Welcome to Riley Reid Inc.

I was running late- at first it would only be about 5 minutes, but that tricky freeway interchange got me, and even my “navigation for dummies” GPS in my car couldn’t stop me from taking the wrong offramp. So then 5 minutes turned into 17 minutes. 

I texted Riley updates on my ETA, and when I finally arrived she assured me that it was no big deal that I wasn’t on time. But businesswoman to businesswoman, we both know being late is for amateurs. And Riley is no amateur. 

I remember when Riley first started in the adult industry: fresh faced, adorable, all natural and full of energy. Her scenes were authentically enthusiastic, and she caught the eye of one of the most coveted agents in the business– Mark Spiegler– and she’s been with him ever since. 

Now all these years later, Riley still appears on the Spiegler Girls website, though gone are all the sex acts she used to perform with such glee: girl/girl, boy/girl, anal, gangbang, and so on. Now her profile reads “Mainstream Only” but that’s not because she doesn’t shoot porn anymore. It’s because she doesn’t shoot porn for anyone else but her own production company. Nobody owns new Riley content except for Riley herself. She has graduated from simply being a pornstar for hire, to being a multi-faceted entrepreneur with an ever growing litany of businesses. 

Riley’s success is obvious from the moment you walk into her art deco styled office. Bright and airy with high ceilings, there are stairs in front of you that lead to the top floor, where a pink retro-style kitchen is busy being used by her personal chef to prepare us lunch. To the right is a big conference room with a large table, flat screen TV, and looming indoor plants. To the left of the conference room are the offices, where everything is clean and somewhat minimalist, and all I can think about is how on earth do these people keep their desks so clean? Even the bathroom is gorgeous, with tasteful dark wallpaper and brushed gold faucets. There’s a “wash your hands” sign but it’s etched into a bronze plate mounted on the wall– there will be no laminated paper signs here, not in Riley’s world. 

We sit down at the conference table, and Riley calls her team over: three women, looking like they range from their mid 20s to mid 30s. Everyone is stylish and attractive, and very much look like they belong here. We go around the room and they introduce themselves. First there’s Sarah, Riley’s social media manager/content manager, and Marina, her operations coordinator and personal assistant. And then there’s Caitlyn, who at 7 years with the company has earned the title of Riley’s “business ride or die”. 

“Caitlyn I always call her my Wonder Woman,” Riley explains. “It’s hard to title her a manager or a head of operations because she just does everything. I feel so grateful that the universe has brought me Caitlyn.” 

Riley explains that her team has been instrumental in her recent rebranding. “We kind of went back to the drawing board. Just because my life has changed so much from being a Spiegler porn girl to now just being this businesswoman, wife and mom.”

Riley Reid with her team; Caitlyn, Sarah, and Marina

And the catalyst for this change? Riley credits it to her husband, Pasha. “I fell in love, got married, and had a baby. And to maintain a healthy relationship I didn't go back to boy/girl. I don't really miss it. There's something very unfulfilling with just having sex with people that don't actually share a mutual love and respect for one another. So I think that there's a lot of myself that I gave away to porn, that I didn't really realize. I have other goals and now I have a daughter. So that's really shifted my personal growth, just because I want to show her that even though I do porn, that there's so much more to me. Ultimately I want to be someone that she can be really proud of.”

But unlike some of Riley’s predecessors– porn stars who became successful and turned their back on the industry, Riley is still very much involved in porn and recognizes that it brought her to where she is today. “I've always been grateful for porn and the life that it provided for me. But why do I have to be so stigmatized? We are a consumable market and so why are we being hidden away? Especially now, I think, honestly, becoming a mother has almost made me more normal, more accepted. Now that I'm not a person who is having these crazy orgies and I'm married with a child. And I think it's made people want to be more involved with me.”

But this journey from fresh-faced newbie, to award winning pornstar, to powerhouse business mogul didn’t happen overnight. When Riley first got into porn, she was in it for a couple fast bucks. She thought that her girl-next-door looks would surely mean she could skate by on a few scenes unnoticed, pocket some money, and move onto something else. But she was just too good of a performer, and studios– and fans alike– noticed her almost right away. So her one year plan turned into a five year plan, and then she won AVN’s Performer of the Year and got her Fleshlight deal, and there was no turning back from that.

Around this time, she started dating Jules Jordan, one of the most successful directors in the industry. Together they started RileyReid.com, but when they split up they argued over Riley’s ownership of the domain. 

Riley jokes that this moment in her life awoke the spite that fueled her determination to move forward independently: “That's when I was kind of like, fuck you, I'm going to start ReidMyLips.com. And that's when I started producing my own content and I figured out my own domain. I'm not a programmer, but I created the website myself.”

This is pre-OnlyFans era, when the more industrious and successful girls are starting their own websites, which are often being run by porn companies like Puba (which took a large percentage of the earnings). Riley rejected that idea, electing instead to go through the arduous task of building her own site– which meant she had to find someone to actually build the site, then she had to get hosting, secure payment processing, customer service, and more. But she was determined to be independent:

“I'm not going to be manipulated by these companies when I'm the one who must deal with all the struggles of dating and family life and banks wanting to shut you down. So I was like, if I have to deal with all the repercussions then I should get all of the success that comes with it.

