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Appearances can be deceiving. With its brightly coloured fixtures, full-service cafeteria, workout equipment and banks of computers operated by a force of diverse young people, the massive, 16,000-square-foot St-Henri loft could pass for a hipster advertising or IT company. Not quite.

Though there is no sign on the door, it is the home of ManyVids, an adult entertainment website with nearly 2 million active members.

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“People come in here and probably expect to see strippers lurking in the halls and mattresses in every room,” jokes Bella French. “Essentially, we’re just a tech firm that operates in the adult entertainment industry.”

That makes sense, since no production takes place at this site. The company’s 85 employees are involved in all aspects of the business, from promotion to publishing an online magazine to putting out a podcast to building the digital tools for more than 16,000 independent content creators. That content generally consists of self-produced videos from web-cam and adult performers.