At nearly six years old, Patreon has gone from startup to king of membership. Now an established leader in an industry that’s been flipped on its head, Patreon’s path has been anything but predictable — peppered with its share of milestones, mishaps, pivots, champions, and critics — and offers invaluable insights for founders, investors, creatives, or those looking to make sense of the new media landscape.
Since we’ve probably read almost every word written on Patreon as part for our “under-the-hood” exploration in this EC-1, we’ve compiled a supplemental list of resources and readings we believe are particularly helpful for learning the Patreon story.
Reading time for this article is about 8 minutes. It is part of the Extra Crunch EC-1 on Patreon. Feature illustration by Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch.
I. Background: The Story of Patreon
Pedals Music Video (Announcement Video) & Behind the Scenes Video | May 2013 | In May of 2013, Co-founder and CEO Jack Conte first announced the creation of Patreon alongside the release of a stunning music video that had smoke machines, light shows, and robots on beat machines. Conte also added a neat behind-the-scenes video showing just how much groundwork and hustle went into the production.
Jack Conte’s Patreon Explanation | May 2013 | In a separate video, Conte went into a bit more depth on the original site’s purpose, vision, and functionality.
Pomplamoose’s Jack Conte Creates A Subscription-Based Funding Site For Artists and Patreon Is a Recurring Tip Jar for Fans Who Love Everything You Make | May 2013 | TechCrunch’s and AllThingsD’s coverage of Patreon’s launch. In context, revisiting the pieces offers an interesting look back at the initial excitement around Patreon’s offering and the pervasiveness of the problem it was tackling.
Jack Conte Presentation @ XOXO Festival | September 2013 | At the XOXO Festival, a festival and conference for independent internet-based creators, Conte explains how his own experience as a YouTube artist led to the creation of Patreon.
1,000 True Fans | March 2008 | Wired founding editor Kevin Kelly’s widely read 1,000 True Fans essay is essentially the philosophical underpinning of Patreon. The principal idea here is that one can be a successful creator if they are able to consistently monetize even a small, dedicated fan base. Kelly walks through independent artist economics to explain how just one thousand true fans who will consistently support or purchase a creator’s work can be enough to make a comfortable living.
Digital Medici: How This Musician-Turned-Entrepreneur Plans To Save Creators From Advertising | February 2018 | In a 2018 profile, Kathleen Chaykowski contextualizes Conte’s motivation and aspirations for Patreon, outlining his path from childhood music fanatic to struggling artist to founder.
Inside Patreon, The Economic Engine of Internet Culture | August 2017 | Verge senior reporter Adi Robertson outlines in-depth how the Patreon model has changed from the creator perspective overtime, including creator anecdotes, success stories and concerns.
II. Strategy
Patreon Makes a Move as Tech Giants Encroach on Its Territory | August 2018 | Louise Matsakis at Wired details how Patreon has expanded the size and scope of the creator universe it supports, as it looks to take on services provided by incumbent tech giants like YouTube and Facebook.
HEC Case Study: Patreon and Arts Funding | November 2017 | Loïc Marchat, Danilo C. Dantas, and Marcelo Vinhal Nepomuceno of Canadian Business School HEC Montreal published a case study outlining the historical pain points in the artist funding process and a detailed walkthrough of Patreon’s business model and marketing strategies.
Membership: The Future for Creators…Welcome to the Next Phase of Patreon and What is Patreon? | June 2017 | Jack Conte’s 2017 blog post and promo video announcing the rollout of Patreon’s membership business model for creators.
III. Product & Design
TalkPython Podcast: Moving from PHP to Python 3 with Patreon | June 2015 | Patreon’s former Head of Engineering Albert Sheu talks about how the team went about porting Patreon from PHP to Python 3, highlighting key takeaways from the process and considerations for similar undertakings.
Inside the 6 Hypotheses that Doubled Patreon’s Activation Success | June 2017 | In a guest post on growth marketer Brian Balfour’s blog, Patreon product manager Tal Raviv – with assistance from former Reforge marketing head Susan Su – details how Patreon chose “financially successful Creators” as its leading growth metric, how they tested strategies around that metric, and what ultimately worked and helped Patreon double new creator activation.
Patreon’s Lens Mimics ‘Stories’ to Give Fans Insider Peeks | February 2018 | Patreon released its Lens mobile feature which allows creators to post temporary photos, videos and behind the scenes content for followers.
Patreon Developer Portal – APIs, Plug-ins and where developers can find walkthroughs and all the resources needed to start building on the Patreon platform.
