SecondWindGroup patreon

Second Wind - First Month Revenue Report

🕑 Added 2023-12-04 20:22:11 +0000 UTC

Comments

Kellic

LOL. Warchest. FOR THE HONOR OF THE KINGDOM!!! ATTACK!!!!

Sylfest Strutle

My thoughts exactly. I don't know why every avenue needs to milked, will the videos be censored again on youtube for us to have to go here for the real stuff? I hope we can pay so everyone gets the real experience on YT. But I don't know your salaries so maybe you need every penny. Anyway, I am a happy subscriber 😊

ryan evans

creators being this transparency is so refreshing to see, and I'm overjoyed that the community has come together like this and everyone is being paid properly. great start and loving the content.

Autumn Leonard

Came here to say exactly this! Many people are worried about sharing this much lest they look like they're doing "too well" and lose support. Glad that SW trusts their audience.

Tomasz Chrośniak

This is a great start! Hope it's going to be stable enough to allow you to experiment!

DOSGamerMan

Thank you.

kolby

This is cool. Thank you nick

SpaceCowboyCoastToCoast

So excited and love seeing revenue reports!

DEMONxMAN

I have never donated to anything that came from YouTube. I always said I would donate to one channel or another but never did. I saw a video on GamersNexus that talked about what happened with your former overlords and led me to you y'alls new channel. Upon seeing the first Fully ramblomatic video, I literally got out of my chair, retrieved my wallet, and made a patron account just to subscribe. I know it's not much but, you guys are inspiring. I love the new channel and can't wait to see what comes next! Love you guys and here's to more! (Sorry for the text wall)

Dave Phetteplace

I love you are all doing so well!

silvergazer31

Thank you very much for sharing this with us, its good to see transparency and up-front economic honesty. I also think it would be really cool if, in a few months or a year, you did a video that covered these topics in greater detail, sorta like "so here's what we did, what we learned and what we would have done different/better if we could do it again from the start. If you're interested in starting your own independent organization, here's a realistic breakdown of startup costs and fees, income generation breakdown, the roles you're gonna need to fill and tech you need to have everyone work seamlessly while being spread out location wise, etc." Both for nerds like me who appreciate when the support staff and technical guys on the back-end get some props, and also for people who are looking to do a similar thing of their own.

Serpenttao

Really appreciate the transparency, and the lessons we can learn from this. Hoping for your continued success!

Cory McLean

Can't wait for the Kickstarter so I can drop more fliff on you guys

Nick Calandra

It's a shifting number right now with Yahtzee, Jack, Omar and I all committing to salary reductions. The goal is to get us back to what we were making at Gamurs, give the full-timers that never got raises to Gamurs up to parity with the other full-timers, and then we'll have that final number. We have those numbers planned out, but that's something we are keeping underwraps for now to not give people the wrong idea that we don't need continued funding.

Will Cooling

No worries if you don't know the amount yet, but it might be worth including how much the ten fulltimers will be paid once they start taking a salary come February. That way you people can place in context your revenue figures in proper context.

Russell Schafer

You aren't poor but it does depend on where you are in life. To a 22 year old single person with no kids in OKC no college loans, 9k a month is living large. If you are 42 with a spouse and 3 kids living in suburban California though, 9k a month gets burned thru pretty quick.

Goblin University

This is so refreshing to see, and informative as someone who's hoping to eventually grow. I did chuckle at the equipment though. Was the only expense someone losing their Shure MV7 in the move? XD

4Bob

Great to see this. I love how you all communicate with the community!

Thenedor III, Steward of Rondog

Maybe I'm just poor is is 9k a month not a decent salary?

Zane Starmann

Thanks for sharing this Nick, love the transparency and how everything is going so far!

ergotpoisoning

fantastic stuff, long may it continue. so happy to contribute to something like this

walt m

this is why we followed you, nick. honest transparency is so refreshing.

Kutharos

Doing a warchest fund is really putting me at ease. Thank you for the transparency.

vapid

even though it doesn't effect the viewers, it's nice to know there's a healthy profit here, I hope it continues and increases, cheers to your early success and hope it gets' better, you all deserve good wages for the great work!

Stephen Quadro

Excellent. If we truly want more of a thing. We need to ensure it’s sustainable. Hopefully the maths come out and we all can continue exchanging $ for good content and creators.

WordsmithofSol

Incredible start. Keep going. We're behind you!

Boorulz

I love seeing how transparent you all are being with your finances. I've never been part of a Patreon that had done this. Bravo.

Simeon

It looks like a lot if you're used to personal finances, but for a business of this size that's a really tight budget! At a wild guess I think they'll need to be at about twice this to pay the full time employees and have a stable reserve.

