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Tag: Jack Conte

  • Patreon Layoffs Continue With 80 Individuals Impacted

    Patreon Layoffs Continue With 80 Individuals Impacted

    On the heels of news Patreon laid off its internal security staff, the company is laying off 17% of its employees, or 80 individuals.

    CEO Jack Conte made the announcement in a letter to employees, saying the company would lay off 80 of its staff.

    Hi team – I have some difficult news. Today we will lay off 80 Patreon teammates from our Go-to-Market, Operations, Finance, and People teams, with roughly 17% of our team leaving the company.

    Like many companies, Patreon’s short-term business plans were based on the assumption that pandemic-fueled growth would continue unabated, only to see that plan become obsolete as the economy slowed.

    The pandemic introduced volatility to the broader trend, starting with a rapid acceleration during COVID lockdowns. In response, we built an operating plan to support this outsized growth, but as the world began recovering from the pandemic and enduring a broader economic slowdown, that plan is no longer the right path forward for Patreon. I take full responsibility for choosing that original path forward, and for the changes today, which will be very difficult for our team.

    Conte reiterated his belief in the creator economy and Patron’s commitment to supporting creators.

    In fact, I’m more confident than ever that the world needs a better economic system for creative people, and Patreon will keep building that system for creators over the decades ahead.

    The company will be closing its Dublin and Berlin offices as part of the downsizing, as well as consolidating its engineering teams in the US. Patreon is offering its nine engineering employees in Dublin relocation packages if they want to move to the US and continue working for the company.

    The Berlin staff were not so lucky, as most of those employees were in the Sales and Marketing department, which the company is downsizing.

  • Patreon Building Video Product to Help Creators Break Free of YouTube

    Patreon Building Video Product to Help Creators Break Free of YouTube

    Patreon is working on a video platform to help creators break free of their reliance on YouTube, a move that could have a major impact on the market.

    YouTube has long been the preferred video platform for content creators, although the relationship has not always been a rosy one. YouTube’s algorithms occasionally de-prioritizes content unfairly, and YouTube has de-monetized entire categories of videos.

    Many creators have taken to using Patreon to supplement their income, receiving donations from patrons that enjoy their content. According to The Verge, Patreon CEO Jack Conte says the company is building a video platform that could completely replace YouTube for many creators.

    “We already host podcasts, and now we’re starting to host video, as well,” he says. “We’re building a video product … So in terms of how we’ve approached our strategy, and what exactly it is that we’re building, we’re building the horizontal architecture for any creator, no matter their medium, or no matter the upload format, to be able to build a business around their work.”

    A Patreon video platform could be a game-changer for the subscription economy, and could eventually put a serious dent in YouTube’s popularity.