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
Comments (28)
I really wish these would come out more promptly. I understand it may take time to compile, but this was particularly late.
It鈥檚 been feeling a little too corporate lately, hoping for more silly fun again! Maybe some competitive/versus streams?
Yup, now that I'm back from Omaha and streaming regularly again we'll get some more multiplayer stuff going. Looking at Dark Hours for a multiplayer stream possibly this weekend!
Hi, would love to buy some merch, but when I ordered one of the founders mats it was confiscated by border control in Germany (I live in the Netherlands). So I'm reluctant to buy another thing. maybe if you can have an another colab/partner who makes/ships the merch in europe it's saver for us/me. (or maybe I just had bad luck). Also the shipping cost as someone else mentioned.
Yup. We're gonna look at finding a partner in Europe.
Hey Nick, I鈥檝e asked this question before, but have you and the crew considered a tier level above Phoenix? I鈥檇 cerebellum happy to increase my Patreon membership if another level was available.
We haven't cause I'm not sure what we'd offer really! Wanna make sure that the tiers are worth your while.
With the big tax bill from last year. Is there anyway to claim some of that back this financial year for the some of the investments you're making? I know a lot of corporations do this
Yahtzee keeps my gut busting every week- and the Death of Punctuation shirt I got with the bonfire is one of my favorite graphic tees, it鈥檚 worth every penny to me! Keep up the good work, boys!
Enjoying content, will check are my subs alright. Keep them coming. Events - yes, a bit sad, I understand joy visiting them, but your meat and potatoes is fun streams, this is why I am subbing and enjoying your stuff.
As for falling out, it was sad, I got all sides in this, I disagreed with Frost decision, I loved his content and hoping he can make something on his own on regular basis, because I am willing to sub him as well.
You know, saying you're "still learning how to run this" while planining for such a dip with an impressive "safety net" shows you guys know what you're doing 馃憤 Fingers crossed for Q4 and cheers to y'all!
Keep it up, this is the hardest part of anything new. Make some cool merch and I'll blow an unreasonable amount of money on it.
I prefer to support maturely minded creative teams that don't put up with "nuclear options" during disagreements. I don't have the money to increase my contribution yet, but we'll see after the COLA kicks in.
For those of us under a rock. What were the recent events that caused the dip?? I don't follow the news
There was a falling-out in August.
That's not at all bad for the first year of a new venture. You guys make great content and you will dial in your needs. Great work guys!
Do your best guys, been loving all the content so far. I do plan to eventually get some merch but just hasn't been in the cards as of late.
Really happy that you guys are focusing on sustainability and the long-term. Makes me glad to help contribute to you guys so you can splurge on the luxuries like healthcare : ) Also, I'd like to commend you all in how you handled things these last few months. I know it couldn't have been easy but you showed incredible restraint and poise during a really difficult time. You absolutely made the right call and I appreciate it.
Hoping for the best in the coming months! On the plus side, glad to see number of YouTube subscribers slowly increasing again
Agreed! Part of our outreach plans is making sure we're connecting with new audiences as well that would enjoy our work. We'll have a new freelance voice joining us VERY soon that should excite a lot of you! :)
Upping my patreon f*ck fr*st
Thank you for sharing Nick. If I may add my own $0.02 of perspective: I'd buy a lot more merch if the shipping costs weren't so prohibitive. I know that's not something you can change, and that's OK. My point is that your non-USA audience might feel similar, and we might be a significant part of the whole. So while I'd love the merch, I feel like my money is better spent in donations or other ways to support you.
Yes, this is something I'm looking into. Going to talk with Shark Robot about it, as it may be a case where we need to have a different partner internationally so it's not cost-prohibitive for people outside of the US!
I was really hoping to see positive income this quarter. I hope you are right about being able to reduce expenses moving forwards because I don鈥檛 see where you are gonna 40k in spending from outside of salaries on this report. Won鈥檛 change my support. I鈥檓 here until/if you go bankrupt. But I was hoping.
Q3 is July to September. So you have at least a month of Frost and Cisco's salaries, plus any severance. Then you have the travel for PAX EAST, which they say they're not planning to do again. That's a pretty big chunk of change plus you probably always lose a bit this quarter because its a natural lull in the news/advertising
Dang. Twitch doesn't even come out to 2 weeks pay for me.
It's hard not to feel resentful towards "recent events" but you guys are great as always and you'll for sure bounce back in subs!!