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

[bearprince.livejournal.com]

This all still doesn't answer my question about whether you have valid credentials and experience running this particular sort of business. What other businesses and/or start up companies have you founded or been a part of? Have you had education in this sort of thing? I'd like to see the actual results and the actual business that you've been able to create so far! I understand what you're saying, but I don't feel as if you have actually addressed my concerns.

It makes perfect sense to come to an artistic community to ask about a site that will help artists. I wasn't questioning that! I just don't think the current set up you have in mind would actually prove to be very beneficial to us the way you've currently proposed it. There is a very select group of people who make a good profit off of Patreon; well known artists, musicians, podcasts, and among the total users of Patreon they don't make up a very large percent. Many of us use Patreon because there IS no fee, and we can put our work up there for free without fear of ending up with a loss if we don't get the support we need. So what incentive is there for people like me to switch to a pay service in lieu of a free one? Regardless of funds taken out.

In addition, I suspect there's some sort of requirement in place that dictates you MUST take out of client's earnings if you're a third-party service; Paypal, GoFundMe, etc...all these sites take out a percentage of our earnings. How do you know you can actually bypass that?

I'm aware that this is only a gauge of the market, but I doubt that this will give you a good idea of potential future clients when you have nothing to offer but an idea and a list. You still have to have some sort of tangible pitch to gauge client interest, you still have to put that work in.

[perldiver.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your input. This discussion has been very useful; among other things, we had assumed that people would prefer a subscription service so as to pay less, but based on the responses I'm seeing here that doesn't seem to be the case. We're moving back towards a percentage model.

There isn't a requirement to take money out of people's income. It's standard practice in order to cover credit card transaction costs, which is why all of the companies you mentioned do that.

[bearprince.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the response, but you still haven't addressed my concerns about your business expertise.

EDIT: I read above where you mentioned running two businesses for two years, and then leaving another that is currently running; two years doesn't seem like a relatively long time for a company to run. But that's all I wanted to know, so!