打造成人玩具的女人
????作為這個(gè)領(lǐng)域內(nèi)的一位女性設(shè)計(jì)師,你覺得自己有優(yōu)勢(shì)嗎? ????我想這給了我一項(xiàng)優(yōu)勢(shì)。當(dāng)然,我的身體構(gòu)造也是。開個(gè)玩笑。哦,不,不是真的這樣。成人玩具市場(chǎng)雖然有很多是女用玩具,但基本上都是男性構(gòu)想出來的。這一行沒有太多像我這樣的人。我是真得繪制產(chǎn)品設(shè)計(jì)圖,打印3D模型,進(jìn)行人種調(diào)查和訪問。 ????從創(chuàng)業(yè)變成共同創(chuàng)始人,這個(gè)過程怎么樣? ????案頭工作可能是增加了。但從籌集大量資金和進(jìn)行風(fēng)投推介來看,我認(rèn)為自己并不是硅谷嚴(yán)格意義上的創(chuàng)業(yè)家。這是邁克和我聯(lián)手的一個(gè)重要原因。 ????必須要說,作為Crave的一位共同創(chuàng)始人,這個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)變非常自然,我的理念沒有打折扣。 ????你如何根據(jù)這各理念來凝聚員工? ????事實(shí)上這比你想得要容易多了。我們這里有不到6個(gè)人,實(shí)習(xí)生和其他喜歡我們這項(xiàng)事業(yè)的人們總是不斷地來來去去。我們希望招募的人員積極主動(dòng)。為什么成人用品不能像打印機(jī)和筆記本電腦那樣有著高質(zhì)量的設(shè)計(jì)? ????你面臨的一些問題可能是打印機(jī)和筆記本電腦生產(chǎn)廠商從未遇到過的,是嗎? ????有些人認(rèn)為,成人玩具意味著你身處色情行業(yè),事實(shí)并非如此。必須承認(rèn),我父母剛剛聽說的時(shí)候也是這么想的。幸運(yùn)的是,后來他們基本上不再糾結(jié)。我開一家公司時(shí),我母親就非常支持我。我父親非常猶豫。 ????這個(gè)行業(yè)正在發(fā)生變化,但當(dāng)你說出“成人玩具”時(shí),人們立刻會(huì)想到的是超大陰莖,不會(huì)認(rèn)為這是一款奢侈的玩具。不會(huì)自然而然地產(chǎn)生這種想法。 ????作為一個(gè)企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人,你如何在這樣一個(gè)遮遮掩掩或被人詬病的市場(chǎng)中發(fā)展? ????我們最初創(chuàng)立這家公司時(shí)就進(jìn)行了一個(gè)眾籌項(xiàng)目。我們?cè)?jīng)想在Kickstarter上為我們的(成人玩具)Duet籌資,結(jié)果遭到回絕。因此,我們轉(zhuǎn)向另一家更加注重設(shè)計(jì)的眾籌網(wǎng)站。我們?cè)赥echcrunch和Gizmodo上引發(fā)的關(guān)注令我驚訝。最高峰時(shí),我們每分鐘都會(huì)收到一條微博。從這件事,我也意識(shí)到了人們的期待。我們打造了有史以來第一款眾籌成人玩具。如果我們沒有做這個(gè)項(xiàng)目,我可能也不太相信。 ????如今,我們有很多的粉絲郵件。人們很高興看到我們正在做的事情。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)) ????譯者: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. |