Thrilling Information: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding!

Patreon Creators,

I’ve obtained some thrilling information! Patreon has simply secured a further spherical of financing ($60M!), which suggests we shall be scaling our workforce, constructing sooner, and constructing extra — all in service of getting you paid what you need to be paid, for the worth you give the world. YESSS!

Proper now, you and your patrons ship us hundreds of emails each month asking for options, performance, and new merchandise. I really feel your ache, so laborious. And so does each workforce member at Patreon. We so desperately wish to construct a world of superior merchandise for you — each bone in our our bodies aches for it. And this new spherical of financing brings us nearer than ever to that world.

So what does that world appear like? How is Patreon’s product evolving? What are you able to anticipate as a creator on Patreon?

As a substitute of diving into particular options, I’d wish to zoom manner out and share our product imaginative and prescient. It would supply a holistic image of what you possibly can anticipate over the subsequent 2–5 years. Right here it’s:

At first, Patreon will energy your membership enterprise by supplying you with all the pieces it’s worthwhile to purchase, handle, and reward your patrons.

And that’s two major classes of merchandise:

1. Enterprise InfrastructureConsider this because the again workplace — the instruments, workflows, dashboards, and data that it’s worthwhile to get what you are promoting cranking.

• Analytics for understanding your patrons, your rewards, and your earnings

• Dashboards that summarize the efficiency of your membership enterprise and offer you clear and useful recommendations

• Rock stable and easy financials

• Rewards administration, automation, and supply

• Patron administration (Who’re my patrons? What are their Twitter handles? How a lot have they spent on me?)

2. Rewards to Energize PatronsThat is all the pieces it’s worthwhile to entice and hold your patrons, as a result of providing and fulfilling on “rewards” or “advantages” ought to be seamless. We section rewards into three major classes:

• Creator-patron intimacy, like stay interactions and patron-only polls

• Ongoing exclusivity, like entry to a patron-only Discord server or early-access to content material

• Precise items, whether or not digital or bodily, like a signed poster or an additional episode

Integrations coming: Lots of the above experiences, methods you possibly can entry them, and particular items shall be each on Patreon and on different platforms. We’ve already began integrating rewards with third celebration companies so patrons really feel particular wherever they go!

One fast observe on all this ^Patreon didn’t begin with that framework or imaginative and prescient in thoughts. Nope! It began on the ground of my dad’s home. On the morning of Might seventh, 2013, the day we launched, I had been awake for 48 hours straight, and I used to be consuming leftover pizza for breakfast as the positioning went stay:

The place all of it started (2013)

I had been making YouTube movies with my band, Pomplamoose, since 2007 and I used to be fed up with “rev share” packages that paid us a couple of hundred bucks for tens of millions of views. How was that proper?! How may that be good for creators? How may that be good for the world?! Was it simply me? Did anybody else really feel like they have been being undervalued?

My co-founder, Sam Yam, had constructed Patreon by himself over the course of three months, and all the pieces was prepared for launch. I had been engaged on a video announcement to my followers about this new web site — Patreon — and as Sam pushed the positioning stay, I uploaded the video.

Inside minutes, I had over 100 patrons, and I used to be making over $700 bucks per thirty days. Inside MINUTES!

OG Patreon (2013)

Now, 4 years later, 50,000 of you might be getting paid each month on Patreon, from over 1,000,000 financially energetic patrons. This 12 months alone, these patrons will ship you over $150M (wow!). And there are dozens of you making over $30ok per thirty days!! Many creators are utilizing Patreon to develop and scale their companies, to rent groups, to broaden their content material operations:

A part of the Complexly Staff (2016)

The Patreon workforce is 80 folks robust, and our souls are FLYING to construct you the merchandise it’s worthwhile to receives a commission, make artwork, and run your companies. On the earth of the online, we’re treading new floor. We’re fixing the hardest issues for creators. We’re working like maniacs!

Perhaps this sounds trite to say however, as a creator, I usually felt like few folks understood what I did. Not even my dad and mom! Not my associates. And certainly not tech platforms. Usually, I discovered that folks didn’t actually grok the affect I had on my viewers. They didn’t perceive the quantity of labor I needed to do to make one thing price watching. They didn’t perceive the depth of care, complexity, or persistence that was required to be a full time, skilled creator.

I need Patreon to be totally different. I need creators to really feel understood by Patreon. I need all 80 people who work right here, and the numerous extra to return, to really feel your ache and to really feel your pleasure. I need us to see your bother, and I need us to know the depth of your grit. This depth of understanding will take time and, whereas we might by no means actually arrive, I imagine that the Patreon workforce has the cost and hearth to get nearer than anybody has earlier than.

It’s nonetheless the very best time ever, within the historical past of people, to be a creator. Proper now. SO GO MAKE AWESOME STUFF!

Thanks for believing in Patreon, in your continued belief in our imaginative and prescient, and in your creativity and grind.

There’s a terrific world coming for creators!

Jack