Second Wind Q1 Financial Report! (Jan 1st, 2024 - March 31st, 2024)
Added 2024-04-03 22:30:16 +0000 UTCExtremely proud to share our Q1 (Jan 1st - March 31st) financial report today! While Patreon has expectedly slowed down, we've increased our revenue from other sources as we stick to our plan of diversifying our revenue streams to never rely on just one.
Starting in January, I set a goal for myself and our Head of Sales, Cisco Araneta, to bring in $20K of sponsorships per month and we've hit or exceeded that goal three months in a row now, including April already!
We've maintained our expenses, spent money smartly as we traveled a lot in March for in-person filming of Adventure is Nigh - Season 4 and GDC, and have sought out other opportunities to raise money like our recent collaboration with Slugfest Games for the AiN Kickstarter.
Overall things are going very well for us, and just like at The Escapist, the team is hustling every day to earn every dollar that comes our way. Our next big event is April 18th which will be a charity event, and then in May we'll do our six-month fundraiser.
We will no longer be doing a Kickstarter campaign for Second Wind. Not necessary at this point, but we will do a fun fundraiser event in May with the goal of continuing to add funds to our Warchest for sustainability as we will be adding insurance to our expenses very soon.
As always, we appreciate all the support you've given us and in May, along with the fundraiser, we have a lot of cool new things to share and announce!
Comments
Why is plastic non-recyclable? How bad are the workers being treated? And in what way are supplies being strong-armed? I know Hello Fresh is a relatively large company but I doubt they have the market share to seriously strong arm their supplies.
Gage Eakins
2024-04-06 19:50:30 +0000 UTCAnd here's to many more!!
Kedzie
2024-04-05 19:36:22 +0000 UTCCan't argue with that :) you're right too, I have no idea on what sort of budget scale an operation on yours works. If you like doing it then that's great, but (for me at least) don't feel obliged to should you need to divert your attention to other things. Just keep up the channel really! I'm so glad you guys managed to keep going after The Escapist.
Steven Thomas
2024-04-05 12:15:43 +0000 UTCThis is a fascinating read, I wish more companies and creators gave a look behind the curtain like this!
Callum Lackie
2024-04-04 16:20:18 +0000 UTCI just wanted to add that as a business and HR Analyst, I really appreciate the transparency. It's really cool to see how the content sausage is made, and I thank you guys for making the inner workings so clear.
William G
2024-04-04 16:20:13 +0000 UTCWe do these reports because we want to! We want our community to be privy to our progress, and know how the money they're giving us is being used. It also helps to show some of the innerworkings of a media business like this as a lot of people don't understand how expensive media actually is.
Nick Calandra
2024-04-04 14:46:23 +0000 UTCLove hearing your goals and that you’ve achieved them!
NINJACHICKEN893
2024-04-04 14:27:59 +0000 UTCYeah, numbers should have similar significant digits. All have cents or round cents off.
NINJACHICKEN893
2024-04-04 14:25:19 +0000 UTCMistreatment of workers, strongarming suppliers, and producing huge amounts of non-recyclable plastic waste.
Toksyuryel
2024-04-04 13:01:37 +0000 UTCWhat’s wrong with Hello Fresh?
Megan Tierney
2024-04-04 12:26:29 +0000 UTCThis is great, I'm glad you guys are doing so well, but I don't think this amount of transparency is really needed. If you were a magazine that you released every month we'd just pay for it and not worry - I kind of feel the same with patreon - I like what you do, I'm happy to pay for it. What you do with the money you get is up to you, and if I don't like what you're putting out I'll stop paying.
Steven Thomas
2024-04-04 08:05:25 +0000 UTCGreat to see!
Alistair Hathaway
2024-04-04 07:40:44 +0000 UTCPlease be sure to always vet your sponsors before accepting them! Don't feel like you have to accept a bad sponsor just to meet your goal. I don't wanna see you guys doing business with the likes of Hello Fresh or Better Help.
Toksyuryel
2024-04-04 06:48:00 +0000 UTCThe inconsistent formatting of these numbers is quite something. At first glance sponsorship looks no bigger than merch until you realise it's got no decimal point 😅 Great to see the non-patreon revenue streams starting to really make a difference.
