SEATTLE — Play, a kink lifestyle brand, announced an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds to build its kinky dating app.
The campaign aims to raise $30,000, and is already 5 percent of the way to its goal.
“We are so excited to announce this launch,” says Sasha Sobolevsky, Play’s founder and CEO. “We hope you will join us to help bring kink into the 21st century. The app will help demystify kinky sex; making it fun, safe and accessible. This is an important step for the kink and BDSM communities.”
Play allows BDSM veterans and novices alike the chance to chat with and meet like-minded people in a safe environment. Unlike other kink apps, Play is created with BDSM’s guiding principles of “safe, sane and consensual” in mind, the company said.
The app promises safe meet-ups with safety features such as silent alarms built in. Additionally, legal practices within BDSM will be represented and pre-negotiations will take place in the app.
Sobolevsky founded Play in early 2016, when she was a student at the University of Southern California (USC) at the time, getting her MBA. As an active member in the kink community (defined as unconventional sexual practices, concepts or fantasies) she says she discovered a business gap in the market. Specifically, according to an article in The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, over 50 percent of people in the U.S. are somewhat interested in kink, but less than 13 percent have ever tried anything kinky. Sobolevsky, along with the help of her business partner Sir Rucifer, a professional male Dominant, decided to demystify kink and bring it to the mainstream with a healthy dose of fun.