I'm always grateful for the opportunities porn gave me. But I always wanted to also make sure that I'm the one who's benefiting the most, because I have to sacrifice the most for it.”

Reid defied expectations and built a powerful business on her own terms.

Fast forward to today, what we can now call “the OnlyFans era”, and Riley still sees the same issues with companies (now OF talent agencies) taking advantage of talent. “I'm finding out from my friends, they didn't really love their management, and so me and Caitlyn were trying to figure out how we can do an agency. And then I met some people who left Pornhub, and we shared the same morals: where we can have a lucrative business without taking advantage of clients. A lot of our girls have been with us from day one and they haven't left.”

But like any entrepreneur, not every venture Riley has embarked on has been immediately lucrative. She admits that her clothing line Eighteen Plus took her into a new market that she wasn’t too familiar with– the apparel market– and she struggled with the crossover. 

“Eighteen plus, that was just something I kind of wanted to experiment with. It was like an idea that I had for a little while, and then meeting my husband kind of really helped shape a lot of it. Eighteen plus is still kind of [adult] without it being super graphic. There's a lot of lessons that I learned within the launch that I wish I would have done differently, but I had never experimented in apparel before, and that was a huge risk that I took because I'm a digital creator.” But she doesn’t regret the chance she took on it.

“I'm really proud that I took that risk because until you take it, you won't know. The learning experience is invaluable.”

Reid brings out a small trampoline during brainstorming sessions to spark creativity

Riley’s next move landed her back in familiar territory– kind of. She was back in the world of adult, back in the world of digital marketing, but leaning into the new tech that is taking us all on a wild (and sometimes scary ride): artificial intelligence. She created Clona, an adult-friendly chatbot for pornstars– specifically those signed to her marketing agency, ASH Agency.

She explains, “We saw that [AI] was the direction everything was going. It took a while for us to see real progress, but now it's really taking off exponentially. I love that our chat clone is based on our models. And the creator is so involved in the development of their digital avatar, so you're not talking to just this made up person. You are getting some aspect of an actual human that's blended with this digital landscape.”

Riley may have ticked off many boxes, but there’s no slowing her down– in fact, one could say that she’s just getting started. Riley just launched a new body wash line under Laurel Bath House called Nudie, which is now available at retailers like FWRD, Goop, and Urban Outfitters. She is also currently in talks with Spencer’s Gifts on a line of women’s sexual wellness products. She’s hoping to create beautiful, display-worthy items that change the way people view and store sex toys. The project is still in development, but she’s excited for what’s to come.

As women in the world of entrepreneurship, we are no strangers to misogyny. But what is it like to bear the scarlett letter of “pornstar” as well? Does Riley have a hard time getting people to take her seriously? 

“I definitely think the porn thing is there. But I think that there's a lot that I've done recently that has helped show that I'm a little bit more than just that. People are getting more used to the idea of porn being in our everyday life. But people still treat me differently for sure.”

As we’re talking, I can’t ignore the sizzling sounds coming from the upstairs kitchen, not to mention the incredibly delicious smells. Just then, we’re called upstairs for lunch– breaktime. This feels sort of surreal– sitting around this beautiful table, being served chicken atop a green goddess salad with homemade focaccia bread. Riley and her staff exchange funny stories about mishaps in Vegas and ridiculous TikTok trends. And I think about how moments like this– just sitting down with your staff at lunch a few times a week, is so crucial for team building, and how much we lose that when we work remote-only jobs. I think back on the discussion we just had about her AI chatbot and the desire for human interaction, and I understand why Riley insists that her staff comes into the office 3 times a week. And the food is so good, I half jokingly ask if Riley is hiring. 

After lunch (and dessert!) we’re back at the conference table to wrap things up. I wanted to get into Riley's overall experience as a successful entrepreneur, and what makes someone CEO material?

Riley and her team sitting down to lunch provided by her personal chef

Riley defines good leadership as: “...team building and being able to find people's strengths and weaknesses. And to be adaptable.” 

Practically, Riley’s favorite software tool is Canva. And she swears by meeting minutes– when she holds meetings, Marina takes notes and then types them up in an easy to read, digestible format for review later. “I'm a paper and hand notes person,” Riley confesses. Sometimes we use our whiteboards, but this is the best way for us to organize all of our ideas and to-do list.”

When I ask Riley for the one take-away piece of advice for the young creator who is looking to become the next Riley Reid, she encourages taking educated risks. Read and understand the contracts you read (life hack: use AI to summarize a contract if you can’t understand it or afford a lawyer), and start small. But she also cautions against naively idealizing the role of a CEO. Success and leadership comes with its downfalls as well. 

“Sometimes I'm so jealous of these girls because they get to clock out,” Riley says. “I don't ever get to clock out. It's like I am always working, always working. I have sacrificed a lot to get to where I am today. It’s not for everybody.” 

In a world that often underestimates and stigmatizes adult entertainers, Riley Reid’s evolution from pornstar to entrepreneur tells a different story: one of agency, reinvention, and resilience. Today performers are no longer just talent but brand-builders, business owners, and powerful voices in a changing cultural landscape. As the industry becomes more creator-driven, Riley Reid stands as a symbol of what's possible: that a career in porn doesn’t mean a dead end, but rather the beginning of an entirely new chapter of opportunities.

Photographed by: Holly Randall