Seeking feedback on idea: alternative to Patreon

[perldiver.livejournal.com]

Hi folks,

I messaged a few of you about this already, but was just given mod permission to post it at top level.

I’m a Patreon creator (http://patreon.com/davidstorrs), and a web developer. My business partner and I are frustrated enough with Patreon that we’re building an alternative. We’d like to make sure it does what people actually want so, if you have a minute, I’d really appreciate your feedback.

We think the site should have:

* No percentage taken from your pledges
* Charge patrons immediately to avoid in-and-out “pledge-dodgers”
* Content management for all your content, past and present
* Specify when things should become visible (a.k.a. a publishing queue)
- ...to whom
- ...and for how long
* Ban abusive or exploitative patrons

As far as creators go, our current plan is that early adopters would receive as much storage as they need (within reason!), and future creators would get 1GB of storage for $9.99/month. Again, these are tentative plans and might change as we do more research.

All comments appreciated; a few questions I'd love answers to:

1) Does this sound like a service you would use?

2) Are there any other features you’d like?

3) What is particularly good about Patreon?

4) What issues do you have with Patreon?

Comments

[vickimfox.livejournal.com]

Are you aware of the country and state laws regarding third party billing agency? This is the legal domain of companies like Patreon and the one you suggest.

When I first heard about Patreon, I sent them a query about their compliance. They provided a detail response about their accounting practices, compliance with US IRS regulations for taxes (including submitting the appropriate Form 1099 reporting monies collected and paid to the artists), and more.

Various states have regulations on the span of time allowed between collection and payment, reporting of collection, possible taxes on services, and more.

Further, the matter becomes more complex when you consider many artists may reside outside the USA.

[perldiver.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of the basics and we'll get exact details nailed down before we start.

There's generally four steps to doing a startup: market validation, business validation, technical validation, execution. Right now we're doing market validation, ensuring that people actually want the product we're imagining. The next step is business validation, which is the process of (among other things) talking to lawyers and other experts to ensure there's no regulatory hassles or contact-with-vendors issues. Technical validation is the easiest part -- just design the thing. Business validation and technical validation can be commingled, but there's no point in doing the other two if market validation fails.

Still, great point. Thanks for the warning.