Do you want to spice up the bedroom without paying for pills or unpleasant visits to a sex therapist? With a new app called Lover, you can take a sexual personality quiz, explore tutorials on carnal knowledge, and discreetly find out what activations you share with your partner. Lover was trained by the board certified clinical psychologist for sexual medicine, Dr. Britney Blair, develops and launches on iOS today with $ 5 million in seed capital from Tinder founder Sean Rad and other investors.
"It is strange that there are such taboos in sex if it is something we all do … whether we are enjoying ourselves or not. We think it's time to start talking about this important aspect of our health, ”says Dr. Blair. "We believe that lovers can help build trust, facilitate communication, improve partner relationships, and raise awareness of sex and sexuality."
A fixed portion of Lover's content is free for the first seven days, including audio guides for oral sex, video explanations of how to be generous in bed, and multi-level “playlists” of content such as “Getting Hard, Made Easy”. Lover charges $ 9.99 per month or $ 59.99 per year for continued access to thematic teaching materials such as “Coreplay Not Foreplay” and “Fantasy To Reality” that are recommended based on the results of your sexual questionnaire.
"Almost 50% of women and 40% of men have a sexual complaint. , , (but) most people don't know how common and treatable their problems are, ”says Dr. Blair. "In our (pre-launch tests) 62% of users focused exclusively on erectile dysfunction and said they improved their erections within three weeks of using the app. This is pretty wild if you think Viagra's effectiveness rate is around 65% and only lasts five hours. "
Startups like digital pharmacy Ro have already made a $ 500 million mark 18 months after launch by prescribing and selling men's health drugs like Viagra. The lover sees a market for education-based alternative approaches to sexual wellbeing.
Lover co-founder (from left): Jas Bagniewski, Dr. Britney Blair and Nick Pendle
Dr. Blair became interested in the room a decade ago after a lecture at Stanford Grad School highlighted how often sexual problems occur but how quickly they can be resolved through learning and communication. She teamed up with her CEO Jas Bagniewski, manager of Europe's largest e-commerce business, Zalando in the UK, and founder of City Deal, which was sold to Groupon. Bagniewski and his co-founder Lover, Nick Pendle, founded the European Casper mattress competitor Eve Sleep and brought her to the IPO.
It is planned to Combine Blair’s teaching materials with Bagniewski’s and Pendle’s ecommerce offerings to monetize lovers through subscriptions and ultimately recommend products such as sex toys for purchase. Now they have $ 5 million in seed capital led by Lerer Hippeau, along with Manta Ray Ventures, Oliver Samwers Global Founders Capital, Fabrice Grinda and Jose Marin. The money goes towards building an Android app and adding games that partners can play together in bed.
There are many random sex tip websites. The lover tries to differentiate himself by personalizing content based on the results of a Myers-Briggs-like quiz. This asks you how adventurous, communicative and assertive you are. You will then get a classification like "The Muse" with some explanation pages that show, for example, how you want to inspire others while being the center of attention.
From there, Lover can suggest instructions on how to master your own sexual personality or branch into new behavior patterns. There's also a feature copied from another app called XConfessions to find out what you and your partner like. You connect your apps and then delete questions, whether you want your partner to drip candle wax on you or whether your partner disguises himself as a strict policeman, separately with yes or no. If you and she match, the app will tell you both so you can try it out.
Overall, the content of Lover is much more valuable and compassionate than where most people learn about sex: pornography. A real sex doctor who monitors the app gives the lover credibility. And the design and tone make you feel strengthened rather than shabby.
Nevertheless, Dr. Blair to that "It is difficult to motivate people to change their behavior. They already have subscription apps on their cell phones and subscription fatigue can occur. People may feel natural paying for Viagra because the effects are obvious. The value of a subscription to sex tips seems too vague or redundant for what is free online.
In order for many users to open their wallets, not just their pants, Lover must better preview the background of the Paywall and offer more interactivity than online content lacks. But if it can give users an unforgettable night thanks to its advice, it may seduce them in the long run.