Second Wind - Q1 2026 Financial Report + Upcoming Plans
Hey folks!
It's that time again for another quarterly report as Q1 is now behind us and we've got a very exciting Q2 ahead of us.
/ REPORT BREAKDOWN
I honestly can't believe we're already done with Q1 of this year. Feels like it's flying by... aside from all the craziness in the news literally every day.
Q1 was another solid quarter for Second Wind despite us having some larger-than-usual expenses. The big expense was that we needed to purchase our remaining inventory from Shark Robot to move it over to DFTBA.
One of the early decisions we made that hasn't exactly paid off yet is the Adventure is Nigh plushies which is where most of that business expense came from. To do the plushies we had to order a minimum amount and as a team we overestimated the interest there would be in those in the early days of Second Wind.
The good news is that we now own all that inventory ourselves so the profit that we make from those that we sell goes right back into Second Wind. Hopefully with Season 5 of Adventure is Nigh just around the corner we can start moving through some of that inventory!
Q1, as per usual, was also slower for sponsorships and work for hire projects. As you can see from the report though, we already have a lot secured (numbers in parentheses) for a much stronger Q2 so no concerns there and just part of the usual ups and downs throughout the year.
We've got a lot of big plans all coming together for Q2 which should get us right back to profitability and aside from the Shark Robot expense, we have no other major expenses like that planned in our future.
Our main priority right now is to get the Patreon back to $45,000 / month and growing towards $50,000 / month. In our ideal world, that $50,000 / month + the money we bring in on YouTube each month essentially gets us to baseline profitability with sponsors, merch, and work for hire all going towards our warchest for long-term sustainability and growth.
Obviously, the current economic situation around the world makes that goal a bit lofty at the moment when everyone is cutting back so we do have our expectations in check. In general, we're pushing hard to bring more people into our community and hopefully our upcoming showcase is a good starting point for that.
/ UPCOMING PLANS
As I mentioned, Q2 is going to be pretty packed for Second Wind.
The first thing on our agenda is the Second Wind Games Showcase. I'll make a dedicated post about the event on Thursday, but we've got a packed showcase which will air on Thursday, April 23rd at 3 PM CT on our YouTube channel.
We're super excited to put this on and give visibility to a bunch of fantastic looking games, our partners and of course, get Second Wind back in the public conversation with a big new event that, if all goes well, we plan to put on twice a year.
If you're a fan of Adventure is Nigh, you may want to tune into the showcase, as we may have some long-awaited updates for you there on when you can expect to start watching Season 5.
Starting tomorrow (Wednesday, April 15), we'll be opening pre-orders for Fully Ramblomatic Vol 2 on Blu-Ray, as well as a restock of Fully Ramblomatic Vol 1. Season 3 and 4 of Adventure is Nigh are also coming to Blu-Ray later this year. We'll provide you with updates on that as we have them.
As far as content coming up we've got our Doke or Die Marathon stream coming up on the 25th of April, the fifth Season of Adventure is Nigh, we've locked-in a VERY exciting new (non-paid) documentary project for later this year, our next big fundraising stream isn't far-off and of course, we'll continue to experiment with new types of videos, streams, and any other ideas we come up with to keep things fresh.
As always, thank you for sticking with us and supporting us, and we welcome your feedback, ideas, or suggestions!
Nick Calandra
Editor-in-Chief
Comments (13)
Am I missing something about the Patreon goal? You want to reach 45k a month, and you are now at 138k for a quarter. 45 * 3 =135, meaning you’ve already reached that goal?
Our monthly goal of $45K. That number in the sheet represents both annual and monthly.
It's genuinely interesting to see the reality of the numbers and, more specifically, just how much the patreon matters.
Adventure Is Nigh deserves to be 20 times more popular. :-( Thank you for this report, your transparency is exemplary and always appreciated.
Hope y'all have a better Q2. Seems like every time things start to pick up some nonsense fucks up the economy for everyone
On the note of the plushies - if you go to the “Shop” tab in Patreon there are no links to them (or any merch).
Patreon store is different from the DFTBA store. Hopefully someday we can connect that store here. https://store.dftba.com/collections/second-wind?page=1
Nick I think you should use less commas. It's reminding me about a certain orange man
🧡🧡🧡
Thanks again for the thorough update. Glad things are looking sustainable.
I remember a few months back you said something about wanting to grow the podcasts on Spotify, but have noticed that revenue stream shrinking quarter over quarter, which is unfortunate to see. Since becoming a Patreon subscriber, I've added the ad-free podcasts to my Spotify playlists, but I have no idea how managing podcast feeds works on the backend, and I've had a question about that topic that's been nagging at me for a while now: When I listen to an ad-free version of a Second Wind podcast on Spotify, is that listener statistic tied in any way to the ad-supported version of the podcast? Or are they two separate feeds entirely? If it's the latter, I may switch back to the ad-supported version. Obviously my listens now aren't earning the channel any ad revenue, but that's a perk that was offered in exchange for a Patreon subscription, and I feel fine about taking that offer. But I don't want to take that trade-off if it also means hurting the discoverability of the ad-supported feeds because my plays don't count for the algorithm.
Eh, it is what it is right now. We're just not an audio first platform so we really haven't been able to drive a lot of traffic to them. It may take a truly audio-first podcast to grow that revenue, and we're making some changes right now that should increase it a little bit that you'll hear about in the coming days. Nice to have income like Twitch, but not something we're super focused on. If you listen to it ad-free as a benefit here on Patreon, continue to do so!
Honestly, being close to profitability (with losses well within acceptable range given the warchest) in this climate is a great position to be in. Really looking forward to the showcase and generally delighted to continue supporting work I believe in and people who do it well!