The archive · Business Models · Financial decision · 2013–2017
Patreon (2013): fans fund creators per video, not per view
In May 2013 Jack Conte launched Patreon so fans pledge per video or per month; within weeks his $100-per-video ad income became $5,000.
Patreon
What it had to solve
Jack Conte's 'Pedals' video cost $10,000 and three months; a million YouTube views would pay about $100 in ads. Kickstarter funded one-off projects, not weekly bloggers and YouTubers, so Conte wanted a way for fans to fund each future work.
How it works
In early 2013 musician Jack Conte, one half of Pomplamoose, had spent three months and $10,000 on his video 'Pedals,' with a set full of real robots. A million YouTube views would earn him about $100 in ad revenue. He sketched a different model on 14 sheets of printer paper and brought it to Stanford roommate Sam Yam: a site where fans pledge money per video or per month instead of per view.
Patreon launched May 7, 2013 with Conte as the guinea-pig creator; he asked $1 per video and offered patrons-only streams, presale tickets and Google Hangouts. Within weeks fans were committing more than $5,000 per video, against his usual $100. 'He needs monthly income, and Patreon brings crowd funding away from singular one-off projects and into the realm of regular content creation,' Conte told TechCrunch on launch day.
By 2017 Patreon had 50,000 creators and over a million patrons, was on track to pay out $150M that year, and took just a 5% cut; a $60M Series C valued it near $450M. The Verge called it 'the economic engine of internet culture,' and its mission — funding the creative class — became the blueprint of the creator economy.
Why it lands
- It changed the unit of payment from the view to the person: fans fund the creator's next work, not a single campaign.
- The founding use case was Conte's own: a creator whose $10,000 video earned $100 from ads built the tool he needed.
- Recurring pledges gave creators predictable monthly income, exactly what one-off crowdfunding couldn't provide.
- A 5% cut kept the platform cheap enough to undercut ad platforms' 45% take, aligning Patreon's growth with creators' pay.
What it did
Fans committed over $5,000 per video within weeks of launch against his usual $100; by 2017 Patreon had 50,000 creators and over a million patrons, was on track to pay out $150M, and raised a $60M Series C at about a $450M valuation.
What you can take
When ads can't cover the cost of making something, don't fight the rate — change who pays: recurring patronage turned a creator's audience into a salary and made the creative class fundable.
Since then
Patreon acquired rival Subbable in 2015, and by early 2019 had 170 employees and over $100M raised. The per-creation model eventually shifted toward monthly memberships, while the idea it proved — fans paying creators directly on a recurring basis — spread across the creator economy. Conte stayed on as CEO, still funding his own music on the platform he built.
Sources
- Pomplamoose's Jack Conte Creates A Subscription-Based Funding Site For Artists
- Inside Patreon, the economic engine of internet culture
- Patreon raises big round at ~$450M valuation to get artists paid
- The founding story of Patreon
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