Russell Schafer

I do hope I'm just a worrywort. I'll continue to be a 50 dollar a month supporter bc I like this group and it brings joy to people and fuck knows that I don't.

JT

I'm very glad to see another person here who saw the numbers and thought "woah, that's gonna be really tight" instead of "wow, they've got so much money!".

JT

I share this concern. I think most people have no idea how expensive salary is. They'll see this ~$80k surplus and think "wow, they've got so much money! They don't need mine", rather than "oh, wow, that's pretty tight once they start paying staff, I should get friends to sub too". I shared this with friends, along with an explanation of why more support was needed. But I worry that you'll lose more people than you gain, all total. :( Your Q1 report might be confusing too, since it'll only have two months of salary in it.

Unsaved Trash

This transparency and honesty to want to make something good and timeless are the reason I want to support y'all. Thank you all for all your hard work.

Jake

What do you expect you'll need regularly per month as far as benchmarks so you can stay alive and keep making content while maybe, hopefully, getting health insurance back? I want you guys to make it. I wish I could give more. If I can next year I will!

Nick Calandra

We will when we have taxes to report! Comes with getting incorporated and having an actual business bank account.

Shawna Canon

I suppose you'd have to factor in the people on Patron who specifically chose the tier to not have to view sponsors and are paying more than they otherwise would. Would be funny if they're getting more money from people willing to pay to not see sponsors than they are from the sponsors.

van_Zeller

Please add taxes when and where appropriate. Gross numbers are well and good but the tax man cometh!

Nick Foxtails

never thought i'd be seeing financial reports on the state of the channel. though it is nice to have an idea how things are going.

Nick Calandra

We have quite a few interested through Jan 2024, you'll see that number increase.

Connor Swenke

YEAH!!! THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO SEE!! You all rock. I'm so, so happy for, and proud of, you all. You deserve every bit of the love and support you're getting, and then some. Here's to 2024! 💙

Chrono Flux

Happy for you guys and love the transparency :)

Jari

At $2500 the sponsors do not seem worth it, but maybe that will increase?

Jerry

Do you guys have an estimate for the revenue hit that may occur once the hype dies down and people who jumped on the bandwagon withdraw their support? That's been my main concern for you guys. Well, that and whether you 10 will be able to take home comfortable salaries.

Mark The Bob

Thank you for sharing this, this really is encouraging to see that money is being used towards a good cause

Sean Ogden

Great work Nick and team, we’re behind you

Scottpligrimrules

Woah business numbers. Thanks Nick

TheHolm

Wow thank you for the answer. Mad respect to all of you for the work you do and the sacrifices you make. It is truly inspiring!

TheHolm

Also i would add a big, very visible banner on top stating that FTE's are not taking pay until after jan 31st, just to drive home that the high revenue is temporary.

Russell Schafer

As a guy who runs a small business (I'm a dentist), I applaud yall's hard work. It is wonderful to see you using your goodwill and getting Patreon subscribers. I will say that people forgoing pay for 3 months is pretty radical and that does show committment from you and your team. However, I am concerned about paying ten people's salaries on 94k a month. I know you plan to do a kickstarter which I love, but certainly that you aren't going to do that routinely. How do you plan on growing your income streams?

Nick Calandra

We're not sure yet. Yahtzee, Omar, Jack and myself (Nick) all agreed to significant salary cuts, and also made sure to get raises to some of our FTE that were not paid enough at our previous company. So moving target. We'll be able to divulge those numbers once we hit Jan 31.

TheHolm

How much do you expect to pay your FTE's in total per month after jan 31st?

Pete3.141

Great to see this level of Transparency - you can count on my Patreon sub 👍👍

Christopher Hosking

Absolutely fantastic! Now I just pray that not too many patreon subs get lax and feel their contribution is no longer needed since "oh it looks like they're doing well enough to not need my measly or sub"

Maur Razimtheth

Wow... That Patreon inflow is incredible. What's the benefit to Incorporation that places it on the to-do list? Also, deeply respect the bold transparency.

Nick Calandra

Not really even that, as we're not backpaying for these months either. We just start fresh with salaries after that date. So we truly are building a warchest of funds to pull from.

Nomp

Well done.

Randolph Thomas II

Excellent! Wishing you much success!!

Eric McKenney

Understood.. "not being accounted for yet" is a better phrase, perhaps?

Nick Calandra

It's not lacking, we're not paying salaries yet if you read the notes. No full-time salaries being paid (as we all agreed) until January 31st, 2024. Once we pay ourselves, it will be included!

TwilightShadow

This is awesome to see! I really hope that the numbers hold after this first month of Patreon subs.

