Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

patreonhq.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 64 posts

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#41

Post by replicatorblog »

countdownnet wrote: post #18

For those wondering why Patreon went for more funding even though they should make about $7.5 million this year from the 5% fee they charge: They are growing faster than their current cash flow can handle and need to increase their staff beyond the 70+ they already employ. They are still a "young startup" where they can get this sort of funding where a standard growing business would get a loan.

There are a lot of unsatisfying answers to this question on the thread. Put another way, why does Patreon need $60M when Kickstarter grew to 134 FTEs on $10M investment?

+ Is it that Patreon is managed worse?

+ That the ecosystem has changed in the last few years?

+ Are they trying to do something substantively more intensive than Kickstarter?

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#42

Post by sbov »

firmgently wrote: post #34
k__ wrote: post #3

it's sad that content creators have to beg for money or litter their stuff with ads :/

I wish I could get my head around this, I'm an artist and people tell me my work is good and I do sell some, but I can't bring myself to go on to Patreon because I feel like it's begging (although weirdly I only apply this to myself, I don't think badly of other people that do it... but then I don't look down on people who beg anyway, I grok St. Francis of Assisi so I'm not sure what all of this means). Meanwhile I'v…

> I'm an artist and people tell me my work is good and I do sell some

It's interesting that we might view Patreon as "begging", rather than selling your work to more people, for a smaller amount.

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#43

Post by otakucode »

stcredzero wrote: post #29

And there are dozens of you making over $30k per month!! Is there any way of browsing these creators? How many creators make money at the rate of $40k per year? Also, is there a typical curve that earnings follow over time?

The biggest earners are, to the best of my knowledge, mostly adult artists. Not porn stars, but artists who create erotic artwork, often for 'niche' communities. I imagine Patreon does not want to shout too loudly about that sort of thing, but I am extremely glad they are there making the world a better place. Our culture can never be made 'advertiser friendly' overall and its disgusting to see the degree of puritanical prudishness on display at most tech companies. They are stultifying human culture and actively preventing actual humans to be the ones determining what constitutes our culture. Patreon works directly against that, and for that they are angels.

If they ever move to boot adult creators, that will be the day Patreon dies. If they ever get bought by Google or some other tech titan, it will be that day instead.

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#44

Post by throwaway40483 »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #19
probably_wrong wrote: post #4

Could someone explain why Patreon needs to raise funding? I thought a service built with the express concept of collecting money (and a very popular service at that) wouldn't need external funding. Also, in an unrelated point, > I had been making YouTube videos with my band, Pomplamoose Finally! I thought I was crazy for thinking it was the same guy. If you haven't listened to his band, you definitely should.

Something I have to continually fight is my own perceptions. Because, I agree with you, I think Patreon is well known, they should be crazy profitable, etc. But if you look at the larger scheme of things: How many Podcasts have a Patreon? How many YouTube channels? Is it even on their radar? And the answer is of course -> fractions of a single digit percentage. Even compared to some other "competitors" they are quite…

Crazy profitable? They make $7.5M in revenue with 70 engineers (in SF?). Sounds to me like they might actually be losing money.

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#45

Post by ekimekim »

firmgently wrote: post #34
k__ wrote: post #3

it's sad that content creators have to beg for money or litter their stuff with ads :/

I wish I could get my head around this, I'm an artist and people tell me my work is good and I do sell some, but I can't bring myself to go on to Patreon because I feel like it's begging (although weirdly I only apply this to myself, I don't think badly of other people that do it... but then I don't look down on people who beg anyway, I grok St. Francis of Assisi so I'm not sure what all of this means). Meanwhile I'v…

I highly encourage you to get on something like patreon!

I support a number of artists on patreon, and I don't think of it as giving a handout or see them as begging - I'm paying them for the content that I consume, and I'm paying them to give them incentive (edit: and means) to continue producing that content. Sure, there's no formal contract, but I consider it a form of "work for pay" all the same.

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#47

Post by s73ver_ »

countdownnet wrote: post #18

For those wondering why Patreon went for more funding even though they should make about $7.5 million this year from the 5% fee they charge: They are growing faster than their current cash flow can handle and need to increase their staff beyond the 70+ they already employ. They are still a "young startup" where they can get this sort of funding where a standard growing business would get a loan.

Wouldn't a loan be the better option, though? That way no one gets their ownership dilluted.

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#48

Post by rdiddly »

k__ wrote: post #3

it's sad that content creators have to beg for money or litter their stuff with ads :/

Of the two, beg (a.k.a. ask) for money is preferable - it's more direct and more relevant. Imagine showing up to your job and the only way to get paid was to sell ads to some other third company and show the ads to your employer. The ad model has needed a good "disrupting" for a long time...

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#49

Post by [deleted] »

replicatorblog wrote: post #41
countdownnet wrote: post #18

For those wondering why Patreon went for more funding even though they should make about $7.5 million this year from the 5% fee they charge: They are growing faster than their current cash flow can handle and need to increase their staff beyond the 70+ they already employ. They are still a "young startup" where they can get this sort of funding where a standard growing business would get a loan.

There are a lot of unsatisfying answers to this question on the thread. Put another way, why does Patreon need $60M when Kickstarter grew to 134 FTEs on $10M investment? + Is it that Patreon is managed worse? + That the ecosystem has changed in the last few years? + Are they trying to do something substantively more intensive than Kickstarter?

[deleted]

Re: We’ve Raised $60M in New Funding

#50

Post by s73ver_ »

cryptoz wrote: post #13
probably_wrong wrote: post #4

Could someone explain why Patreon needs to raise funding? I thought a service built with the express concept of collecting money (and a very popular service at that) wouldn't need external funding. Also, in an unrelated point, > I had been making YouTube videos with my band, Pomplamoose Finally! I thought I was crazy for thinking it was the same guy. If you haven't listened to his band, you definitely should.

> Could someone explain why Patreon needs to raise funding? I thought a service built with the express concept of collecting money (and a very popular service at that) wouldn't need external funding. I don't know the details of Patreon, but profitable companies raise money all the time. Patreon is presumably a startup, and has growth in mind. It is likely that they want to grow faster than their current cash flow wou…

"It is likely that they want to grow faster than their current cash flow would allow - in fact, they may need to do this in order to survive in the long term."

Do they really, though?

Post reply on HN