IV. Growth
Users
The World Is CHANGING — From the CEO of Patreon | May 2018 | In 2016, Patreon crossed the $100 million threshold for income paid to creators. In 2017, that number had spiked to $150 million. In a 2018 video commemorating Patreon’s fifth birthday, Jack Conte discusses the future of the platform and notes that Patreon had already paid out $350 million to creators since the site launched and how it was expecting to pass $300 million in 2018 alone.
Fundraising
Patreon @ CrunchBase – A helpful one-stop hub to track the trajectory of Patreon’s data points and fundraising activity.
Seed: Patreon Raises $2.1M | August 2013 | FinSMEs’ coverage of Patreon’s late-2013 $2.1 million seed round backed by a syndicate that included Tyler Willis, SVAngel, Freestyle Capital, Charles River Ventures, Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan, Atlas Ventures, and Rothenberg Ventures.
Series A: Patreon Raises $15 Million Series A, Revamps Site To Focus More On Content | June 2014 | TechCrunch’s coverage of Patreon’s 2014 $15 million Series A, which the company used to start rolling out features for creator content launches, develop an iOS mobile site, and ramp up hiring. The round was led by board member Danny Rimer of Index Ventures, with participation from 16 other VCs and angels including Alexis Ohanian, Sam Altman, David Marcus, Joshua Reeves and others.
Series B: Patreon Gains $30 Million Series B Funding To Support Growth | January 2016 | TechCrunch’s coverage of Patreon’s $30 million Series B in 2016, which was used to fuel expansion of the product team and development of a variety of new creator tools. The round was led by Thrive Capital, with Allen and Company, Charles River Ventures, Index Ventures, Accomplice and Freestyle Capital also contributing.
Series C: Patreon Raises Big Round At ~$450M Valuation To Get Artists Paid | September 2017 | TechCrunch’s coverage of Patreon’s $60 million Series C in late-2017 that valued the company at $450 million and was used to expand the team and help recruit more creators to the platform. The round was led by Chris Paik at Thrive Capital, with participation from Index Ventures, CRV, and Freestyle, and board member Barry Schuler at Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
Series C: Exciting News: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding! | September 2017 | In a post on Patreon’s blog, Jack Conte recounted Patreon’s path from inception to Series C and laid out his two-to-five year vision for Patreon at the time of the raise.
Series C: Behind the Scenes of Patreon’s Recent Fundraising Round | September 2017 | Then Data & Operations Lead Carlos Cabrera (now VP of Finance) walks through Patreon’s fundraising process for its Series C and shares three major takeaways for founders looking to fundraise.
Welcoming Goli Sheikholeslami to Patreon’s Board of Directors | April 2018 | In mid-2018, media industry veteran and executive Goli Sheikholeslami joined Patreon’s board of directors. In a blog post, Jack Conte outlines Goli’s experience and expertise, while detailing the benefits of agreeing to the election of an independent director with its investors during Patreon’s previous investment round.
V. Mergers & Acquisitions
Subbable
Patreon Acquires Subbable, Aligning the YouTube Stars | March 2015 | Forbes’ coverage of Patreon’s 2015 acquisition of video subscription service Subbable, which chronicles how the transaction took form after an announced system migration by the company’s previous payments processor, Amazon Payments, created concern that Subabble creators could be forced to re-authorize payments and lose subscribers.
Kit
Patreon Acquires Kit | June 2018 | In 2018, Patreon acquired Kit, a startup developing a logistics platform for creators to sell merch. In a blog post, Kit outlined why teaming up made sense and how the platform would be integrated into Patreon.
Memberful
Patreon Acquires Memberful | August 2018 | Patreon SVP of Product, Wyatt Jenkins, announces Patreon’s acquisition of Memberful, a subscription platform that allows creators to sell exclusive content through their own sites, which still operates as an independent brand. Jenkins explains how Patreon and Memberful’s offerings differ and when it makes sense for creators to use one platform over the other.
Patreon Buys Memberful But Keeps It Indie As Patronage Consolidates | August 2018 | Josh Constine’s coverage of Patreon’s acquisition of Memberful, which walks through the deal rationale and the broader trend of consolidation in the patronage industry as tech giants like Twitch, YouTube and Facebook enter the market.
Patreon Acquires Memberful, An Interview with Patreon CEO Jack Conte and Memberful CEO Drew Strojny | August 2018 | At the time of Acquisition, Ben Thompson said down with Jack Conte and Memberful CEO Drew Strojny to discuss the deal, possible synergies and the business models and evolutions of each platform.
