打造成人玩具的女人

    作为这个领域内的一位女性设计师，你觉得自己有优势吗？

    我想这给了我一项优势。当然，我的身体构造也是。开个玩笑。哦，不，不是真的这样。成人玩具市场虽然有很多是女用玩具，但基本上都是男性构想出来的。这一行没有太多像我这样的人。我是真得绘制产品设计图，打印3D模型，进行人种调查和访问。

    从创业变成共同创始人，这个过程怎么样？

    案头工作可能是增加了。但从筹集大量资金和进行风投推介来看，我认为自己并不是硅谷严格意义上的创业家。这是迈克和我联手的一个重要原因。

    必须要说，作为Crave的一位共同创始人，这个转变非常自然，我的理念没有打折扣。

    你如何根据这各理念来凝聚员工？

    事实上这比你想得要容易多了。我们这里有不到6个人，实习生和其他喜欢我们这项事业的人们总是不断地来来去去。我们希望招募的人员积极主动。为什么成人用品不能像打印机和笔记本电脑那样有着高质量的设计？

    你面临的一些问题可能是打印机和笔记本电脑生产厂商从未遇到过的，是吗？

    有些人认为，成人玩具意味着你身处色情行业，事实并非如此。必须承认，我父母刚刚听说的时候也是这么想的。幸运的是，后来他们基本上不再纠结。我开一家公司时，我母亲就非常支持我。我父亲非常犹豫。

    这个行业正在发生变化，但当你说出“成人玩具”时，人们立刻会想到的是超大阴茎，不会认为这是一款奢侈的玩具。不会自然而然地产生这种想法。

    作为一个企业领导人，你如何在这样一个遮遮掩掩或被人诟病的市场中发展？

    我们最初创立这家公司时就进行了一个众筹项目。我们曾经想在Kickstarter上为我们的（成人玩具）Duet筹资，结果遭到回绝。因此，我们转向另一家更加注重设计的众筹网站。我们在Techcrunch和Gizmodo上引发的关注令我惊讶。最高峰时，我们每分钟都会收到一条微博。从这件事，我也意识到了人们的期待。我们打造了有史以来第一款众筹成人玩具。如果我们没有做这个项目，我可能也不太相信。

    如今，我们有很多的粉丝邮件。人们很高兴看到我们正在做的事情。（财富中文网）

    译者：早稻米

    Do you feel like you have an advantage as a female designer in this space?

    I think it gives me an advantage. Anatomically also. Just kidding. Well no, not really. In the sex toy industry, even though a lot of these toys are for women, they're pretty much conceived by men. In this space, there just haven't been too many people like me. I'm actually CAD-ing products, printing 3-D models, and also doing the ethnographies and interviews.

    What is it like to move from entrepreneur to co-founder?

    More paperwork, probably. But I really don't think of myself as an entrepreneur in the strict Valley sense in terms of raising tons of money and doing VC pitches. That's one of the main reasons Michael and I joined forces.

    I would say, as a co-founder of Crave, it was a very natural transition in that I didn't feel like my philosophy was being compromised at all.

    How do you rally a team of employees around that philosophy?

    It's actually a lot easier than you think. We have less than half a dozen people here plus a constant revolving door of interns and people who just love what we do. The people that we tend to attract are motivated because they believe there's no reason why there shouldn't be just as well-designed sex toys as there are printers and laptops.

    Do you still face some hurdles that makers of printers and laptops don't?

    Some people think sex toys mean you're in the porn industry, and that's just not the case. I have to admit, my parents did think that when I first told them. Luckily, they kind of got over that. My mom was so on board with me having my first company. My dad was a lot more hesitant.

    This industry is changing, but still, when you say "sex toy," immediately people think of huge dongs, they don't think there's such a thing as luxury toys. That's not a natural search term.

    How, as a business leader, do you work within a hidden or stigmatized market?

    When we first started the company, we did a crowdfunding project. We wanted to fund our [sex toy] Duet on Kickstarter but we were not actually allowed on the site. So we went to another more design-centric crowdfunding site. And I was shocked at the kind of coverage we got on Techcrunch and Gizmodo. At our peak, we were getting one tweet a minute. That was one of the things that made me realize people are looking for this. We actually made the first sex toy to be crowdfunded ever. Had we not done the project, I would have been a lot less sure.

    Now, we get quite a lot of fan mail. People are really glad that we're doing what we're doing.