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Startups that focus on men's sexual health have been doing a brisk trade for several years. But while the early wave of tech companies primarily aimed at (easier) access to drugs to treat health problems like erectile dysfunction (e.g., and with some branching into broader telemedicine games over time (Ro) – has more recently the category is expanded to also draw attention to the mental health of men.
It is a welcome – and some might say long overdue – development.
Great Britain seems to be a kind of hotbed of entrepreneurial activity here. For example, back in September we reported on a seed round for Mojo based in the UK, a subscription service for the sexual wellbeing of men that touted therapy rather than pills as an answer to erectile dysfunction.
And while not exclusively for men, UK-based Paired offers couples therapy through an app.
Well, here's another UK-based subscription service with a holistic approach to men's sexual well-being and self-care – founded the same year as Mojo (2019): the similarly named Remojo has technical tools and in-app programs for Support Men With Sexual Health Problems – with an initial focus on helping people quit porn. (Hence & # 39; Re & # 39; mojo.)
Check out Remojo's website and their marketing soon implies that a number of benefits could result from quitting porn – not only saved time and attention, but better personal relationships and possibly even a health solution Problems like erectile dysfunction. So there seems to be a lot of overlap in this burgeoning area of male sexual wellbeing.
Aside from price differences (Remojo's subscription plans are cheaper than Mojo's), the initial difference seems to be mostly an emphasis; aka, how to interest men in the first place.
It seems to be a fair bet that more men consume porn than suffer from erectile dysfunction. Although Remojo's goal is men who want to both watch and quit porn. But sole founder, Jack Jenkins, quickly emphasizes that the subscription service is not just for men with porn addiction.
Rather, he says it is intended to address a whole spectrum of reasons men might want to quit pornography – from simply self-improvement (and wanting to have more control over what comes on their mind); for those who find that their porn consumption habits stand in the way of real life (and real relationships); for men with religious convictions who are ashamed of using porn, however seldom they do it, and who are looking for help in meeting a sought-after spiritual standard.
Per Jenkins, a key cohort of Remojos users are Christians, Muslims and Hindus who are looking for help to live up to religious ideals – and perhaps also looking for a non-judgmental support community for a topic that may be taboo for them in theirs usual social circles.
Remojo says it gets about 50,000 signups per month for its subscription programs (which cost $ 4.99 for a month; or less if you sign up for the 3 month or year plan) – with users from all over the world World (at least where internet access is easy) – reference to porn consumption is a very universal concern.
Currently Remojo's largest markets are the US, UK, Brazil and India. The app's content is in English, so it's growing in other English-speaking markets too, according to Jenkins. While the typical Remojo user is a man between the ages of 16 and 35 – also known as a digital native – who "grew up with instant access to porn anytime".
With such traction, unsurprisingly, it also attracts the interest of investors.
In the past 12 months, Remojo has raised £ 1.6 million (~ $ 2.1 million) in pre-seed funding from a number of business angels, including Jens Lapinski (former TechStars Berlin MD and CEO of Angel Invest) and Jag Singh (also from TechStars Berlin and Angel Invest), along with a number of other angels in the banking / finance sector and some (unnamed) founders who are involved.
It is now in the process of putting on a Series A, according to Jenkins – who says it targets £ 5 to 6 million (~ $ 6.7 million to $ 8 million) and expects to complete the round "by January" ( therefore he says that she will "probably" skip a seed and go straight to A).
Remojo's website touts quitting porn on what she calls a "90 day restart" – which is supposedly her most popular subscription plan.
If the technology really worked it would mean large users migrating every three months. But the stickiness and easy accessibility of online porn mean relapse is an eternal risk, and a blocker tool will likely always come in handy, argues Jenkins. So he doesn't sound at all concerned about the drying up of revenue (i.e., the success of his mission to get men to hard quit porn).
In-app courses are another way for Remojo to provide broader, sustained benefit and attraction – thus providing support for other aspects of men's sexual health and wellbeing; possibly associated with (and negatively influenced by) the consumption of porn (which, however, will not necessarily improve immediately when / when they stop).
Jenkins initially started the business himself, launching an MVP that allowed users to custom block content on their smartphones to cut off access to porn sources.
The software is now available for all devices, for Android, iOS, Windows and macOS. And there's a lot more to it than a simple adult content blocker that literally hinders access to online porn – like the behavior modification courses, CBT techniques, and a wider support community mentioned above.
Future functions in the work include the AI-controlled identification of porn content in order to improve the blocking / filtering ability of the software. The software will also be able to intervene in real time.
The current mix combines custom blocking with supporting resources.
“It's a mixture of a few things. You have done research on habit formation and breaking habits – with the knowledge and principles from this area. Our in-app content director [Noah Church] has been training people to break free from porn addiction for seven years – he has a YouTube channel offering courses and coaching [for years]"Jenkins told TechCrunch.
“One of the foundations of the app's structure is the“ election model ”- that was the recovery model developed by [Dr] Paula Hall – who was one of the foremost, if not the leading expert on porn and sex addiction in the United States Kingdom. "
Other parts that Remojo adds to his behavior change mix are practical user insights from the program; Access to an anonymous support community of others; and tools for users to track progress and help them stay engaged / accountable (e.g., an accountable partner and installation / PIN protection).
A core component of his program is to start the user with a full "restart" – otherwise known as a period of prolonged abstinence from porn consumption (with Remojo's blocking tools and accountability features clearly playing a key role). The idea is to help guys create space for alternative habits to develop – and here the suggestions for filling the void created by not using porn include things like mindfulness, exercise, and participating in (porn-free) hobbies.
