Zivity, an adult social network, raises $1M before launch
Zivity, a new adult social network start-up, has raised a $1 million round of seed capital from Silicon Valley investors — as it prepares for launch.
It’s not a porn site, such as the newer sites Eroshare (pictures) or Pornotube (vidoes). Rather, it likens itself to a mixture of MySpace and Playboy magazine with popularity/voting features thrown in. It says it focuses on pinup-like photography, or so-called “fine art erotica.” It invites regular woman — such as the local Starbucks barista — to submit photo shots.
Zivity is based on voting system. Paying subscribers vote on the images of women they like, and Zivity passes on a portion of the subscription revenue to the most popular women. There will be some free content to lure users, however you’ll have to subscribe to do things like leave messages for models. There will be blogs, and other social networking features, but video will be rolled out much later, if at all, according to the company.
A representative said a comparable site is Suicide Girls (brace yourself if you click on the link), only with fewer tattoos, less tongue-rings. Models will also not be as locked into the extensive contracts governing the Suicide Girls.
Several former PayPal executives are among the investors. Zivity is run by former execs and employees at Ironport Systems, a company bought by Cisco for $830 million earlier this year. When you’ve made it, what else is there left to do in life than launch an adult site? Jeffrey Wescott, an former Ironport engineer, is chief executive; Cyan Banister, who led Ironport’s customer support, is co-founder. Her husband Scott Banister, co-founder at Ironport is an advisor and investor in the company.
It is apparently based on ruby+rails, python, and/or perl, according to its job list.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
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http://xavier-vespa.com/2008/07/08/will-zivity-become-the-hbo-of-the-internet-cyan-banister-zivity-invites-here/ Xavier Vespa – Will Zivity Become the HBO of the Internet? Cyan Banister, Zivity (+ invites here)
