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A ‘SexTech Revolution’ Could Smash the Internet of Men
Andrea Barrica, who launched one of the industry’s most popular sextech startups, wants to usher in a revolution to upend the oppressive mores of Silicon Valley
Andrea Barrica never expected to have a career in sextech — or even a career in tech, period. She grew up in a strict Filipino Catholic household, where sex was only discussed as something harmful. And her vision of the future was limited to a safe and predictable future: marriage, kids, and a career as a linguist.
But when she was 20 years old, a friend invited her to join their accounting software startup, inDinero, and suddenly, Barrica’s life was on a completely different path. After building inDinero into a thriving company, she pivoted to venture capital, taking on a position as a venture partner at 500 Startups. As a founder and a funder, Barrica developed a deep understanding of Silicon Valley’s inner workings, getting a behind the scenes look at its successes and failures.
Yet even as Barrica was achieving so much in her professional life, she felt stalled personally — particularly when it came to sex. Her Catholic upbringing taught her to see sex as dangerous and disgusting, something that could only bring her shame and pain, not pleasure and joy. Searching the internet for answers about sex mostly resulted in misinformation and limited depictions of sexuality that mostly made her feel worse.
Barrica persevered, and eventually community resources — like the feminist sex-toy stores and sex-positive events that are all over San Francisco — helped her unlearn her shame, accept herself as a queer person, and find a path to a fulfilling, pleasurable sex life. And with her own sexual awakening, she found herself inspired to help other people get access to the healing, sex-positive resources that had helped her so much.
That desire led Barrica to create O.School, a video streaming platform dedicated to providing access to pleasure-focused, trauma-aware sex education. O.School partners with a team of “pleasure professionals” — including gynecologists, dating coaches, sex educators, and therapists — to create educational videos on a range of sex-related topics…
