear this toward something else.

You've done a little investing in companies in the background, no need to get specific, I would like to get your opinion on something.

You have probably heard of Y combinator and how they invest $120k in a company for a 7% stake. Some founders want into it not for the money but the network resources being a part of Y combinator provides. As an investor, the goal of course is to make your money back, many mannnnyyyyy times if possible.

This plays into a company I have a side gig with, a company called iCracked, they received investment from Y combinator. You can listen to it here. If you are curious about the business model listen to the podcast (they've grown 10x since 2013).
iCracked Mixergy interview

It's an interesting gig, I like it because it gets me out to meet new people and let's me experiment with local marketing and getting business relationships locally.

Part of the business model is they make money from me as I have to use all their parts in repairs. They sell Do-it-yourself kits on their site and through sites like Amazon. The only major weakness is they're completely at the whim of whatever Apple or Samsung makes.
Recently they started selling insurance plans that build a revenue model of $7 a month from customers and offer $25 deductibles for screen replacements (and any other kind of repair and even a full equivalent device repair for $25) that usually run $100-150 range and factor into paying us accordingly. Recently I found my competition pushing the insurance plan for iCracked that wasn't licensed and broke several rules of the usual affiliate agreement; they would be able to do the repairs for the insurance claims they got. I brought this up in the company social network and there was an uproar, lol. They did this behind the iTechs back, long drama ridden thread.
Anyway it's good for them that they did this, this is the only way they'll get market penetration fast by having all kinds of shops and other places pushing insurance and the brand. They have some lofty membership enrollments of 7 figures in a relatively short time, this is the only way to do it. The more affiliates the better I guess. :upsidedow If you don't like that than you can :321GFY

Other than having iTechs (nearly 2000 now) as assets, when it came time to sell the business I would think recurring insurance membership is the only way to really have some meat on your asset list when negotiating a buyout came, having several million insurance members. Cold hard numbers. Other iTechs bitched about the potential downfall but they are all about gaining marketshare as fast as they can and I see it for what it is.
When you take investment from Y combinator or someone else, they want there money back and that means selling out for many times your worth or in rare cases going public.

Angel investors, venture capitol, et cetera, like Y combinator probably want $70 million (or 100x) for their $120k. Idea was to invest in 10 startups and have 9 fail but 1 goes through the roof. The best investors have a 50% win on their investments.

So finally, my question for you is, what do you do to push an individual or investment (other than porn) in a direction that is going to make you money? Something like the advantage membership (phone insurance) is a key factor in laying your assets on the table when it comes time for somebody to buy you.

iCracked must be doing very well. I tried on 2 different occasions to get a screen repaired, impossible, these guys are loaded with repair meetings.

what about now in 2015 does someone like x-art have 100k recurring monthly membership base?

Hi Visiono.

First, name is Shap not Snap :)

Second, what's your obsession with knowing how big x-art is? What does it matter if they have 20,000 members, 50,000 or 100,000? I know you are hung up on the 100,000 number but what's the difference if they have 20,000 members?

Damn just filled out icracked form i got a call within 8 seconds of clicking send. wtf that is nuts.

This is false from my experience. Times have changed dramatically. A few comments on this paragraph :)

#1 I think the failure rate is much higher than 9 in 10. 19 in 20? 29 in 30? It's high.

#2 I don't think any investor in startups has a 50% win on investments in the past 2 years. Why? Because startups now start raising money on an IDEA. Which is completely crazy. 10 years ago you had Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr raising money when they already had proven the business model and had millions of users. It's a very different marketplace right now.

#3 100x is a dream result. I don't think anyone goes into an investment thinking this is a 100x deal. I may be wrong but it's crazy. I've been told this is what you expect when investing in carefully vetted and picked investments.
Make 20 investments.
16 will blow all the money and it's gone.
3 will break even and give you your money (or value) back.
1 will be the home run that pays for it all.

