LOS ANGELES — Mashable, as part of Masturbation Month, published today one in a series of articles on trending sex toy and novelty companies.
Today, Mashable focused on and posted a rundown of four women-run “sex tech” companies that are making the industry more accessible.
Mashable sourced its lineup from WomenOfSexTech.com, an organization focusing on entrepreneurship.
Mashable first took a look at Dame, which offers the Fin and Eva II vibrators.
“Dame is brainchild of Alexandra Fine and Janet Lieberman,” Mashable wrote. “Fine, who holds a masters degree in clinical psychology from Columbia University, tells Mashable she met Lieberman, a mechanical engineer and MIT alum, in June 2014 upon learning that each had separately planned to start her own sex toy company.
“Fine says their combined talents – her interest in branding and market research and Lieberman's interest in designing a safe, high quality toy – led them to launch an Indiegogo campaign for their first vibrator Eva in October of 2014. By late February of the following year, Fine says Dame shipped its first round of products. It's since expanded its line, launching Fin in November 2016, and a redesign of its first vibrator, the Eva II, in November 2017.”
Maude was another company in Mashable’s spotlight. Maude's line includes Rise condoms, two forms of lubricant and the Vibe massager.
“Maude is very much a gender inclusive or unisex brand," CEO Eva Goicochea told Mashable. "We aren’t a women-for-women company, per se – we’re more of a women for everyone company."
Goicochea, a marketer, befriended Dina Epstein, an industrial designer who's worked for lingerie retailer Kiki De Montparnasse and for sex toy maker Doc Johnson, and together they decided to launch Maude.
Mashable also focused on Pulse, which offers a warming lubricant dispenser, two varieties of lube sets and lube samples.
“For a product often considered an integral part of sex, the user experience associated with lube is decidedly lacking,” Mashable wrote. “Pulse founder Amy Buckalter decided to give the experience a much-needed update after experiencing it firsthand — ‘I had entered into menopause, was using a lot more lubricant, and I couldn't believe [the more] I thought about it how archaic the entire user experience is for the 21st century on a variety of levels.’”
Finally, Mashable took a look at Unbound, whose shop has traditionally featured sex toys, fetish products, lubricants, and more from a range of outside brands.
But the company now is shifting to selling only its own line of products. This includes three pink vibrators, three types of lube, personal wipes, kinky toys, a dildo, as well as jewelry, accessories and more. It also offers quarterly subscription kits filled with products from its house line.
“When Unbound CEO Polly Rodriguez was diagnosed with cancer in her early 20s, she tells Mashable that the experience ‘changed the way I saw the world,"’ specifically her views of women's sexuality,” Mashable wrote.
Read the full Mashable story here. Check out WomenOfSexTech.com here.
Pictured: Maude products
