Small Business Spotlight: KinkedIn Is a Sex-Positive Networking Group for Denver Professionals

The business world isn't only for people who like vanilla sex. For business professionals who are members of the sex-positive community — including kink, fetish, swingers, polyamorous, BDSM, LGBTQ+ and more — KinkedIn: the Business With Benefits Network is the organization for you.

KinkedIn is a networking group designed to make meaningful connections between entrepreneurs, professionals and small-business owners in the sex-positive community. The group meets on the second and fourth Thursday of each month to socialize as well as engage in educational conversations about the latest trends in the business world.

Learn more about the group and how it came to be through our conversation with KinkedIn business partners Heather Rich and Kathy "Kiki" Sloan, who run the group sessions together, and are working on expanding KinkedIn to other cities across the country.

Westword: How did the two of you meet and decide to start working together?

Heather Rich: I was working a sales job, and it was not going well [laughs]. So I decided I wanted to go into real estate. While taking my real estate classes, I met someone on a dating app who was a real estate investor who did fix-and-flips and was familiar with Kiki’s work. He said she sounded like someone I’d get along with, so I researched Kiki and went to one of Kinkedin’s meetings, where we hit it off quickly.

Kathy "Kiki" Sloan: You literally showed up at the doorsteps of a KinkedIn meeting one night.

Rich: And I didn’t go away [laughs].

Sloan: I really liked her, and she bought into what I was doing, so I was like, "Let’s team up!"

What is KinkedIn: the Business With Benefits Network?

Sloan: KinkedIn: the Business with Benefits Network is a professional networking group for the sex-positive communities. This includes all kinds of people who we consider to be our peeps. Kinky people, fetishists, BDSM, shibari rope, burlesque performers, other entertainers, sex workers and burners.

Rich: Also, people within the LGBTQ+ community, swingers, polyamorous people and all the people in open relationships. Basically, anyone who’s sex-positive or is not offended by a conversation about sexual things in general is the kind of person we hang out with, and their businesses need support just as much as everybody else’s.

Sloan: While building my real estate business, I realized the sex-positive community was my niche market. And as I looked around our community, I noticed that we had social events all the time — happy hours, meet-and-greets, slosh parties, play parties, hotel takeovers and all of this stuff — but as I looked around, I didn't see any business networking. I think we're filling a real need. I’ve seen our community come together to fulfill each other's wildest sexual fantasies, and I think we should be supporting each other's businesses with the same level of dedication and enthusiasm. So that's kind of the mission and purpose behind it. We meet twice a month to mingle, network and either have a facilitated group discussion on a certain topic or a guest speaker. It's a chance for people to make connections, build relationships and share referrals.

How has KinkedIn evolved since Heather came into the company?

Rich: When I came on the scene, there were about ten people in the group. In 2022, we were celebrating the fact that we were going to build KinkedIn. We started meeting twice a month, and the group has grown to an average of thirty people per meeting, which is just great.

Sloan: It started as a feeder into our real estate business and a place where we could network with our community. But in 2022, not only did we add a second meeting every month, but we also started charging. It's only ten bucks, but KinkedIn is not just this little thing we do on the side; it's its own business.
What is KinkedIn’s business model?

Sloan: The business model is now a membership subscription, or you can purchase individual tickets to meetings. And we are working on getting a website up for KinkedIn with a calendar and business directory in the next couple of months. As the website gets built up, there will be additional add-ons you can add to your membership through the website.

Rich: That will include things like being able to market your business, look up other businesses and create more elaborate profiles. We are also looking for people who are interested in opening chapters in other places. We are in negotiation with someone interested in running KinkedIn in Colorado Springs.

Sloan: Right now, the Colorado Springs chapter is in development. As these chapters develop, we don’t envision them as franchises; they don’t have to pay up to be included. They can use our marketing and promotional stuff, as well as the branding and the format. We have this format that works, and people can make it their own. They will need to find the space and guest speakers in their market for different topics, but the benefit of being a chapter leader is the high visibility to grow your own business. KinkedIn has always been — and I hope it remains — an in-person event; the meat and potatoes of the group is getting face-to-face with other professionals in the community.

What are some of the challenges you noticed that led you to form a sex-positive networking group?

Sloan: A lot of entrepreneurs and small-business owners rely on some form of networking to get leads and grow their business. 

Rich: But we are a little limited, because not everyone in the business community is on board with the sexy side of real estate.