So assume 10k investment in 20 companies. $200,000 invested. $160,000 lost. $30,000 recovered. Then if the home run is 20+ times return you are ahead of things overall. The key (again this is all from what i've researched and been told) is that when you have that 10k home run you then make sure you followup and continue investing in the followup rounds basically doubling down. That's when you go big i guess. For example I have one of my investments that I was in on the companies first round valued at $5,000,000. A year after that investment I was invited into the next round valued at $30,000,000. So clearly company is making big moves and doing the right thing. My initial investment's paper worth already covers this new round. But I would never have got into this round had I not invested the first round. If the company continues their progress I should be able to continue to get in before others not to mention hopefully a pretty sweet exit at some point :)

#4 YC Funding. I have a very different feeling about the YC funders view their investments. These are guys that have play money on their hands. They killed it on twitter, facebook etc. So these guys now blindly invest in every YC company every term. My thinking is it's a little bit of them giving back, it's a little bit of them pushing the startup economy and it's a lot them gambling and making sure they are in on the next BIG BIG BIG thing. The next Billion $ thing.

Thanks for the question. Right now I've simply made investments in other companies where I had little to no say in the day to day business decisions. That said I try to invest in companies that are driven by making money. Any company who is pushing an idea or trying to build a user base isn't as interesting to me as a company that has a growing monthly revenue base. I love recurring revenue :thumbsup

let me know if that answers your question :)

The same was true for 2014 (and perhaps as far back as 2011). THIS is exactly the "secret" (no secret at all) to my "success". Monthly revenue growing, traffic going up, Tours get a fantastic conversion ratio from tubes.

Of course, the tubes themselves are re-aligning and their traffic is shifting so who knows how long tubes will be the kings of traffic? Probably for a long time still but the ROI for Programs may continue to dwindle if those Programs don't constantly tweak their shit.

Shap, addicted to Shark Tank like I am? LOL :)

Love shark tank but don't get it here in the uk so don't watch. Don't watch much tv. Love million dollar listing though :)

how are tubes realigning?

Ah man Shark Tank is ADDICTIVE. LOL Check it out on YouTube etc. I need to check out 'Dragon's Den' which I think is UK?

Tubes re-aligning I mean large tubes gobbling up smaller ones, multiple tubes via one site (like YouJizz - upload there and it goes to several tubes, etc). Plus, I think the focus is always shifting more towards cams/dating than paysites and new productions. it just seems to me a few years from now tubes won't have the same juice they have now. I am probably wrong on this. LOL

iCracked has cashflow that is positive and as far as I know they haven't taken additional investments. As long as you don't royally mess up it shouldn't happen. The worst thing that happens to iCracked is the website and application server go down which occurs once every 2 weeks for a little bit. Sometimes they do get bad part shipments and recalls can be expensive. I still don't know the markup rate for the parts, I'm sure the Asian laborers are working at a very low wage.

What sets them apart from other Y-C investments is they are hardware guys.

They protect themselves by having you make the judgement calls and if you destroy the phone you have to buy it. I haven't done that yet, 240+ repairs, close though.

iTechs (Trademarked) compete for dispatches, you can always call me direct if you want. It's a gamble to rely on the brand or ride it to have instant credibility. They of course do questionable things to us all the time without telling us.

Listen to this podcast: Marc Andreessen on Venture Capital and the Digital Future | EconTalk | Library of Economics and Liberty

Marc Andreessen discusses the Google founders among other things, talks about the most successful investor(s).

Revenue is important. Snapchat, WhatsApp, and so on are uneasy if you are just looking to build a valuation based on the number of users you have.
Start ups are trendy now.

Answered my question, thanks.

Who killed Kennedy?

Hi Shap, well, 100,000 members means more money. More money means you can invest more. $1 million a month is also more motivational to create a great site then 20,000 members which may only be $200k per month.

Another words, if someone`s goal is to have a $12 million a year business and having an online adult enterprise is not going to do that , then perhaps another path should be taken instead of wasting time, money etc....

Also if you are looking for investors are you going to tell them they can make 1 million monthly when the reality is only 200k or vice versa? I see doing research as basic business101.

One thing I've noticed about Shap from other people I've sent links or interesting things to check out is he always explored them more deeply than anyone else, in other words he is more curious and thus more aware of what is going on.

Just figured I'd mention that.

