In an unexpected turn of events, a CEO found himself in a bit of a pickle when he named a new project after a renowned OnlyFans personality. The project, initially dubbed 'Aella', was intended to be an 'open-science initiative to make scientific research accessible via structured summaries created by LLMs'. But as it turns out, Aella is also the name of a famed OnlyFans model, sex worker, and Substack researcher.
Within hours, the CEO realized the overlap and promptly decided on a name change. Hogan took to social media, writing, "Thank you to those who brought the context surrounding this name to our attention, and to our partners and the research community for their ongoing support." Aella, the model herself, found the situation amusing and responded with a simple, "Lmfao."
“I didn't know who you were until today,” Hogan remarked. “Now I do! Love your work.”
The exchange didn't just end there. It paved the way for a potential collaboration between the two. Hogan suggested, "Would be cool to do visualizations for some of your surveys," to which Aella enthusiastically replied, "I'd love that!"
Aella isn't just an OnlyFans sensation. Back in 2020, she was in the top 0.04% of creators on the platform, raking in up to $100,000 a month. These days, her primary focus is on research, specifically through her Substack, "Knowingless", where she dives into topics of sex and relationships using data mining. Her innovative approach has gained traction within tech circles, earning praise from figures like venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
The intriguing dialogue between Hogan and Aella has sparked speculation about a possible partnership. Hogan's company, Inference, recently closed an $11.8 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. With Hogan's interest in Aella's work, the two might just create some fascinating synergies in the future.
Interestingly, Hogan hasn't entirely ruled out reverting to the original project name. He reached out to Aella, asking for her blessing to reconsider the name, to which she replied, "It might be confusing/googleable issues for people tho." It seems that this name game might have a few more rounds to go!