Team Pillow

Things are ramping up at Pillow HQ ready for our launch in Q1 2016.

We have a phenomenally passionate and talented team, a clear vision and a road map that, admittedly, is being laid brick by brick! ha! That’s the spirit, right?

I’ve admired how Buffer, aka Joel Gascoigne and co. have built a transparent and remote based business, and we aim to follow in their footsteps. It’s great to read about their journey and learn from their experiences.

In the spirit of openness, this is the email I sent out to our team a couple of weeks ago.

If you like what you hear, get in touch!

Subject: TEAM PILLOW.

Hey there Kate, Joe, Laura, Ana… aka TEAM PILLOW! :)

I hope that you’re all most excellent, wherever you are in the world.

Welcome to Pillow, I thought it was about time I sent an email introducing everyone to each other, as I’ve been working with you for weeks/months and things are about to start ramping up as we accelerate towards launch.

As you all know, I’ve been exploring this #SexTech space since the summer of last year. Listening, learning, talking, reading, practicing and researching to understand where there is market opportunity for a product that can positively affect the most number of lives possible. I believe we live in a world deprived of love, connection, sensuality and intimacy. There are so many other superficial distractions in our lives, and it’s about time we helped people get back to what’s important — stimulating the parts of our brain that are so intertwined with pleasure, peace and happiness.

Whether we like it or not, smartphones are taking over our lives, and swiftly becoming the most used content distribution medium. Building an app(s) that help couples be better together, I believe, is the best way we can positively influence millions of lives.

We’re at the very beginning of a decade long journey. I am so grateful that you guys believe in the vision and together, we can be that team who brings the practice and art of intimacy to as many bedrooms around the world as possible.

We’re genuinely innovating — no one has created a “follow along” intimacy app before us. We’re treading new ground — and there will be a lot to learn. That’s cool — we’re not going to get it right first time, but we’ll keep going and keep improving.

When I returned to London this Summer, I met one of the youngest (and super talented) practicing psychosexual therapists in the UK, Kate Moyle. Kate has helped craft the direction of this business, and no doubt has a lot to teach us all about intimacy and relationships over the coming months/years. I admire her on-going pursuit of growth, skill set, and recognise this talent as a partner in the business. Kate has/is writing episode content and will be acting as our inhouse-expert-therapist-sex-relationship-council. She’ll be our expert voice for blog posts, press interviews and getting stuck into all sorts!

Joe Green aka DEVELOPER. Joe & I studied software development & design together at Kent University in Canterbury a decade ago. Since then, I went down the design path, Joe went down the development path, and it’s been great coming back together to build v1 of Pillow. I’m looking forward to crafting a beautiful iPhone experience over the coming couple of months. Ask him about his guitar collection…

Ana Clara Otoni reached out to me back in July whilst she was studying at an entrepreneurial program in Silicon Valley, pursuing her dream of “changing the world through sex.” Our visions aligned, we’ve kept in contact since then. Ana’s background is in Journalism and Social Media, and will be running our FB & Twitter accounts. Originally from Brazil, she now lives in LA. I want our online presence to be brimming with Ana’s passion and enthusiasm.

Laura Stucki and I met just a few weeks ago, and she’s keen to jump in to an early stage startup with the autonomy and excitement that comes from working on a business at this point. Laura is our business brains having studied at one of the top business schools in Switzerland, as well as her wealth of experience in both product and project management. She will be planning and executing our launch with me during the coming months, as well as running our Instagram account.

So there we have our team! I can’t tell you how excited I am right now, and I hope this email communicates just a little bit of this. I want to work with self motivated, committed, passionate people and although we’re all working remotely, with all it’s benefits, it will bring challenges. So if at any point you feel lost for direction — reach out, ask a question, start chatting in our Slack channel, Skype, Tweet or email. I’m here to help you guys achieve the best you can. Tell me what you need/want. This is a new journey for me too, and I’m willing to give it my utter best shot.

Here’s to improving the intimacy in 10 million relationships by 2020. Game on.

Happy Monday,

Darren xxx