Sloan: What we are doing is edgy, and it’s not for everybody. It’s not family-friendly. You can come to our networking group and make an inappropriate joke, and there is no HR department.

Rich: And I’ve got some inappropriate jokes [laughs]. Serving a niche market puts a bit of a target on our backs, because we realize we are being bolder than most. 

Sloan: Especially when we are in the real estate world, which is a “conservative” industry. But does it need to be conservative? No. Can we have fun while working? Yes. Do we have to pretend to be someone we aren’t at work? No. One thing I didn’t like about other networking groups was their exclusivity and fakeness. You pay to be a part of each networking chapter. If there is already a real estate agent in the group, you can’t be in that chapter. The idea is that those people make up this tight group and give each other all their leads. What sets us apart is that we will never discourage people from coming. We encourage people to build connections and relationships. It’s a space [where] you can feel comfortable sending your referrals to others, but aren’t forced to.

What industries are members of KinkedIn involved in?

Sloan: Real estate agents, insurance brokers, general contractors, artists, distillery owners, hairdressers, financial people, tarot readers, sound healers and massage therapists.

Rich: We have all different kinds of IT people. People who are real Clark Kents. They have their day job that gets the bills paid, and then what they do for fun or their side gig. There are also a lot of small-business owners who are just trying to get things started.

Sloan: We're helping someone right now try to find a commercial space for a pole studio.

Rich: Another person I remember from one of the first meetings was this psychologist who specialized in treating women who have a hard time reaching orgasm because of past traumas. I thought her work was so beautiful, because she’s helping people heal so they can enjoy sexual experiences and start living again.

Sloan: We think of sex as a base human need, right along with shelter, food and companionship.

Rich: And when you don’t have sex, you have toys [laughs].

Sloan: That reminds me: We also have sex toy makers and sellers in the group. We have all the regular people in a networking group mixed with everything else — the nerds, freaks, geeks and weirdos!

Where does the group meet, and what are some of the topics you discuss?

Rich: On the second Thursdays of the month, we've been meeting at Twin Peaks on Arapahoe Road from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and then on the fourth Thursday, we meet from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., and our topics have been everything from cryptocurrency to self-care for the self-employed.

Sloan: Our previous topics [include] financial planning, estate planning, diversity in business, communication, time management, teams, all about credit, insurance, power partners and referrals, how to sell yourself, and the financial benefits of owning real estate.

Why are the resources provided by your group so important to members?

Sloan: We currently provide the space for people to come and network with like-minded people. We also try to provide some sort of education and sort of categorize our meetings two ways. It's either a mix-and-mingle, where we do intros and it's mostly mingling. But most of the time, it's a network-and-learn. So you have some time for socializing, but also providing some education on a topic we hope is helpful to any small-business owner or entrepreneur.

Rich: Most important, it’s a safe environment for people to come and talk. People can network and not have to worry about being judged.

What plans and goals do you have for KinkedIn?

Sloan: We are working on building out the business directory, launching the website and getting ready to attend our first annual national conference at Sin City in Las Vegas in October. Sin City has been putting this hotel takeover on for a long time. So we're going to do some networking, and we'll have an actual KinkedIn meeting while we're there. And we'll be looking for people who would like to open up chapters in other places.

Rich: We really think there is a market for it across the country.

Sloan: A huge part of the mission is to increase visibility in our community. We are publicly out as members of this alternative sex-positive lifestyle, but there are people who cannot be out, because if somebody found out that so-and-so liked to get flogged on the weekends, that person might be in danger of losing their job. It could ruin their career or cause them to lose custody of their kids; that's fucking serious. And the punishment does not fit the crime. If you want to have some kinky fun in the bedroom, you shouldn't fucking lose custody of your kids. If you want to have an open relationship, that shouldn't put your entire career in jeopardy. By building this community, along with members of the LGBTQ community who are now protected by laws the way it should be, I hope people will realize that as long as it’s not illegal, it's not a problem. 

Rich: As long as it’s consensual adults, why would people try to restrict that? It's a lot like saying, "I'm on a diet, so you can't have cake, either." That doesn't make sense.

Sloan: We want to grow KinkedIn to support people living their fully authentic lives in private and in business without fear, shame or guilt. I'm fortunate to be able to be out, and that was a journey for me to get to that point. I was finally able to turn the corner when I realized that of all the people I knew, the only people I cared about that wouldn't like it, were my parents. But I knew they were going to love me anyway. So at that point, I made it public. I'm fortunate to have gotten to that point, and so now I like to stand up and be an example so that other people can, too.