Jenkins says the overarching goal is to change mindsets / patterns of thinking – and improving male selves in general – so the course content covers related / following areas, such as z).
Future course content is also expected to cover broader areas such as dating and helping improve relationship / sex life with a partner, as well as courses aimed at tailoring advice on specific religious beliefs.
"And for people who may be in a more difficult place [we offer help with] to build more fulfilling lives so they don't need something like porn to fill an emotional hole," he adds.
While some porn users may have deeper psychological problems associated with their use (such as childhood abuse), Jenkins argues that porn use itself may not mean more than a "convenient" release. So it is not always necessary to psychologize consumption.
The app therefore aims to avoid judgment – it focuses on simply helping men regain control of their time and attention. And, well, stick with the attention-grabbing porn industry.
“[Porn use is] not necessarily driven by any deep psychological problem – it is just very stimulating, very compulsive material that simply taps into and simply abducts the basic evolutionary urges of humans. So people can just end up watching porn because they're there and they're so compelling, ”he says.
“This problem is so widely shared. Basically, it is almost all men under 35 – anywhere in the world, religious, not religious. It's just a huge problem and it's very, very difficult to generalize, ”he adds of the appeal of porn. “You can have people who are addictive enough to watch porn 3-7 hours a day, to someone who may be Muslim and watch it once a month, but that's a huge problem for you because Islam has no tolerance for it. And it affects your self-esteem and separates you from God and so on.
“The spectrum is so broad that it is very difficult to generalize. I think what is really enjoyable for me and the team are all the different stories, comments and evaluations we get from people about how their lives are changing – and in different ways. "
Zoom out for a second, concern about watching porn online has occupied the UK government for more than a decade at this point – one that is now driving ministers to implement comprehensive online safety laws fueled by concern about that Harm caused to children by simple access to inappropriate content on the Internet.
Remojo's premise is similarly that when guys are exposed to limitless porn from a very young age, they later run into problems with a range of sexual wellbeing issues (and well, 50,000 men a month suggest it is on something.)
A previous attempt by the UK government to require age verification for access to adult websites failed in 2019 after backlash over security and privacy concerns and the feasibility of introducing and regulating age verification.
Guys who opt for their own custom porn blocker and support the community (for a fee) to quit certainly looks a lot easier to implement.
Jenkins says he came up with the idea for an app-based support tool for giving up porn after making the decision to switch himself – not because he was addicted to porn but as "a conscious choice, better." to live and to be my absolute best ”.
While looking for support to quit porn himself, he came across subreddits with over a million users who were also looking for the same type of support – and from then on he began to see the scale of the problem and the potential business opportunities .
"I started by completely removing porn from my life and looking for something to just put a guardrail in place – and just block it and filter out all that content on phones and computers, and it really wasn't all Good ones out there, ”he says. “As a bit of an entrepreneur, I started digging deeper into the problem – I thought I couldn't be the only one who wanted to or feel that way – so I started reaching people on Reddit through DMs who were active through quitting porn or porn addiction or just talking about problems with porn and how it affects their lives.
"I started doing interviews with them and was blown away by – one – how many people were talking about it on Reddit. So there are roughly 1.3 million people in subreddits who are basically just devoting themselves to giving up porn. and then also how eager they were to speak to me and share all kinds of personal stories and information and how desperately they were looking for a solution. "
"After that initial user discovery, I started working on it straight away – in December 2019 – because I'd never before seen such a level of problem validation for an idea I'd ever had," he adds.
“It started with blocking and then, over time, my understanding of the problem people face – and actually how to help them change behavior – break the habit or the addiction, just you Changing behavior and how you think – there is much more to it than just blocking. "
Just as Mojo hopes erectile dysfunction treatment can be a way to reach men with wider therapy offerings (including support for porn addiction), Remojo also intends to make its tools more extensive: Jenkins says it aims to replicating the app -based framework it develops for porn so it can be reshaped and applied to combat a range of "modern, behavioral, digital addictions and compulsions that no one really deals with" – from online Gambling via social media up to computer game addiction.
“We will use our framework to help people to stop gambling, to stop compulsive gambling and also to reduce or cut back on social media. These will be separate brands, but using the same technology and framework to guide people towards better habits or even total abstinence from these things, ”he says. “The exact same framework applies – we would only really change the in-app courses. But the rest of the system is exactly the same in terms of what works in changing habits, changing behavior, and overcoming those digital addictions. ”
So maybe – ultimately – Remojo will also build products that are geared towards women.
(It is also another sign of how negatively attitudes towards social media have been skewed that giving up porn and giving up Facebook are expressed in the same breath.)
Another development on his roadmap is creating his own custom operating system – one that is minimalist in nature and aims to give the user control over all of the digital things that try to devour his attention.
"We want to develop a custom operating system for Android phones and also for desktop devices," he tells us, saying that it will use part of the upcoming Series A funding to start work on it with the goal of "releasing a handset". for digital minimalists with all these digital wellness controls that are integrated into the operating system itself. "
The plan for the next 12 months – if Remojo expects to be overflowing with Series A cash – will also be to call his messages.
In this context, Jenkins says it wants to "start a global conversation" in order to change many more opinions about porn use – and to try to normalize the idea of quitting porn so that it is so "vanilla" and unobtrusive becomes like a person who says they don't drink or smoke.
“With Series A we will try to break the taboo around the topic. And make this normal and generally accepted by saying that you don't drink, smoke, eat meat, and so on. Make this lifestyle choice an acceptable mainstream topic or choice, ”he adds.
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