Second Wind - First Month Revenue Report
Today I'm very proud to be able to share with you our first month revenue report on Second Wind.
This was a promise we made at launch that we would be transparent with our numbers, with this first month revenue report, and then quarterly after that, with a full annual report at the end of 2024.
You're helping fund a big independent media organization of 10 full-time people + freelancers, and as our audience, you deserve to know where your money is going.
I also personally think it's important for people to learn more about how media orgs run, and the cost it takes to make the content you enjoy. I hope this transparency and revenue report gives you confidence in what you're funding, and also sets a bar for others to follow in being transparent with fan-funding.
Defector Media has really been a North Star for us in building Second Wind and how to operate a fan-funded business, so all credit to them for their transparency and leading the way on this.
We've had a really strong start in our first month... much stronger than any of us could have anticipated really. Once our merch numbers come in at the end of December, the story will become even clearer as we head into 2024.
Thank you all for your incredible support! The team has been humbled by it, and we're excited to really get the gears rolling this month and into 2024!
Nick Calandra
Director of Content
Comments (84)
LOL. Warchest. FOR THE HONOR OF THE KINGDOM!!! ATTACK!!!!
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.
This is a great start! Hope it's going to be stable enough to allow you to experiment!
Thank you.
This is cool. Thank you nick
So excited and love seeing revenue reports!
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)
I love you are all doing so well!
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.
Really appreciate the transparency, and the lessons we can learn from this. Hoping for your continued success!
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.
Can't wait for the Kickstarter so I can drop more fliff on you guys
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.
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.
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
Great to see this. I love how you all communicate with the community!
Thanks for sharing this Nick, love the transparency and how everything is going so far!
fantastic stuff, long may it continue. so happy to contribute to something like this
this is why we followed you, nick. honest transparency is so refreshing.
Doing a warchest fund is really putting me at ease. Thank you for the transparency.
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!
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.
Incredible start. Keep going. We're behind you!
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.
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.
Please add taxes when and where appropriate. Gross numbers are well and good but the tax man cometh!
We will when we have taxes to report! Comes with getting incorporated and having an actual business bank account.
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.
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! 💙
Happy for you guys and love the transparency :)
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.
Thank you for sharing this, this really is encouraging to see that money is being used towards a good cause
Great work Nick and team, we’re behind you
Woah business numbers. Thanks Nick
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.
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?
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!".
How much do you expect to pay your FTE's in total per month after jan 31st?
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.
Great to see this level of Transparency - you can count on my Patreon sub 👍👍
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"
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.
Well done.
Excellent! Wishing you much success!!
This is awesome to see! I really hope that the numbers hold after this first month of Patreon subs.
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!
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!
Thanks for the breakdown! Really good to see that, very interesting that Youtube is relatively small profit.
Wow, you're making a shitton of money, congrats! I really appreciate the transparency.
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.
Excel sheets with second wind graphics, love it
Hell fucking yeah
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.
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?
A lot. Lol.
I'm a CPA - let me know if you need any help on the financial reporting side :)
Great work Nick, keep it up!
Amazing. Love the transparency
It's very cool how you've decided to be transparent. I actually love it.
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!
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.
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!
From what I've watched so far, none of yall have skipped a beat. Cheers guys and good luck!
$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🖤
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 💖
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.
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.
I love the transparency.
The content has been pouring out and the quality has been wonderful. I think you're hitting the ground running - keep this momentum going!
Fking love you guys, I wish everyone would do this. Cheers to all of your hard work and future successes!
Very interesting to see this breakdown, proud to be supporting you all
Off to a great start, boys!
Great to see you all doing so well! I was curious though, what does 'warchest' mean in your summary?
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
Looks like you're doing great, looking forward to you guys continued success
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.
Salaries in total will be included on this report when they start, but for privacy, won't release them individually.
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
Very happy that you're this committed to transparency. Keep it up, and good job!
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.
I love the transparency. Keep up the great work. Can't wait to see what the new year brings!
Good to see the success! Thanks for the transparency.
Hell yeah!!! Keep it up guys!!!
Absolutely love it!