Second Wind - Q3 Financial Report + Upcoming Plans

Hey folks,

Excited to share with you our Q3 report for Second Wind today as we remain committed to being transparent with you as a primarily fan-funded operation.

So, let's get the bad news out of the way first.

Q3 was pretty rough! 

It's been a tough few months with recent events causing a significant dip in our Patreon, July - August is historically some of the lowest month for ad rates as we hit the summer drought, our recent merch sale with the Adventure is Nigh plushies didn't do the numbers we were expecting, and with the quieter summer, of course sponsorships slowed down too after a very hectic start to the year.

Thankfully, as we explained when we started Second Wind, that's why we built out the warchest, so that if we did have a bad quarter, we had a strong safety net. We're all still learning how to run this thing to the best of our ability, and we definitely learned a lot during the previous quarter!

What's important to note here is that we're not in danger, our costs have adjusted since Q3 and everything is back moving in the right direction as we head into Q4.

A couple of the changes we've already made:

• Probably less event coverage videos like GDC or PAX West. While they're fun and we as a team wanted to test how they would do with our new audience, they're just not super cost effective due to the travel costs involved (at least for right now).

• Signed with Ace Creators. This is an influencer management agency that is working with us to acquire sponsorships from bigger brands. Think companies like LG, Asus, bigger publishers etc. There is no cost associated with this for us as they work on commission. I (Nick) continue to work on our smaller indie game sponsorships along with companies like GameMaker, Roll for Combat, and others.

• Rethinking merch strategy. While we will of course still have our fun branded merch for our shows, we also want to make merch that appeals to a wider audience. Expect some really cool new designs soon that we're working to make in collaboration with Shark Robot. We will have more consistent drops as well as we head into 2025.

• Quarterly tax payments. It's important to note from our Q2 report that while we reported a loss that quarter, it was planned. We raised a lot of money in 2023 when we launched and we had ZERO expenses for that year as we weren't paying ourselves yet. That tax bill was a big lump sum payment that we had planned for, and now in 2024 we're paying our taxes every quarter as noted in this month's report.

So, let's talk about what's coming up.

• Second Wind's One Year Anniversary Celebration. On November 16th we'll be streaming all day to celebrate the first year of Second Wind and raise funds for 2025! Since the very beginning of Second Wind, we planned to do one big fundraiser event once a year to help raise money for the year ahead. As we did when we launched, we'll have a new shirt design to celebrate, some fun announcements, and a day full of goofy streams as we celebrate and hang with the community.

• New merch. We had hoped to have the Blu-rays for Adventure is Nigh ready sooner, but they've taken a bit longer than expected to prep, and with the plushies not selling as well as we had hoped, we're going to hold off on releasing those Blu-rays until the start of Season 4 in early 2025. We have some really cool things on the way though that we'll announce soon.

• Metal Gear Untold. Javed has been toiling away on the most ambitious video he's ever made, and we're now prepping it for final release. He's put his heart and soul into making this, and we think it's going to blow you away when you see it. We'll share a release date at our One Year event!

• Animal Well Documentary. Editing on our Animal Well doc we shot earlier this year will be starting soon. Expect a first look at our One Year event in November!

• Adventure is Nigh! Season 4. Editing is in progress and we're on track to release in early 2025! Expect a first look at our One Year event in November!

• More collaborations & new voices. Now that Second Wind is heading into Year 2, we'll be focusing on a lot more outreach. We want to have more guests on our podcasts, work on cool videos with friends of the channel, and bring in new freelance voices to some of our video series like Bytesized, Battle Masters, and more.

Hopefully this report gave you a bit of an overview of the current state of things and what we've got coming up. Things have stabilized for us behind the scenes and we're excited to celebrate the first year of Second Wind with you in just a few short weeks. We've got a lot of exciting stuff in the works for you.

As always, we appreciate your support both financially, but also in making this community a great place to be for discussing our favorite hobbies. If you enjoy our work and haven't signed up to the Patreon yet, we would appreciate your consideration in doing so!

Nick Calandra
Creative Director