VI. Creator Support
Graphtreon | Graphtreon is an independent website which estimates data on Patreon and creator performance using the company’s API, including monthly data sets and statistical analysis by the site’s creator Tom Boruta.
Why Patreon is the Most Important Part of Our Income. | April 2017 | In a blog post, German YouTube channel Kurzgesagt praises Patreon, explaining how the financial stability and security it provides allows creators to focus on content and survive as independent businesses.
VII. Criticism & Controversies
Business
Naval Ravikant on Twitter: Native Patreon Alternatives | October 2018 | Naval Ravikant (@naval) sparks a conversation on how Patreon interacts with alternative services after suggesting networks like Brave, Twitter, and Instagram should build “a lightweight and native version of Patreon” directly into their platforms.
Patreon Hacked, Gigabytes of Data And Code Leaked | October 2015 | TechCrunch coverage of a 2015 hack that saw the unauthorized access and dumping of Patreon user data.
Culture
No One Makes A Living on Patreon | December 2017 | In his late-2017 critique on The Outline, Brent Knepper explores income inequality amongst Patreon users and asserts that despite the promise of helping creators make a living, a minimal percentage make above minimum wage, with the vast majority of the earnings cited by the company coming from a very small minority of users.
Does Patreon Have a Crisis Quirk? | July 2018 | In a blog post, author and entrepreneur David Kadavy postulated that Patreon’s support model inadvertently incentivized “crises” as creators saw observable spikes in user backing when posting about a personal emergency. Kadavy provides a few case studies and questions whether other creator-backing models are more resistant to this dynamic.
The Perils of Hope Labor: How Patreon is Failing Starving Artists | March 2016 | Writer and Patreon user @saulofhearts criticizes the platform for promoting “hope labor” behavior from artists, in which they produce content for free or minimal return based on the hope of becoming one of the top creators on the platform and earn big.
Politics & Censorship
The Rubin Report: Patreon CEO Jack Conte: Lauren Southern, IGD, and Free Speech | July 2017 | In 2017, Jack Conte sat down with Libertarian comedian and political commentator David Rubin to discuss Patreon’s censorship policies and issues around free speech.
David Rubin & Jordan Peterson: Patreon: Problem & Solution, David Rubin & Jordan Peterson: We are Leaving Patreon and The Rubin Report: I’m Leaving Patreon: Ask Me Anything | December 2018 – January 2019 | In a series of videos, Rubin and Professor Jordan Peterson — who has been outspoken about his qualms with political correctness — announced they would be leaving Patreon and launching an alternative platform due to their concern and objection around censorship after several right-wing users were removed from the platform.
VIII. Market Analysis & Competitors
The News Revenue Hub and Donations, Patreon’s Update, How Big is Patreon’s Market? | June 2017 | In a 2017 post, Ben Thompson sizes up Patreon’s total addressable market and the global creator community.
Facebook Builds Patreon, Niche Clones to Lure Creators With Cash | March 2018 | Josh Constine outlines Facebook’s efforts to take on Patreon by launching its own creator services.
Kickstarter Launches Drip, A New Service That Lets Fans Subscribe to Their Favorite Creators | November 2017 | In late-2017, Kickstarter launched Drip, a competing service to Patreon that would allow users to make recurring payments to creators as opposed to Kickstarter’s traditional project-based donations.
Kickstarter Hands Drip Crowdfunding Platform Over to XOXO Founders | October 2018 | After less than one year of operations, Drip announced it would be shutting down.
Buy Me a Coffee – A U.K. based crowdfunding platform focused on smaller creators and one-off payments rather than subscriptions.
Pico – A New York-based venture-backed startup building tools for digital media publishers to manage subscription funnels, CRMs, marketing efforts and otherwise.
IX. Jobs Board & New Initiatives
Patreon Careers – Understand the company’s structure, gauge the company’s product strategy and keep track of new initiatives based on open job opportunity listings.
X. Events
PatreCon – Patreon’s annual conference for creators where you can sit in on speaking sessions and workshops hosted by leaders in the creator community.
This reading guide was written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York.
Patreon EC-1 Table of Contents
- Part 1: Origin Story
- Part 2: Product
- Part 3: Business
- Part 4: Investment Thesis
- Part 5: Competition
- Part 6: Reading Guide
- Part 7: The Future and Exit Analysis
Also check out other EC-1s on Extra Crunch.