Eric McKenney

I imagine y'all already know, but this information lacking the full timer's deductions can make people start to pull back their donations out of a misunderstanding of the true cost based on the available numbers. Other Patreon folks have masked their monthly numbers, not too avoid transparency, but because they are a smaller outfit and (without hiring a full time accountant to make all their operating costs visible and explain they're barely breaking even,) patrons start dropping based on perceived surplus income. This level of transparency should help though, and I hope y'all continue to do amazingly well!

Thall

Thanks for the breakdown! Really good to see that, very interesting that Youtube is relatively small profit.

Leo, The Lion

Wow, you're making a shitton of money, congrats! I really appreciate the transparency.

Manav Sridharan

Excel sheets with second wind graphics, love it

JT

Ah. So it's all "small" jobs with a handful of billed hours, not your week-long content creation. That makes a lot of sense. So I assume that means Yahtzee, Frost, JM8 (and Ludo!), etc, are all full-timers? That's awesome news. Always glad for creators to have a stable living, rather than constantly worrying about where their next paycheck is coming from.

Nick Calandra

A lot. Lol.

lookitsaneric

Hell fucking yeah

Antiphar

Thank you so much for your transparency. I am happy to do my little part to help support you all doing business based on values and integrity.

Ryallen

Having a warchest is a good idea. Is there anything that you guys wanted to do but weren't able to before that might be possible now/in the near future?

Jared

I'm a CPA - let me know if you need any help on the financial reporting side :)

Tyler Blair

Of course. The sum is more than enough.

Brian S

Great work Nick, keep it up!

Nick Calandra

Yea, freelancer costs right now is just tied to branding, music, moderators, streaming etc. Haven't started content just yet with freelancers, but will be soon!

Kai

Amazing. Love the transparency

TheAestheticFur

I am genuinely proud that you made so much profit from your first month! Your shows are amazing, the guys @ Gamurs don’t know what they miss out on. Keep up the quality of your shows, guys!

WookieTiddy

It's very cool how you've decided to be transparent. I actually love it.

JT

I'm struck by just how little money you've spent. Less than $5k on freelancers in a month means they're either very cheap, or there's not nearly as many of them as I'd have expected. I'll be interested to see what your outflow ends up being for salaries. With 10 (extremely talented and irreplaceable) people, I would guess somewhere in the ballpark of $75k/mo, including benefits. (With huge error bars related to cost-of-living and business finances.) Other subscribers might notice that that is *dangerously* close to breaking even. That's why it's so important for us to support Second Wind. Businesses are mind-bogglingly expensive to run ethically, with everyone being paid a living wage they can retire on.

Earl Elmore

From what I've watched so far, none of yall have skipped a beat. Cheers guys and good luck!

Nick Calandra

Salaries in total will be included on this report when they start, but for privacy, won't release them individually.

Maximus

$61k from Patreon is WILD and well-deserved; shows how much we believe in this channel, the people behind it, and the messages they send. One love from MN🖤

AmyC

Thanks for transparency, more than enough to be able to understand the ratio between overhead and what you’re aiming to put aside for future endeavours. Congrats on your initial capital raise for Second Wind! Excited to see what the team does in ‘24 💖

WhitePrince

I originally didn't really mind if this didn't happen as long as I kept getting the content I wanted, but it's really satisfying to see exactly what I'm funding. I appreciate this transparency and look forward to everything to come from Second Wind.

Dexter-by-designation

Hope to see the marks of sustainability soon, whether you're already there or have further to go. I'll gladly recommend you to friends with disposable income.

Ryan Jones

I love the transparency.

Roo

The content has been pouring out and the quality has been wonderful. I think you're hitting the ground running - keep this momentum going!

Rick Lippini

Fking love you guys, I wish everyone would do this. Cheers to all of your hard work and future successes!

Colin Bell

Very interesting to see this breakdown, proud to be supporting you all

Emir Kotan

Off to a great start, boys!

Blake

Great to see you all doing so well! I was curious though, what does 'warchest' mean in your summary?

Thom Blackburn

This is cool that you're being transparent with this. I hope this is enough to be sustainable for y'all once the initial push settles in

damien glenn

Looks like you're doing great, looking forward to you guys continued success

Tyler Blair

I for one very much appreciate the transparency. I'll be interested to see what payroll looks like when the full timers start up. I genuinely have no idea how much content creators make.

Cranky

This is one of the greatest things I’ve seen from a content studio, or whatever is the best way to phrase that. Love the transparency

Sam_is_no_longer_enby

Very happy that you're this committed to transparency. Keep it up, and good job!

Risax the Imp

Thanks for the promised transparency and I'm glad your first month was a strong one, let's hope that means there's many more months like this one (or better) to come.