Also I was wrong about iCracked, they've taken additional investment beyond YC.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:thumbsup:thumbsup

Ok. I think I understand your angle a little bit better. You are trying to gauge the potential of the market and what could be made either for your own personal project or one you are raising money for. I have some comments on that.

If your goal is to have a $12million a year business and anything else is a waste of time and money then i have a few thoughts.
#1 don't get into adult.
#2 i think you need to re-evaluate your "goals". $12million a year is significant money in any industry. My instinct is you are young and have never made money. That isn't an attack it's just an observation. I've never met a real businessperson that considers $5,000,000 a year profit below them or not worth their time and money.
#3 see #1

With regards to investors be very careful. If you are going to raise money to start an adult site you should know that I've never heard of a site succeed with that formula. That doesn't mean it won't work for you just saying I've never seen an investor backed adult site do anything but blow up and blow all the money.


I feel you are too focused on x-art and what they are doing. Forget about them and instead try to find out how NEW entries into that market are doing. X-art is an established brand and any results they have play very little into your potential in that niche. To get a better idea find all the new entries in that niche in the past two years. How are they doing? Is there result reliant on any factors you will not have at your disposal. Ie is it a new launch by an already established company? Is it a site launched by a company with big free sites etc etc.


The harsh reality is if you are new to the industry and you are coming in with nothing but your ideas on how to compete with them then more likely than not you will fail. It's is very hard to crack into the paysite market. Especially an expensive one like X-art niche. Be careful even if it isn't your money you'll be spending.

Hahaha thanks it's probably my way of competing with people that may be brighter than I am. If somebody mentions a product or a site that I've never heard of what harm is it to me to check it out. In the case of icracked i see multiple potential scenarios.
#1 i could find a new place to fix my cracked devices. That alone is worth it.
#2 potential place to invest
#3 may be it will give me an idea of my own.

I'm naturally curious and these little tidbits of information I gather usually make me look great in day to day conversations.


I read a Mark Cuban quote a few years ago where Cuban said he buys dozens of magazines/books a week because he skims through them and if he gets one good idea from them then it's worth it.

It's a matter of feeding the brain information and ideas and hoping it outputs something worthwhile lol ;)

Which one?

Shap, i appreciate your time and feedback. when you say its hard to crack an expensive niche like x-art do you mean in terms of the content creation? Assuming the content part is taken care of do you think its difficult to build a membership base of 10,000 and maintain that within 1 year with free promotion and say $2000/month in advertising?
I`m using x-art as an example of glamcore which is the general niche i feel i have talent in. I`m preparing myself for the marketing part that way the content investment is not wasted.

As far as x-art having an edge because its now a brand name and 11 years track record, is it not possible to start another brand name today and have it well branded in 2026?
Is your main argument that new paysites will fail due to the explosion of tube sites?

IMO without a huge marketing budget and plan 10,000 members in 1 year is not possible especially if this is your first pay site. A more reasonable target is 1,000 members in the first year. You crack that and you are on your way to a good success imo. Especially with your 2000/month ad budget.

My argument regarding new sites failing has to do more with the people running them than the market place. Since 1999 I've heard people say it's too late to get into paysites (that's right I had people tell me in 1999 it was too late). So reality is it's never too late. That said to succeed you need a combination of timing, luck, great product, great marketing, great packaging. X-art came out at the perfect time. People were a little desensitized to the hardcore pornstar porn (bang/brazzers) and were open to something different. He came out. Nailed it. Got a shit load of signups early because his timing and product and packaging of it were a perfect blend. Blacked did the exact same last year. He came out with a product that was perfectly timed for the market. 5 years earlier maybe it isn't as successful. Your problem now is the competition in the glam hardcore market is huge. It's hard to crack a market that is so saturated. How many sites now compete with X-art vs how many did when he launched? You have some big sites with big ad budgets in that pay site niche and they aren't all crushing it. So the question is what makes you think you can go into that niche and be better at it than Brazzers with Babes, Femjoy with Joymii, Nubiles with Nubiles Hardcore. You are going up against heavy hitters and to launch your site won't be cheap. What's your budget to launch? How many scenes will your site have in the first month of launch? What's your target for scenes after a year of launch?

