Tithing, community involvement, NBA players. Not what you might expect from your typical adult ISP.
Welcome to Webpride.net, a gay-owned and operated adult Internet service provider that is anything but typical. The two-year old ISP also runs an off-the-wall, anything goes (within legal limits) Web-hosting subsidiary, MadCow Webhosting (www.madcowwebhosting.com); an Internet consulting division, Martin Design & Associates (www.martindesign.net); and twelve adult sites under BratBoy Productions (www.bratboy.com, www.bratboy.net).
Christopher Martin and Matthew Prothero, who are respectively President and Vice President, head the ISP. The duo became partners three years ago and in December of 1999 began negotiations with a couple who had started Webpride.net, but had decided to sell the business. "When we took Webpride.net over, it had a minimal client base," says Martin. "The previous owners were doing no marketing and nothing for the community. Their idea was, 'Let's do this and get rich quick'."
The first thing Martin and Prothero did after buying the company was revamp the website. "We took all the pink triangles off the site, changed the look, logos, the feel, and also changed providers," says Martin. They also expanded the dial-up to include over 5,000 numbers in over 2,500 cites across the US, Canada, northern Mexico and Japan - before the take-over by Martin and Prothero, the company's dial-up only included Portland, Ore., where Webpride.net is based. "We've done research and only come up with about eight [other] gay-owned and gay-targeted ISPs. So we are the ninth in the US and we can easily say we have the largest dial-up of any gay ISP," Martin affirms.
Martin and Prothero both come from a technological background. Before WebPride.net Prothero worked, ironically, for a Christian ISP and Martin had successfully been running MadCow Webhosting. "MadCow was going really well and we decided that we wanted to do an ISP and be more functional within the gay community and within the Portland market, and from there it just progressed," states Martin.
Martin says that Webpride.net provides service for gay-friendly companies and pretty much anyone else. "For MadCow we don't care what you put up as long as it's legal," says Martin, adding that the decision to target the gay/lesbian and transgender communities was based on the sense that they believe, being members of the gay community themselves, that being gay, lesbian or transgendered and exploring your sexuality is your own prerogative.
Martin also believes that the fact that his company is gay-owned and operated makes Webpride a little more mainstream-friendly. "Being a gay-owned and operated business, we definitely see that mainstream media is more friendly towards us than advertising ourselves as a strictly adult company," says Martin. "But here it is, the year 2000, and people still have issues dealing with a company that is gay. It is a trust-building issue. The bottom line is that we've never escaped from the Victorian Age, the adult industry and adult entertainment is still looked at as being a negative thing."
And Martin says what a number of people in the adult Internet have been saying for some time now: it is a market that is untapped and a market that is very lucrative and very strong. But as with most things, there are some drawbacks to doing what they do. "To every golden coin there is always a bad side. And the bad side of this is that we have a harder struggle in the sense that we've found it more difficult for us to get funding, to be treated credibly and to be treated with the respect," declares Martin. "We haven't experienced anything radical. But if we're going to market to the gay community, we need to accept that fact that there's going to be some people who are not going to like us.
"However, there are a number of very big leaders right now in the [adult] environment. You look at Showtime (www.sho.com) and they have done more in my opinion to benefit the adult industry than any other media has. And that's just because they're willing to put on a show that has nudity and not have a problem with it and not have a problem dealing with all of those issues," Martin remarks.
And the company's sexual orientation certainly hasn't been an obstacle in attracting mainstream clients for Webpride's Internet consulting service division. In the past year, Martin, who personally does about 98 percent of the consulting, has attracted the business of the one the NBA's Portland Trailblazers, Concordia University, Marine Systems and Cybernet Nationwide.
"We don't hide anything about ourselves. We're openly gay," Martin continues. "We do what we do and we do it well. We understand that the clients that go to AT&T go there because their marketing says they are the world leader and that's fine. I don't want those kinds of clients. The kinds of clients that I want are clients that have small to medium businesses that don't have the time or energy that is needed to become a Web presence.
"We want to create a multimedia hub for BratBoy [Network] and be able to possibly partner with DudeDorm (www.dudedorm.com) and other media providers. We want to find an arrangement where everyone wins. We have an asset, that is six million hits a month, and they have an asset. We just want everyone to get a piece of the pie," says Martin. At press time, Webpride.net was also in conversations with a major gay and lesbian yellow pages company and major search engines. Webpride said they were even talking to AOL about bringing in some of their features.
Another intriguing aspect of the way Webpride does business is the fact that they donate 10 percent of gross sales to a variety of non-profit organizations. The concept, which came from Martin, is geared towards building community involvement and development. As well as helping places like Our House of Portland, which houses individuals with AIDS and AIDS-related diseases; they have also supported everything from the local lesbian choir to Pride Northwest, which produces Portland's annual gay pride parade. One of the reasons? "Because in my past, I've always been involved in non-profit organizations and I've always believed in helping a cause and in community building," responds Martin. "Here in Portland, there is an organization that counters every gay movement; it's called the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA). We defeated two measures which they were behind which basically would have outlawed being gay. Oregon is definitely an open-minded state."
Webpride also donates time, talent and resources to their community. They donated a website to drag queen diva, Snickers LaBarr (www.labarr.com) and gave LaBarr all the resources and hosting needed so she could have a successful Web presence. LaBarr, who's syndicated advice column appears on the BratBoy Network, is something of a gay icon in Portland. In addition to her column, she has a cable access show and is well known within the community.
"The idea that we have," says Martin, "is that we've gone to the gay community and we've said, 'We have this service and ability and we want you to do business with us because we give back to the community.' And that 'give back to the community' belief has definitely helped us grow. I am not saying that everyone needs to go out there and give away his or her time and money, that is a personal preference. However, if you are a gay webmaster, what I would do is get out there and let them know what you do. Donate your talent, make yourself known. But always be professional.
"I believe the fact that we've have done so much for our community has been an effective part of the success of our business and it has given us a push," says Martin. " I believe that by us giving back to our community we are being a responsible business and that will encourage our community to give back to us."
Martin is enthusiastic in his vision for the company. "The bottom line is that we offer unlimited dialup service at a more-than-affordable rate. We give our clients direct access to the Internet and unlike AOL or MSN, we don't give you a pretty interface or our version of the Web. We are not interested in cookie cutter model, we just want to be the best at what we do and we want our customers to stick with us because we do what we say. Besides, AOL and MSN play in a sandbox that has bigger toys, so I don't play in their sandbox. At Webpride, you are simply on the Web and it is up to you to find your way around it; we just give you the tools and target-market the Gay and Lesbian community. We have no desire to have millions of users, we want to sit with our smaller member base and dedicate ourselves to them.
"Our future is unlimited," says Martin.
