LOS ANGELES—Leonid Radvinsky, the e-commerce pioneer who owned OnlyFans and founded MyFreeCams along with several other companies, has passed away in Florida at 43.
“We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Leo Radvinsky," OnlyFans said in a statement. "Leo passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer. His family have requested privacy at this difficult time.”
Born in Ukraine and raised in Chicago, Radvinsky acquired Fenix International, the parent company of OnlyFans, in 2018. He served as a director on Fenix's board and was its majority shareholder while steering the company to new heights.
Radvinsky in 2004 launched MyFreeCams, envisioning a community that empowered cam girls to be independent, creative and innovative. He operated the site with the core principle that cam models are artists, guiding MFC’s ascent to its current status as one of the biggest live-streaming platforms in adult.
Veteran cam model Bailey Rayne, who co-hosted the 2019 AVN Awards Show, remembers meeting Radvinsky at an expo in Australia in 2015 when she had only been on MFC for about a year-and-a-half.
“He was so business oriented,” Rayne said. “I only saw him at events where MFC was really involved and he would sometimes chat on the site and ask how we were doing in [private messages] while we were camming.
“It was always about the site though. In our PMs he would be like, ‘What do you think of the new update, how’s it working?'"
“He treated us like we were businesswomen," Rayne continued. "A lot of us came into this when we were very young. I was in my early 20s and being talked to by the CEO like you’re a businesswoman and not like a little girl, that changes you. He would take some of the requests and some of the not-so-wonderful requests.
“If something was wrong with the site and we didn’t like it, we would tell him about it and he would do his best to change it or address the issue.
“A lot of it was, how can we make it better? How can we make these features better? Whether it was in person or online while we were streaming. He wanted to hear what we had to say and we really appreciated that, too, because we knew the person at the head of everything knew our concerns.”
“Leo was an inspiration,” said MFC model Emily Lynne, who co-hosted the 2024 AVN Awards. “He gave so many of us a platform we never would have otherwise had. His work has empowered so many women to take control of their lives, to have a chance at success and to create generational wealth.
“He doesn’t have the same notoriety as Mark Zuckerberg or Tom Anderson but he saw an opportunity on the internet in 2004 and paved the way for online sex work as a whole. He was bold and intelligent and did things no one else had even thought of.”
Lynne continued, “He was a very impressive businessman and an incredibly sweet person. He went out of his way to befriend cam models. He took the time to sit and talk with us and he put value in our opinions. He always made a special effort to be personable.”
Lynne told AVN that Radvinsky created teams “dedicated to making sure we were treated well.”
“To give us business opportunities we wouldn’t have, and to show off who we are personally through our work,” Emily added.
“Leo did so much good for adult media creators and the industry as a whole.
"It is strange to think that someone who has been a staple in our industry is just gone. We’ve been able to rely on him for so long. It’s heartbreaking to know that he dealt with cancer privately and that we didn’t have the opportunity to tell him what he meant to us before he passed. I hope he knew the impact he had on so many of us and the good he did for the world.”
The reigning 2026 AVN Favorite Cam Girl, Skitty, told AVN she met Leo when she was 22 at the private MFC model party at her first AVN Show.
"And honestly I was pretty terrified of the chaos,” Skitty admitted. “I ran into Leo, who introduced himself and sat with me and just casually started talking to me about tech stuff for a good hour or so.”
She recalled how Radvinsky showed her upcoming features for OnlyFans and shared advice on payment processors “just talking to me like a businesswoman.”
“Every time I would see him at events after that I’d have some list of new ideas or suggestions for MFC/OnlyFans and he would always spare time to listen to me and make notes,” Skitty continued. “This guy could’ve easily blown me off, but always replied to my 2 a.m. emails and considered my suggestions.
“He even connected me with the AVN team directly to feature me as CAMStar, which was a huge dream for me, and spiraled into a great run on AVNStars and further connections I don’t think I would’ve ever achieved.
“He wanted us to succeed. And taking the time to look out for your people makes them feel heard and makes for good CEOs, especially considering how cutthroat the industry can be. Many of us on MFC have watched how far the site and OnlyFans have come, thanks to him, and he will be missed.”
Aspen Rae, who was the first cam model ever to co-host the AVN Awards Show in January 2017 and also the first AVN CAMStar that same month, recalled meeting Leo in 2011 at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.
“That was way back before MFC even had a proper booth at AVN and I think we had maybe 10 or 11 girls that went, myself included, and he hosted a pizza party for everybody,” Rae said. “I think I must’ve been 20 at the time and I just thought it was cool to go to this models-only pizza party and he bought all these pizzas for us. I remember that I thought it was super generous. We never expected anything like that.
“He was always very professional. I don’t think shy is the best way to describe him, but he was a little bit to himself. He was very friendly but he wasn’t very extraverted. Still he made me feel very welcome. I didn’t know anybody and I was shy—that was my first convention—and he introduced me to some of the other girls. Even my best friend who is a cam girl, he kind of introduced us together online and she was my maid of honor.”
Rae told AVN that when Radvinsky met new models, he would always ask them for feedback about their experience using MyFreeCams.
“He was always very eager to hear everybody’s opinion,” Aspen continued. “He would say to new girls, ‘Tell me about the site. Tell me about your experience.’ And he was super interested. He wasn’t just doing this to show face, he went out of his way to listen to us. MyFreeCams was his baby… My life would be so different right now if it wasn’t for MyFreeCams.”
Emily Bloom, who co-hosted the 2020 AVN Awards and also received the Favorite Cam Girl honor that same year, said she got to know Leo during her early days attending AVN Shows and some of the first MFC Socials.
“He had always been kind and attentive,” Bloom told AVN. “Every time I saw him, he would excitedly chat about one update or another he was working on. I remember in particular at the AVN after-party at the MFC penthouse he spent a full half hour explaining to me how the then brand new MFC Share feature worked and convincing me to try it out.
“He also always asked for feedback and usually implemented the changes models asked for. It’s genuinely sad that he has passed so young. He truly felt like he was on the models’ side and always looked out for us.”
The prolific entrepreneur and philanthropist also headed a venture capital fund he founded in 2009, investing in technology companies and numerous other startups.
An accomplished company architect and angel investor who was a passionate supporter of open source software, Radvinsky spent much of the past two decades building software companies and contributing to the open source movement, investing over $3 million in the field since 2018. Those investments included Anywhere Software’s B4X, which was converted from a paid model into a free suite widely available for developers. Radvinsky also was regarded as an evangelist for Elixir, a new programming language designed to improve the efficiency and reliability of many applications.
His founding of the LR Foundation was inspired by the belief in the power of open source technology as a force for global equality and empowerment. The LR Foundation takes pride in identifying open source projects at the intersection of technology and philanthropy and providing them with financial support.
Some of his numerous philanthropic donations have gone to organizations such Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, EB Research Partnership, West Suburban Humane Society, Center for Black Innovation and the University of Chicago Medicine.
A first-generation immigrant from Ukraine, Radvinsky studied economics at Northwestern University, where he became class valedictorian. He also was an avid reader and chess player as well as a helicopter pilot.
"Leo was an incredibly successful entrepreneur, a visionary, and a generous philanthropist," said adult industry attorney Larry Walters, Esq. "As a longtime client and friend, he will be missed. Leo had an uncanny ability to see over the horizon to anticipate developments and bring about positive change. His life represents the epitome of the American Dream and his impacts on the internet ecosystem will be profound."
