What's everybody, Jack Conte here,
CEO Patreon.
Patreon just raised 90 million
bucks.
Woo hoo! This is super exciting.
I wanted to make a video.
Take a second connect with the
community. I feel like too often as
companies scale, they
lose touch with their communities.
They lose touch with their roots.
And I don't want to do that.
I'm right here.
I'm reading the comments.
I'm answering questions.
I'm also doing an AMA.
If you want to come ask me any
questions or our head of finance
specifics, details in the
doobley do down below.
The other reason I wanted to make a
video is because I wanted to share
some information with you.
We're releasing some information
that we've never released before,
which is how much is Patreon worth?
What is the valuation of the
company?
We've never talked about that, which
I'm going to get into the reasons
for that in a little bit.
But first, I wanted to talk about
what this means for you as a
creator.
Since the inception of Patreon,
creators have made over two billion
dollars.
In a couple months creators will be
making over a billion dollars
a year from their patrons on
Patreon. This is a big
moment for creativity.
There's three things that are around
the bend for creators.
First, internationalization.
Second, improved
patron experiences.
And third, discovery.
First, internationalization.
The reason international is so
important is because three quarters
of creators are outside of the U.S..
The second reason is important is
because it means that creators get a
raise. Creators make 30 to 60
percent more.
When patrons see a currency that
they're used to. I remember when we
launched on Patreon, there were
creators saying, this is great.
Can I have it, Euros?
Can I have it in German?
And the answer is yes.
We launched Euros and Pounds a
couple of months ago.
Canadian dollars and Australian
dollars are on the way.
We launched in German a couple days
ago. You can expect French and
Italian and Spanish coming down the
pipe and more languages on
the way as well.
More payment methods too, the
ability for patrons to pay with
local payment methods to make it
easier for patrons.
This is super exciting.
Patreon tracks,
collects and remits sales
tax on behalf of creators.
So you don't have to lift a finger.
I made a video about that link in
the description below.
This is awesome.
It means more patrons for creators,
more value for creators, more
ability for creators to grow their
businesses. The second thing that
you can expect from us is improved
patron experiences.
We talked to creators and we say
creators. What do you want?
They say a better experience for my
patrons, make it
easier for my patrons to do
everything they want to do,
specifically content, community
and merch.
We're investing in better content
consumption experiences and better
content authoring experiences on the
creators side, improving the mobile
experience, helping patrons take out
their phone and have a better
content consumption experience.
Feel more connected to the community
on the community front.
When patrons join the creators
Patreon, they expect to
be joining something bigger than
themselves and they report that it
doesn't quite feel like that yet.
And we need to make the product
better at helping you as a creator,
connect with your patrons and
helping those patrons connect with
each other. Third thing is merch.
We've invested a lot in our merch
product and it's killing it.
I'm so excited about what we've done
with merch. We now have six items.
We got stickers, mugs,
posters, T-shirts,
tote bags, hoodies, and we
deliver to over 231 regions
around the globe and creators
don't have to lift a finger.
Another example of improving the
core patron experience is something
like annual memberships.
We rolled it out.
So if you're a creator, you can now
turn on annual memberships,
which gives your patrons the ability
to pay annually instead of monthly.
It's a really good feature.
Helps you make more money.
It's something that your fans want
and you should turn it on.
So if you're hearing about this for
the first time, go watch
our annual memberships video.
I made a video about it linked to
the doobley do down below.
Let's talk about discovery.
This is the third bucket of things
that you can expect from us.
Better search, discovery and explore
experiences.
Creators say you make me go on a
YouTube, you make you go to
Facebook, make me go to Twitter and
bring my audiences to Patreon.
Why don't you send me patrons
when I go on to YouTube?
YouTube sends me audience.
Why don't you send me audience?
And what patrons say is, gosh, it's
really hard to find and support the
creators that I love.
There's all these creators that I
know I loved, Patreon, and you make
it really hard for me to find those
people. That's a problem that we can
fix.
Imagine things like being able to
search for topics or content, being
able to explore by types of creators
and genres. And as a creator,
just by being on Patreon the
ecosystem is sending you patrons
that know you and love your work.
We're building out that
functionality right now.
Okay, let's talk about Patreon's
valuation.
Patreon's been valued at one point
two billion dollars.
We've never released Patreon's
valuation before.
The reason we haven't talked about
Patreon's valuation because I don't
want to make it about Patreon, I
want to make it about our creators.
I want to make it about the things
that they're doing, the businesses
they're building their stories,
the way that they're changing
creativity.
And yet, here we are.
We're saying Patreon's worth one
point two billion dollars.
And why are we doing that?
We're doing that for two reasons.
First, in this round of financing,
we're having to go out and send a
lot of information to a lot of
people and we're pretty sure it's
going to get out there anyway.
And I'd rather you hear it from us
and from me than reading some random
article about it and not
understanding what it means for you
as creators. The second reason is
because this is actually a very
significant moment and I do want to
give it the gravity it deserves.
This level of belief
in Patreon is
proof.
It's proof that the
world is changing, the world
is different than it was seven years
ago.
It is now possible to
be an independent,
financially viable, creative
business on the Web and be killin
it.
Hey, guys, welcome to the "Beleef in
Fatherhood" Patreon page.
Welcome to my Patreon page.
We have over 13 hundred content
creators sign up, it
is now possible to build a
career.
I think that the Patreon route is
really important.
It allows me to do things that I
have not been able to do in the
past.
By signing up you're helping us to
keep doing what we love.
I remember having to pitch Patreon
to people.
And gosh, a lot of people didn't
even think that that was possible.
We now have eight employees.
I'm on the roof for office.
We have 20000 creators using
Patreon and we have 150 creators
signing up a day.
And the world. Seven years from now
it's going to be even more
different.
The stigma of the starving artists
is going to fade away.
It's the reason that Patreon exists
in the first place.
That is awesome.
And I'm going to end their.
