Patreon Creators,

I’ve acquired some thrilling information! Patreon has simply secured an extra spherical of financing ($60M!), which implies we will likely be scaling our workforce, constructing quicker, and constructing extra — all in service of getting you paid what you should 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 arduous. 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 seem like? How is Patreon’s product evolving? What are you able to count on 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’ll supply a holistic image of what you’ll be able to count on over the following 2–5 years. Right here it’s:

In the beginning, Patreon will energy your membership enterprise by providing you with the whole lot you must purchase, handle, and reward your patrons.

And that’s two predominant classes of merchandise:

1. Enterprise InfrastructureConsider this because the again workplace — the instruments, workflows, dashboards, and data that you must get your corporation cranking.

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

• Dashboards that summarize the efficiency of your membership enterprise and provide you with clear and useful solutions

• 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 the whole lot you must 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 predominant classes:

• Creator-patron intimacy, like reside 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’ll be able to entry them, and particular items will likely be each on Patreon and on different platforms. We’ve already began integrating rewards with third occasion providers so patrons really feel particular anyplace they go!

One fast be aware 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 reside:

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” applications that paid us just a few hundred bucks for thousands and thousands of views. How was that proper?! How might that be good for creators? How might 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 the whole lot was prepared for launch. I had been engaged on a video announcement to my followers about this new website — Patreon — and as Sam pushed the positioning reside, I uploaded the video.

Inside minutes, I had over 100 patrons, and I used to be making over $700 bucks per 30 days. Inside MINUTES!

OG Patreon (2013)

Now, 4 years later, 50,000 of you might be getting paid each month on Patreon, from over one million financially energetic patrons. This yr alone, these patrons will ship you over $150M (wow!). And there are dozens of you making over $30k per 30 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 Workforce (2016)

The Patreon workforce is 80 folks sturdy, and our souls are FLYING to construct you the merchandise you must receives a commission, make artwork, and run your companies. On the earth of the net, 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 mother and father! Not my associates. And certainly not tech platforms. Typically, 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 value 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 completely different. I need creators to really feel understood by Patreon. I need all 80 people who work right here, and the numerous extra to come back, to really feel your ache and to really feel your pleasure. I need us to see your bother, and I need us to understand the depth of your grit. This depth of understanding will take time and, whereas we might by no means really arrive, I consider that the Patreon workforce has the cost and hearth to get nearer than anybody has earlier than.

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

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

There’s an excellent world coming for creators!

Jack