OnlyFans CEO: "Not seeing any slowdown" as tech slumps

I sat down with OnlyFans CEO Amrapali "Ami" Gan and chief strategy and operations officer Keily Blair at this week's startup conference Slush for an onstage panel on running a controversial business.

A few highlights from the conversation:

On trends since the height of the pandemic:

We’re continuing to grow as a platform. We’re continuing to grow in terms of number of creators who are joining, the number of fans, the number of countries ... so we’re not seeing any slowdown.

On fundraising/IPO plans:

We get approached pretty regularly by people who want to learn more about the business, are interested in working with us in some capacity... We’re happy being privately held, and we have no plans to make any moves of that sort... There were questions around the adult content that we have on our platform... If someone’s coming and reaching out to OnlyFans, they already know that we are known for our adult content, so that’s not exactly news.

On its 2021 U-turn on a proposed ban on adult content:

What that experience taught all of us at the business — and especially myself — was the power and voice of our creator community... Tim [Stokely], the former CEO, shared some information with the Financial Times [about banking policies]. Because we are able to offer a safe place — we have a lot of safety measures in place — and again, the power of the community was heard. That’s why we’re able to continue to be the most influencer-first platform.

On whether OnlyFans would ever have advertising:

No. We get asked that pretty regularly. It’s what’s best for the creators — we don't want to monetize their data.

1 growth thing: The company also announced that it now has 3 million creators on OnlyFans.