es. Following that, I worked at a dating start-up called Grouper. IR: What inspired you to launch Unbound Babes? PR: I was around really active groups in New York that were specifically trying to promote femme and nonbinary entrepreneurship, and I met my co-founder, Sarah Jayne Kinney, through one of thosegroups. Actually, she was the one who presented this idea about how painful a process it is to buy these [sexual wellness] products for the first time. I really related to it in a lot of ways because I had gonethrough a cancer diagnosis when I was 21 years old [which resulted in early-onset menopause]. I had a less-than-ideal shopping experience when trying to buy lubricant and a vibrator while goingthrough radiation treatment and chemotherapy. It was the first time that I was faced with the reality of what it’s like to navigate your sexual health as a femme or nonbinary [person] or any marginalisedidentity in the world. At the time, we were really close to a lot of the early direct-to-consumer (DTC) start-ups, like Casper, Warby Parker and Glossier, and a lot of the people who worked for them. It just seemed really obvious to us that there was this huge opportunity to use the tools of DTC for an industry that, for a very long time, has been predominantly run by older white men and family businesses that have existed for 50 to 100years. Oftentimes, that leads to a lack of innovation, a lack of femme and nonbinary leaders and founders in the space. And the products that were available [then] really reflected that lack of diversity. So wedecided to start the business in 2014. IR: What challenges did you encounter in your journey to launch? PR: When you’re a first-time founder, especially a first-time female founder, you don’t have that same network – from people who have done this before, to investors who will stick their neck out for you andintroduce you to a banking lender. Honestly, we took out a bunch of credit cards, which was terrifying, because in the beginning, we didn’t have the money to make our own products. We sold third-party products through an e-commerce website, where we created a lot of educational content that was compelling, and the business very slowly started to scale and grow. We spent a lot of time talking to our customers, who were really evangelical about the brand, and despite all the doubt that we got from external sources, we knew that our customers loved what we were doing. Ultimately, that was what mattered. IR: What sets Unbound Babes apart from other sexual wellness retailers in the industry? PR: Our two biggest demographics are Gen Z and Millennials, so we tend to skew a little bit younger. We are also focused on affordability and wanted to make all the products under $100. Our social mediapresence is very different – we really lean into memes. I think humour is the best lubricant because it allows people to be a little bit more vulnerable. IR: How has the sexual wellness industry shifted since Unbound Babes launched almost a decade ago? PR: You started to see better-designed products that use body-safe materials. In the United States, vibrators are not regulated by the FDA, despite the fact you’re using them on one of the most absorbent parts of your body. The other thing that happened was the Viagra patent expired, and all these erectile dysfunction companies, namely Hims and Roman, were raising hundreds of millions of dollars, so all of a sudden, there was a lot more focus on sex tech as a sector, which had been underdeveloped for a long time. Last, but not least, would be the pop-culture component, starting with Sex and the City in the ’90s and the ‘rabbit’ vibrator. It is still one of the best-selling vibrators because of the show. You also had Fifty Shades of Grey, which was a huge watershed moment, when BDSM became something that was going mainstream. Then you had Broad City. There have been a lot of pop culture moments that have influenced the narrative around sex, for better or worse. It wasn’t one specific thing; it was a lot of littlethings that happened. IR: What are your top areas of focus for the next 12 months? PR: For now, we’re focused on continuing to innovate in product design, expanding our product selection, and hopefully expanding our presence with some of our retail partners – such as Revolve, Beauty Bay,Amazon, etc – which have been amazing. Urban Outfitters truly put a stake in the ground and said, ‘We are going to sell in this category.’ We’re really grateful to them because they’ve helped destigmatise the category quite a bit. IR: Where do you think the white space is in the sexual wellness industry right now? PR: Hopefully, we’ll see more innovation that caters to more specific identities across gender, sex – myriad things. Right now, sex toys for men are more stigmatised than they are for women. For a long time, men felt like sex toys were going to replace them or something. My co-founder always uses the analogy of an ice-cream sundae – why wouldn’t you want the sprinkles? The ice cream is still going to be great, the sprinkles just make it a little bit better. This story first appeared in the September 2023 issue of Inside Retail US magazine.