While Dame is more focused on devices, it also has a $30 “excitement serum,” an $18 aloe-based lubricant, and a $95 adult pillow called, much in keeping with the startup slang, “Pillo.” .
The companies tend to emphasize the clean and natural ingredients of their products. Descriptions like “aloe infused” and “contains jojoba oil” are common.
The styling of the products has taken some retailers by surprise. For example, Mr Aldridge said Madewell, a clothing retailer, had initially declined the idea of listing Maude products on its website. But then a buyer saw the items on a co-worker’s desk, marveled that they “looked like a beauty brand” and decided it was worth adding them to the company’s online marketplace.
Cristina Nuñez, co-founder of True Beauty Ventures, a venture firm that invested in Maude, said the products are made with the “shelfie” in mind, meaning people can feel proud and comfortable showing off the items on a photo on social media. media.
“We joked that the vibe was something you could leave on your nightstand and not be embarrassed to have a vibrator on your nightstand,” she said. “There wouldn’t be that stigma around it because it wasn’t rude.”
It is difficult to estimate the size of the sexual wellness industry, especially as it can increasingly spill over into beauty products. Many of the key players are private companies, and neither Maude nor Dame wanted to share their sales figures. But Ms. Nuñez, who studied seven or eight similar brands before investing in Maude, said many of the companies her company had looked at had sales of “low single-digit millions” of dollars. She said she was optimistic about the path to tens of millions of dollars in revenue and more.
“The retail opening for these brands will help them get there,” said Ms. Nuñez, “because in the past they really could only get to that point through direct-to-consumer, and now they have multiple outlets, from mass , to prestige to luxury department store channels.”
