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Ask HN: Should I begin a porn industry related startup?

4 points by cosmorocket ↗ HN
I have a good tech background as a backend/frontend developer and I think I can make a decent service/app with deep understanding of how things work and what challenges can be.

I am looking for a niche to try and get a relatively quick feedback as what relates to perspectives and finding my passion for it. Being open-minded and impartial, I am looking for all possible industries that are legal and can be improved with my knowledge and experience as a sole entrepreneur (at least, initially, as I want to make it lean).

So, one of the interesting areas for me in this context could be porn-related services. My ideas are a webcam platform, automated pirated content hunting on tube sites, porn tube aggregator, to name a few.

Did anyone of you think of or try to run a porn-related startup? What are your thoughts about it? Please share your experience. Would be happy to discuss.

Thanks!

6 comments

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Lordarminius
Not to be the guy that told you so, but when you lay on your death-bed do you want your legacy to be "He made great porn sites" ?

With your skills there are lots of other areas you can work in, make an impact and make good money.

I looked through your profile. I have a couple of ideas I would like to pursue but my tech skills are not up to par yet. Drop me an email if you would like to work on some ideas.

angersock
Counter-argument: porn services are actually used by thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people in a way that helps enrich their lives and solve a concrete immediate problem.

You'll be hard pressed to find some chatroom package or vision API or machine learning kit that is as deeply satisfying to a user as a solid wank.

A more concrete problem is that the porn industry is very hard to get into and has some real difficult technical challenges.

Lordarminius
There is no doubt that some porn has value. However this could be easily met by just a few sites not thousands.

More to the point however is the seamy side(imagine that!) of the industry that rarely gets mentioned. The drugs, disease, depressions and suicides, social exclusion and the seedy characters at all levels with whom you must interact. These are best avoided imo.

angersock
> The drugs, disease, depressions and suicides, social exclusion and the seedy characters at all levels with whom you must interact.

Sounds not unlike the startup ecosystem. :|

At least in porn you know somebody's getting fucked.

tbarbugli
From a career perspective I don't think this is the best move ever. I am pretty sure a good amount of people won't like to see that in your resume (eg. next job, funding your next start-up, ..).
MulliMulli
I'd stay away from it, it's super competitive (I've tried a lot of things). The only thing that I can think of is VR porn - it might not be so crowded yet.