Rich Francis
2024-04-04 06:09:58 +0000 UTCThanks for clarifying!
May Contain Fox-Like Substance
2024-04-04 05:07:29 +0000 UTCLove the transparency. Super cool to see that indie games journalism can work.
Max Goldstein
2024-04-04 02:19:54 +0000 UTCThis is great! I appreciate the transparency and love knowing that you are working to be sustainable. Definitely shows that you know what you're doing (as much as anyone can, at least)
T Taylor
2024-04-04 00:48:12 +0000 UTCNo Donations are payments directly through Paypal or Ko-Fi.
Nick Calandra
2024-04-04 00:45:46 +0000 UTCAre "Donations" the superchats and whatnot from the livestreams split out from overall YouTube revenue and listed separately?
May Contain Fox-Like Substance
2024-04-04 00:22:09 +0000 UTCGlad to see you guys doing well. Keep on rockin'!
Enrico Balducci
2024-04-04 00:20:09 +0000 UTCThe content is consistently entertaining and posted regularly. Can't ask for better than that.
John Smith
2024-04-04 00:19:24 +0000 UTCGlad to see ya'll are doing well!
FritzTheWolf
2024-04-04 00:05:55 +0000 UTCGreat work, everyone. Well deserved and deep down (maybe not so deep down?) it’s gotta feel good to be able to show Gamurs you were right all along.
Tdot’s Finest82
2024-04-03 23:56:58 +0000 UTCThe rest of us can chip in a few dollars more to help out. You're already giving what you can, don't sweat it.
Colby Scheff
2024-04-03 23:15:22 +0000 UTCSelfish request, but would you kindly put these posts in a collection for the future? Some of us nerds like to see trend data.
Kelley Engineering
2024-04-03 23:01:08 +0000 UTCMakes sense to me!
Russell Schafer
2024-04-03 22:58:58 +0000 UTCGood work Nick
Scottpligrimrules
2024-04-03 22:54:19 +0000 UTC"Warchest" is basically what we have in the bank. The idea is to always have a good chunk of money there to make sure we're sustainable!
Nick Calandra
2024-04-03 22:53:30 +0000 UTCDude, you are doing more than 99% of people are doing who watch this channel for free. Don't feel bad at all. You are helping bring some level of joy to a teen who has no money but enjoys watching games journalism.
Russell Schafer
2024-04-03 22:51:09 +0000 UTCThis is a solid P&L so far. My biggest question is the "warchest." Is this a rainy day fund or to fund growth in the future or is it just an unknown at this point?
Russell Schafer
2024-04-03 22:50:06 +0000 UTCAs far as staff goes we're not hiring anytime soon. The next step will be creating a freelance budget to help bring in occasional new voices to streams, Bytesized, etc. Main goal overtime is to increase wages for people at a sustainable rate. We're already paying better salaries for every person that was underpaid at Gamurs, so we're off to a very good start! But other than that, aside from new video projects, we're pretty much set "size" wise!
Nick Calandra
2024-04-03 22:46:27 +0000 UTCLove the transparency! Very excited to see an employee-owned business taking off
Doc Furan
2024-04-03 22:43:18 +0000 UTCSo glad to see you guys succeeding. Glad to be contributing a couple dollars a month + YouTube engagement. Sorry I can't contribute more, I'm unemployed and about to go back to school so I'm not getting a big boy paycheck for another few years haha
Kyle E Johnson
2024-04-03 22:40:34 +0000 UTCNice job - What do you think your cut-of point is going to be for growth, or how big do you envision getting?
MrBookBoy
2024-04-03 22:39:00 +0000 UTCThis is awesome- love seeing this stuff. Great work!
Krossland Shaw
2024-04-03 22:38:17 +0000 UTCCongratulations! Feels good to witness such a rapid ascent for what is now an independent media company! Proof positive that we don't need huge corporations!
KrakkenZombie
2024-04-03 22:37:59 +0000 UTCI love the transparency and insight
Wesley Squyars
2024-04-03 22:37:46 +0000 UTCThe transparency is much appreciated, thanks for the update!
Tyler King
2024-04-03 22:37:15 +0000 UTCKeep up the great work, Nick!
Brian S
2024-04-03 22:37:09 +0000 UTC
