Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourself and your product!
Annika Breu, Oh my! Fantasy: I’m Annika (27) and the founder of Oh my! Fantasy. It was during my studies that I worked on a project at CDTM (Center for Digital Technology and Management) and came into contact with the sexual wellness market and it fascinated me right away. After three years of consulting at Bain, I took the plunge into self-employment: In collaboration with experienced sex coaches, we offer exciting couple fantasies in the form of love letters with specific instructions for both partners – and, if desired, with the matching erotic accessories and love toys in a love box.
“Pleasure is your birthright”
According to the motto “pleasure is your birthright,” it is important to me to create a space where feminine desire can fully develop. This is what makes the approach of Oh My! Fantasy so different from any kind of pornographic material, which still often determines how we see sexuality. The Date Night series ranges from sensual experiences like slow sex or oral lip service through to playful erotic adventures like body painting or hot photo shoots or more intense experiences like bondage or an intro to anal play. The range of erotic adventures is always being expanded.
Munich Startup: It’s possible to buy “Fantasy Cards” in your shop – are further products planned?
Annika Breu: The Fantasy Cards are the beginning: Customers can also order the matching erotic accessories and love toys in a love box. A stop along the journey to your own desire are the pleasure rituals of our sex coaches – which are currently held online with Zoom in your own living room. These workshops are a magical place to bathe in self love and to connect with your own desires. They are usually held offline, but are now online due to corona. And this actually makes it much easier to get involved: You can decide if you want the video or audio on or off. I’ve also just recently started to offer the format #Pleasuretalk on IGTV: This is where I talk with experts about interesting topics involved with pleasure, which is an important element for being able to talk about these subjects openly.
Munich Startup: What was your biggest challenge so far?
Annika Breu: With Oh my! Fantasy, we are advocating open communication about sex and desire in a relationship – which is still very taboo. I slightly underestimated how taboo it actually is, perhaps because I live in a “bubble” that is very open about these subjects. But that’s what I’m here to fight for! In the US, the whole field of sex, love and relationship coaching is much more advanced than in Germany – but I think that awareness about it is gradually increasing here as well and that’s it’s extremely important to talk about your own preferences in a relationship. Part of a fulfilling relationship is for both partners to share their intimate wishes and desires with each other and to constantly learn new things about each other.
Advertising on Instagram isn’t easy
When couples are able to clearly articulate their preferences in bed, then they also communicate better about everyday matters: Open and honest communication creates intimacy, which leads to trust and closeness – two important ingredients for a happy relationship. Large platforms, however, have strict regulations when it comes to sexual content: In December, Instagram made the rules even more stringent. That doesn’t make advertising easy. But we’re still thinking creatively in the area and hope that these restrictions will fade away as society opens up to it more.
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Annika Breu: In the first six months, we developed our first “basic range” of couple fantasies. Testing the fantasies was extremely important. We have a “test pool” of couples who try out every fantasy and give us feedback before it’s launched. That’s how we make sure that sparks really fly on date night and that they could really delve into the experience. The reactions have been extremely encouraging and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback from women in particular. The demand for our couple fantasies really picked up during Christmas time and we’ve shipped roughly 200 couple fantasies so far. So things have really gotten off to a good start. That motivates me to keep going and to expand our product offer. Lockdown is a particularly good time to put some effort into a date night at home and keep relationships exciting.
Munich Startup: What does Munich mean to you?
Annika Breu: I’m a true Munich native. I went to college here and also built my network here. Munich is a great city for startups because there’s a strong and supportive community here. The universities are also very active and support entrepreneurship. During my time at the LMU Accelerator, I really benefitted from talking with other startups – which is of particular importance at a time when networking events are no longer held and you can only communicate virtually.
Munich Startup: How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we be seeing you at an Epic Fail Night soon?
Annika Breu: We think our product is a hot one and has the potential to help a whole lot of people on their journey to a fulfilling relationship with themselves and their partners. And then there’s the fact that we’re one of the first companies in this new market – the timing is good. On top of that, pleasure is indeed a universal subject, so it might certainly be interesting for couples in other countries to try out something new in bed? So I’ll take the unicorn option, please!
Munich Startup: Quick exit or staying power?
Annika Breu: Staying power. Giving up isn’t an option, because the subject is too important. The goal is to initiate a journey of discovery to one’s own desires and to fully develop one’s own pleasure potential. And that’s important for our entire lives!