Introducing Virginia Cerrone, the co-founder of Pureeros, as part of our Sextech Salon Series, on setting up the e-boutique for female pleasure and intimacy!
What is Pureeros and how did you get into it?
Pureeros is the e-boutique for female pleasure and intimacy. A platform dedicated to women where they can find relevant solutions for their pleasure, whether it’s with a product or content. We also run the first online mag totally dedicated to sexuality called vibesweek.com
Evren Inangiray and I got into it working hard against all the taboos and obstacles sextech companies have to face. The idea was born in London over a glass of wine. I started a conversation about female pleasure and the fact that majority of sex toys were ugly and communicated with a male POV on sexuality – and this didn’t really make any sense to me since women are their primary target audience.
When I spotted the sextech industry for the first time and saw a big success in it’s crowdfunding… it just clicked. I remember Evren saying: we’ll be the Net-a-Porter of pleasure.
What was your sex education like growing up?
Close to zero from school. I’m Italian and Italy sadly has not compulsory sexed whatsoever in schools. My parents used to give me books and since I got my first period at 10 I started soon to get close to my body and understand how it works. I’ve always been curious about sexuality and I got info from books. I remember having all my friends and friends of friends coming and asking a variety of questions and sharing personal things with me. That was amazing!
When it comes to sex, what’s the one thing you wish everyone knew?
Sex is pleasurable and must be consensual.
What is your vision for the future of Pureeros?
We want to be the market leader for high-end pleasure innovations. Not only for consumers, who are becoming more demanding and focused on experiences, but also for brands.
Sextech has been driven by women in the past 5 years and they are creating wonderful high performing, in-design tech products. These products deserve the right platform to sell them.
They have nothing less than an I-Watch or a luxury accessory, why sell them on platforms that are not matching their positioning?! Today brands also have an alternative: Pureeros!
What are the key trends you’re seeing at the moment that influence your work?
We are focusing on Italian market at the moment where there is so much work to do in terms of overcoming taboos. The current government is going in the opposite direction of inclusion, equal rights and respect.
Sadly this is also happening in other countries, so I think we must insist now to give Italian women a different point of view and an inclusive alternative. So far, VibesWeek and Pureeros have received amazing media coverage and comments. Even though this seems to be just happening on the surface, backstage sex toys sales are growing fast. Italian players have seen +50% sales every year in just the past 3 years.
What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had since starting to work in sextech?
When I see people positively surprised looking at Pureeros and saying “it really looks like Net-a-Porter” or “it seems like a normal lux e-com”, it’s like they have never thought about sex. Pleasure can be far removed from the flashy pink and black explicit shop. It can be elegant too.
What do you think is the next big step for sextech?
We are trying to be more mainstream, but in the right way. We still face censorship by big public or private companies. Governments and advertising don’t even stop and have a look at the fact that we are not vulgar or explicit, they just say no because they read “sex”.
If we get the right tone and message, it’s a lie that people aren’t ready. It’s the institutions and governments who aren’t.
Who else in the industry do you admire or look up to?
I love the Women of Sextech! A wonderful community of amazing strong women, we are really fighters. You guys at MysteryVibe, and so many other great examples really inspire us!
Thanks for chatting to us Virginia! We love what you are doing too!