Hey Shap I have a truly great domain name for mature dating website that I got over 10 years ago. But I only have $1,000 - $2,000 to spend to put into it to get it going.
I dont want to create a dating site because I dont have the budget to grow it and market it, have support staff etc. I dont want to deal with customers I just want to promote promote promote.

What would you do? Would you become an affiliate of mainstream sites like say Match.com/eHarmony, OurTime and try to promote it.
Would you go the adult route and promote SeniorFriendFinder and "Wanna fuck an old lady" ads?
Would you just film some very amateur clips with older women and make a paysite out of it?
Or would you do something different?

thanks!

Thanks for your reply Shap. i`ve never heard of blacked before. what usefull info should i be aware of about them? they don`t seem to be anywhere near the level of x-art.
The reason i want to do a glam site is because i can do it better then everyone else. i have a background that qualifies that. i was thinking 50 scenes to launch. After launch i was thinking updates with 1 new scene added weekly after the first month of launch. advertising budget for launch i was thinking 2000 a month.

First, are you sure it's a great domain? How many type ins a day does it get? What are you doing with it right now?

I think instead of launching a site you should run a test first. You are too worried about how big everyone is instead of concentrating on what you may do. You clearly think you are amazing and can beat out guys who have years of experience. I've heard that story before and it usually doesn't end well.

Can you afford to shoot a scene of the type of site you want to build? If you can i would do the following. Fund this test shoot yourself. Film the scene. Fire the scene up on a domain (any domain doesn't matter). Ask the public if they'd be interested in more scenes like that one. Post it to every tube. And see what the feedback is. Maybe you are the greatest glam-hardcore producer the world has never heard of. If it blows up not only will you be able to recoup the investment you made in shooting the scene (i'm sure one of the sites out there would buy it from you if it's that great) but you will be able to get someone to back you and someone who wants to do this project right away. You won't even have to raise money it will come to you.

In fact you do that and I'll help you. Shoot the scene and I'll help you get it out there and we'll get feedback from everyone here. If you are great at what you do I promise you you'll smash it and this will launch your business and career.

Hey Shap,

Do you think there is still room for babe blogs in the industry? I see some good blogs having nice traffic , not as big as tubes though, but still they do quite well.

For example this site, kindgirls.com, from your experience where do you think it's get the traffic? I does not seem to have some big trades and nor that many daily galleries, but judging from Alexa rank it has some good traffic, I think around 100k per day ....

I think there will always be room to carve out your own little space. The key is to provide really awesome quality and grow a fan base. If you can cater to enough people you can make it work.

That site looks really nice. If I were to guess he probably has a good amount of bookmarks. On Twistys we had raving mad fans. I know FTV, Femjoy, metart have the same. You can have those fans on a paysite or on a free site. Its just about finding something to deliver that enough people really like.

Thanks Shap for the answer, kindgirls is the biggest I know of it's kind, blog style .

By the way, about that fan base of Twistys, I see now that Twistys is both softcore and hardcore. Do you think it's good or bad?
I mean for example, should one try to make only softcore and try to only get that kind of fans or only hardcore and the same ,get only this kind of fans?

I see a lot of blogs posting only niche content, only softcore or only hardcore and I wonder if the audience that prefers softcore would feel offended to find hardcore also...

I think you have to try to find one specific niche and go after it. We were too wishy washy beautiful softcore girls but then hardcore as well. Ideally we wanted the hardcore to be X-art but we never got it there and instead we were glamour girls on one side and brazzers hardcore on the other. Not the best mix.

thanks again!

Who killed both?

Shap,

who do you think is making the best glamcore at the moment? x-art?

How is stinky old London treating you these days ? You should come down the South West some day and get some good clean fresh air into your lungs and check out the beautiful countryside we have down here :)

It's been phenomenal! :thumbsup Where are you?

Dont really mind London used to suck cause I worked up there for a bit and driving a luton van about was not good fun in London.

Somerset... beautiful part of the country :)

Shap, can you please answer my question. Is x-art the top for glamcore in terms of quality?

I'm not sure. They are definitely up there. If you think you can do better than I suggest you go out and do it :) Good luck!!! :thumbsup:thumbsup

shap sell me one of your cars:helpme