Category: Posts

My interview with Northzone’s PJ Pärson

Today I posted an interview in TechCrunch that I did with Northzone general partner PJ Parson at the SLUSH conference in Helsinki.

We talked about the core investment thesis that has guided him for 20 years, how he went from running a fish distribution to running a VC firm, his best practices for effective board meetings and VC-entrepreneur relationships, and his assessment of the big social platforms, AR/VR, voice interfaces, blockchain, and the frontier of media.

Read it on TechCrunch

The definitive guide to Patreon

(This was originally published as a section within today’s Monetizing Media newsletter. Sign up here.)

Patreon: the definitive report
I wrote a 20,000+ word analysis of Patreon and monetization strategies by independent content creators. Patreon is a platform that creators use to run membership businesses (monthly payment in exchange for special access) with their superfans. Think CRM + CMS + payment processing.

The report dives into the company’s founding story, product development, business model & financials, core thesis, competition, and potential exit scenarios. I also added a syllabus for further reading.

Some quick takeaways:

  • Patreon has undergone a strategy shift from being a marketplace / social platform to a SaaS company making business tools for creators. The goal seems to be to provide all tools & services a creator needs, including small business loans.
  • Patreon’s rake is too low, but they’re about to roll out new premium features. I suggest pricing tiers as a path forward, which is the norm for B2B SaaS.
  • The product needs to put creators’ brands first and Patreon’s second.
  • 70% of revenue comes from creators who make $1k+ per month. That’ll be $35M+ this year.
  • The key question is how big this market size is. The % of creators who make even $1k per month is tiny…but is that 10s of thousands or 100s of thousands of them?
  • Last valued at $450M in 2017, I expect Patreon to close a Series D in the next few months that makes it a “unicorn”.
  • An IPO in a few years is possible, but I think it will get acquired first. Facebook and YouTube are obvious candidates. I make the argument that Endeavor should buy them though.

My report on Patreon

I’ve spent the last two months researching Patreon, interviewing its executive team and investors, and talking to its customers. Thrilled to publish this report.

It’s the first in a new format for TechCrunch (and for me): in-depth reports on top late-stage stage startups that aim to provide the definitive analysis on a company.

This one clocked in at roughly 24,000 words. That’s half of a standard business book.

I approach this from three angles:

  1. A business case study of Patreon’s founding and growth.
  2. A breakdown of the product’s evolution and roadmap for the next three years.
  3. An investor-minded analysis of the company’s performance metrics, financials, competition, and exit potential.

Here are the posts:

If you read it, feel welcome to contact me with questions and comments.