Patreon CEO Jack Conte.SXSW/Getty ImagesPatreon, a subscription platform, is laying off about 20% of its staff, according to the company.CEO Jack Conte said it needs to cut costs and flatten its org to remain "dependable" for creators.Read the memo Patreon sent to its staff about the layoffs and restructuring.Patreon, a platform for creators that paywalls their content, is laying off staff.In a publicly shared note addressed to Patreon's content creators, CEO Jack Conte announced that the creator-economy startup is laying off 93 employees, about 20% of its staff.Conte said in the memo to staffers that the "market in which we operate has undergone profound change over the last 6 months," and that the company needs to cut costs to "remain a stable, dependable rock for our creators."And yes, AI does play a role in it, Conte said."AI has fundamentally transformed the tech industry, the pace of change has never been more intense, and I expect it to get even faster," Conte said in the memo.However, Patreon emphasized that these layoffs were not because the company thinks AI can replace humans or creativity.In March, Conte told Business Insider that while AI can help people create "beautiful things," companies shouldn't roll out AI tools "in a way that just creates a bloodbath for the world's creative people."Conte also published a video about the topic, recommending that AI companies start paying creators.Patreon's ethos as a company is based on paying creators. Founded in 2013, it's become a popular platform for creators — like YouTubers and podcasters — to have fans pay for content and community.The company became a unicorn in 2020 as the creator economy picked up steam, and was valued at $4 billion in 2021. Like much of the broader tech and media industries, Patreon has weathered financial headwinds since. In September 2022, the company laid off 80 people, about 17% of its staff at the time.Patreon has faced many new competitors in the space, like Substack, Beehiiv, YouTube's own membership tiers, and white-label apps made by creators.It's not the only company in the creator economy cutting staff. In February, creator-commerce platform LTK cut staff, and other tech companies, including Meta, Snapchat, and LinkedIn, have also laid off workers this year.Following this recent round of layoffs, Conte said in the memo to staffers that the company would make changes to its "organizational structure and how we work." Namely, by "flattening" the company's teams.The company will continue to focus on its products for creators."Patreon's core business is healthy and strong, and we're going to be a rock for creators for decades to come," Conte said in the post shared with creators. "We're not changing our roadmap or priorities. Patreon will continue shipping new features, improvements to our core experiences, media and community products, and more."Read the full memo Patreon sent to its staff:Hi Team,I have a painful update this morning. I have decided to reduce the size of our team by 20%, or 93 people. All teammates at the company will receive an email within the next few minutes indicating whether or not your role is impacted by this change.I'll get into the reasons for this decision and logistics for the day below, but before I do, I want to acknowledge how painful this will be for the kind, ambitious, hard working, and mission-driven humans who make up this company. The people at Patreon are the core of our spirit and what makes our culture and business so special. Today will be hard for so many people, and as the person responsible for this decision and the decisions leading up to this, I don't take that lightly. Please take the time you need today to support our departing teammates and yourself.What's changing and whyThere are two key changes we are making today:A workforce reductionChanging our organizational structure and how we workI'll explain each below.1. The workforce reductionNothing about our core business has changed — it remains strong and consistent:More than 300,000 creators in nearly every country in the world are earning money on our platform.Creators are earning billions of dollars each year on Patreon, and those earnings have continued to exhibit steady, strong growth.Creators, members, revenue, and processing volume continue to show strong, consistent growth every month.On top of that, our transformation to becoming a media and community network is starting to work:Our network is now sending 1.5M new members to creators every month.Creators have added ~200M free memberships over the past 3 years.Feed-attributed memberships are up more than 5X since our network launch.But our transformation is going to take time. We are setting our sights on massive problems: the attention economy is optimizing for addiction instead of long term relationships. Creators are finding it increasingly difficult to reach their followers and build strong communities. The legacy social platforms are locking creators into t
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