Each month, industry news media organization XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives.
Rebecca Pinette-Dorin’s resume reads like pleasure industry royalty. This entrepreneurial spirit has modeled in Paris, opened an online sex toy boutique for women out of Miami, and worked for some of the classiest companies in the toyspace. It’s no wonder her second tongue is French, as Pinette-Dorin definitely speaks the language of love.
We all feel that it’s not enough to just say you are a ‘female-friendly’ brand; you need to actually put your money where your mouth is.
After stints with boutique brands like Rianne S. and Njoy as a consultant, Pinette-Dorin took the French sex toy market by storm on behalf of LELO. By the time she made her next career leap, LELO’s sales in France were through the roof and well past the million mark.
Now Pinette-Dorin leads the charge in the U.S. at Exsens, a female-friendly brand that is set to become one of the most popular sensuals manufacturers in the world. Exsens' healing crystal massage oils and delectable flavored lubricants share Pinette-Dorin's classy, smart vibe that blends sex education with a modernized approach to pleasure marketing and retail.
As our latest Women in Adult inductee, Pinette-Dorin re-tells her winding career timeline from French fashion model to dot-com first-adopter to sex industry sales seductress.
XBIZ: How did you start your career prior to entering the pleasure space?
Rebecca Pinette-Dorin: After college, I moved to Paris on a whim and modeled for a few years. It’s a long story, but eventually I got recruited as an account executive by a tech start-up right at the beginning of the dot-com bubble. It was pretty crazy and we made money hand over fist! It was a great way to break into business.
XBIZ: What eventually drew you to the sex toy industry, and where did you begin your journey here?
Pinette-Dorin: When the dot-com bubble burst, I still had a job but the whole corporate environment was really getting me down. In 2004, I decided to cash in my stock options and start my own business — an online sex shop for women based out of Miami. I made some cringe-worthy rookie mistakes, but I certainly learned a lot. A few years in, Lovely Planet contacted me to start their business in the U.S. and I changed horses.
XBIZ: What career experiences confirmed that you made the right choice to switch industries?
Pinette-Dorin: Everyone was so nice! I couldn’t believe how many friends I made — friends I still have. We were a smaller group back then. It was easy to know everyone and there was a real feeling that we were all on the crest of the wave. We were going to change things and make history — and in some ways I think we have. The industry is so much better and stronger now because of a lot of the people I met back in those days.
XBIZ: Tell us about your successful climb from Lovely Planet to where you now stand strong at Exsens. How have you made your mark on the industry?
Pinette-Dorin: Most of the work I’ve done has been sales and strategy oriented, but marketing has horned its way in these last few years.
After I left Lovely Planet and moved back to Paris, I started consulting. I realized there were a lot of brands out there who just needed a little help and couldn’t afford to hire someone full-time. I worked for brands like Njoy, Rianne S., or Soft Paris (a home party company) but I also worked in the film industry doing product placement of sex toys. One crazy year I even put together a love-themed magazine with some people from Finland. I discovered that I loved to talk about sex and I excelled at trainings. I was interviewed numerous times for TV and documentaries, and I started throwing (now infamous) annual sex toy parties at my house.
LELO recruited me in 2013 and I left my consulting company to build their business in France. It was both a pleasure and a pain working for one of the industry’s biggest names, but when I left them to move to New York in 2015, I had doubled their French sales to over 2M€.
Now working for Exsens, I am able to bring all of my experience to the table, for sales, for branding, for strategy and for marketing. It’s a great brand and I’m having a great time!
XBIZ: Which industry figures have you looked up to over the years?
Pinette-Dorin: Definitely [Njoy founder] Greg Delong. He’s such a sweetheart and the man knows his (butt) stuff! [Big Teaze Toys’] Tony Levine has always been a friend, and very, very generous with his help and his hugs. I still miss working with Tatiana Escobar [from Elvie.] She has always been a hell of an ally.
XBIZ: What's it like working with a leading sensual product manufacturer?
Pinette-Dorin: I have more or less been given carte blanche with Exsens for the Americas and I really appreciate the trust the company has shown in me so far. It is very exciting to put everything you believe in behind a brand, shaping your message for positive good! We are a great (albeit small) team of women, and I love our spirit! In 2018 we began our initiative with Population Services International (PSI) and we’ll continue this year to donate a percentage of our sales to them. We all feel that it’s not enough to just say you are a “female-friendly” brand; you need to actually put your money where your mouth is.
XBIZ: What aspects of the industry have evolved the most since your started out?
Pinette-Dorin: A lot has changed, some for the better, but not all. The business is much more business-oriented now, which is great because professionalism was definitely missing, but on the other hand, a lot of the wonderful perverts, the ones that put the “sex” in sex toys, have been marginalized. New brands are more “professional” but a lot of them are missing the education aspect that really pushed sexy products towards better quality over the last two decades. The bottom line is profit now, instead of pleasure.
That said, all this new investment capital is allowing small, wonderful brands like Dame or OhNut to bring out truly new and innovative products!
XBIZ: What exciting things can we expect from you at Exsens this year?
Pinette-Dorin: We are really upping our marketing presence this year, both on social media and in the press. And of course: new product! There is always new product.
