When the Lora DiCarlo wagon finally arrives, the rolling glass box’s back door opens and another journalist pops out to get on his way. The sex tech company has a week packed full with 20-minute rolling interviews with a curious tech press. No time to spare; I step up, sit down, and we’re on our way.
Driving down the Las Vegas Strip in a transparent box is a curious, extremely Vegas experience: puzzled tourists and confused CES attendees gawk from the sidewalks. Four of us are sitting in a makeshift living room with fuzzy white carpet: CEO Lora Haddock, Enzo Ferrari Drift DiCarlo (her fuzzy black-and-white Pomeranian), and a colleague, who holds Enzo in their lap. A four-foot-tall faux sex toy sits in a corner, swaying occasionally.
It’s been a hell of a year since the sex tech startup was at the center of a firestorm after the CTA unceremoniously revoked its Innovation Award. By July, the CES organizer found itself eating crow via a press release and agreed to allow sex tech companies to exhibit on a “one-year trial bias,” spreading them out amongst the broader category of health tech at the show’s Eureka Park startup exhibit space.
For Lora DiCarlo, the whole kerfuffle has proven more blessing than curse. Both of the company’s new sex toys debuting at the show — Baci and Onda — were named CES Honoree Innovations. Haddock is clearly happy to both bask in the press coverage and serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the industry’s interaction with the CTA.
We spent the ride from Mirage to the Venetian discussing the past year and the future of women’s sex tech.
I was going to lead with a question about how the CES is different, but…
Yeah, it’s different. The fact that last year we weren’t even allowed to be here. When they gave us our award, it afforded us the ability to actually have a really important conversation about sexual health and wellness and the importance of that and how it intersects with technology. So, it’s nice to be here to actually see sex tech here, and it’s done in a really respectful, very healthy, inclusive manner.
Is there more sex tech at the show this year? I was walking around and there were definitely pockets I didn’t see before.
The CTA actually came to us and we actually had a dialogue about including it in the show. And Karen Chunka actually called me directly and said, “can we have a sex tech section?” And my response was “absolutely not.” I think we view sexual health and wellness and female sexual health and wellness as being very sacred. And it’s also a part of health and wellness. That’s just what it is.
How much of the [this year’s] inclusion is due to the pushback?
Exactly this time last year was the award incident. It just set that whole thing off. And we saw several incidences this last year that were similar to that with companies like Lioness at Samsung at the Women in Tech event in San Francisco. I think what happened, like I said, it was a catalyst we saw groundswell and now we’re starting to see the tidal waves. And I know that this is supposed to be the trial run, the trial year. I would be really surprised if they didn’t allow sex tech back next year.
What’s the fear of have these sorts of products at the show?
They wanted to center and curate the content a little bit. Nobody wants to see a ton of lecherous-looking companies all lined up next to each other.
The AVN show did start at CES.
Exactly. And I have the same fear. There’s a part of me that can’t blame them for just being cautious about it. I want to see sex tech that is truly innovative. There’s a lot of sex tech that isn’t. It’s just the same thing wrapped in a different package, a different color. I want to see stuff that’s really innovative, that’s helping people, that’s gathering data, that’s listening to people. We actually did a survey of over 1500 people this year and asked them, what do you want? What do you want to see? How do you like to communicate with your partner? How do you like to be touched and what helps you explore your body more? So, we started creating products that spoke to that survey, spoke to that feedback and the products that we see in the companies we see right now.
You mentioned data collection, which is obviously a hot button topic in like people are worried about what Alexa is listening to. This is some of the most sensitive subject for a lot of people. How do you ensure that you’re able to track data or analyze data without crossing or compromising?
We actually don’t have an app yet and I’ll tell you why in a second. But we wanted to collect data from willing people that understood, that wanted to understand more about the communication they’re having with their partners, how sexual health actually impacts their health and wellness. Where data collection is concerned, we haven’t integrated an app yet. We are actually going to be kicking off the project this year. In order to do that and the reason we haven’t done it yet is because we don’t have any experts in privacy. We’re experts in robotics and engineering and we make an amazing product. I want to make sure that when we cross that line that we know exactly what we’re doing and do it right the first time because I’ve seen so many projects go completely wrong and products go to market that have done it completely wrong. And it’s not just bad apps and a bad user interface, it’s mishandling of data and data privacy. We want to make sure that if we’re going to go in that direction, that we do it the right way and that we treat everybody the way that we view human sexuality, which is completely sacred.
Can I get a guarantee that you’re not going to be selling this or offering any of this data to a third party?
Like I said, we haven’t even kicked that off yet, but absofuckinglutely not. I find that abhorrent.
A year on, does it feel like what happened last year that it’s been a net positive?
Absolutely. It just opened up the opportunity to have a really healthy dialogue about the importance of sexual health. And like I said, you see all these companies here now and it’s actually kind of satisfying knowing that they’re trying to do it the right way. It’s done respectfully and we’re seeing all these companies here that are bringing legitimate technology to the world’s hub of innovation at CES.
Where do you draw the line? What do you consider legitimate or illegitimate when it comes to this category?
In sex tech, we’ve been basically just revolving the same technology over and over again for the past 80 years, and that’s vibrators. It’s tired, it’s old, it’s done. They basically put that into different packaging over and over again, wrapped it in a different color, put some rhinestones on it, call it innovative. That’s not innovative. What we’re doing is absolutely innovative. Understanding more about physiology is innovative. Working something intimate into a piece of beautiful jewelry, that’s innovative. Understanding how biomimicry can help you understand more about your own body and understand where your pleasure points are and feel just more comfortable in your own skin, that’s innovative. And I think that there are a lot of avenues that we can explore that are innovative. But there’s a way that we can do it that’s helping and respectful and doesn’t demoralize human beings.
When you’re hiring somebody with a PhD in AI and robotics, is there a stigma? Is it that a difficult conversation? Is it hard to get people to come over to work on a sex toy?
We’ve been very specific about recruiting. So we go out and we find folks that are really qualified for the particular positions that we’re filling. And we always make sure and pre-qualify and make sure that they’re a cultural fit before we even really start getting into the interview. So, I’ve had a lot of interviews where they’re actually… They’re like, “oh my God, this is the coolest company and we can’t wait to come to work.” And some people, honestly maybe only three people in the last year that were not uncomfortable, they were just like, “meh, it’s a company, it’s a project, it’s engineering, it’s what I do.” And to be honest, I want that really good, tight cultural fit. And we’ve got such a great team, everybody works really well together.
