The Munich-based sextech startup Beducated wants to improve the sexual lives of their customers with online courses. The founding couple Mariah Freya and Phil Steinweber answered our 7 questions.
Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourselves and your business!
Beducated: We’re Mariah & Phil, we’re a married couple in our 30s. Like so many, we had a pretty underwhelming love life due to our busy lifestyle. Unlike most other couples, she became a Sex Coach, and not a lot later we started the company. With beducated.com we bring more WOW between the sheets and help couples and individuals to improve their sexual happiness.
Beducated is basically the Netflix of Sexual Education, where we offer online trainings for all kinds of love life related techniques and practices. From sensual massages, pelvic floor trainings, to more kinky things.
Munich Startup: But that’s already been done!
Beducated: Yeah well, one can learn those things in the offline world, that’s true. But the barrier of entry of visiting a basement studio in Berlin, or flying to Bali for a Tantra workshop, are rather high. Plus, you never know what to expect in physical encounters, and how boundaries are being handled.
That’s why we bring this topic into the online world, where our students can stream the education straight into their personal space — their bedrooms.
Sextech and Sexual Wellness are on the rise, but what often gets lost – but in our experience has the highest leverage — is education and communication. No piece of vibrating silicone can have the transformation that education has to offer.
Sextech suffers from a stigma
Munich Startup: What was your biggest challenge so far?
Beducated: Even though everyone of us is a product of sex, the topic still suffers from a certain stigma. We can see that for example when searching employees. (We’re Hiring!)
It’s also an issue with the current dependencies on big platforms. For example, Facebook as an ad platform, or the Apple Appstore. There’s only one box for “sexual content” in their terms of services, which puts the same restrictions as on pornography also on us — an education platform. We hope to see this vanished with society open up more and more.
Munich Startup: Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: How is business going?
Beducated: Actually, super exciting! Until today we have enrolled more than 12,000 paying students into our courses. Which shows us we’re creating something that people actually want and pay for.
We’ve used this bootstrapped proof of concept to recently raise a Seed Round and are glad that investors also believe in the potential of sexual wellness online trainings.
It’s now on us to show that we can scale and professionalize our product.
Beducated: “We have a really hot product”
Munich Startup: What does Munich mean to you?
Beducated: We’re really passionate about this city. Mariah moved to Munich when she was 10, meanwhile Phil grew up on the Bavarian countryside. While we’ve spent our twenties traveling to other countries and being Digital Nomads, we consciously chose Munich to settle down again.
We think it’s a great city for entrepreneurs and startups. While space is scarce and prices are high, Munich forces you to hustle and get results quickly. No time to idle around with an idea in mind, you need to execute.
People keep telling us that with our topic and B2C focus we should be in Berlin. We respectfully decline and show them pictures of the Isar and the mountains.
Munich Startup: How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we be seeing you at an Epic Fail Night soon?
Beducated: We’re not delirious and aware that with any startup, statistically, the chances go more towards Epic Fail Night. However, we believe we have a really hot (hihi!) product and are one of the first movers in this new market. Plus, the timing is great, and we have a really smart team and investors. And did we mention that our biggest market is the US and that our product is easy to localize? So, with those two facts, we’re having the unicorn option, please!
Munich Startup: Isar or English Garden?
Beducated: Isar! We used to live close to Isar and will always have this special Feierabend connection with it. That being said, who doesn’t like the English Garden. We’re grateful to have both!