The unique relationship that many creators have with Patreon seems to shield it from even very light criticism. While I think there are many, many positives to come out of Patreon’s rise, I thus wanted to try and view the company through a more detached, nuanced lens.
I’ve hesitated to include too many predictions about what might happen to Patreon next. My naive hope would be that they decide to refocus on the basics and building a sustainable business model using the features that made the platform so popular in the first place.
I like how they made it clear that Patreon did everything right, the only mistake was taking on Venture Capital. It’s not that they weren’t making money, they were, quite a lot of it actually, it’s just they weren’t making all the money. VC by design demolishes everything it touches.