About Kurzgesagt, Money & Selling out (Patreon)

So we want to share what is going on behind the scenes a bit because I feel we are doing a bad job at communicating with all of you. It is kind of hard to accept for my brain but today we are neither new nor small. Kurzgesagt is one of the biggest science channels and we are one of the biggest earners on Patreon.

So we should tell you guys a bit about it. How we use your money and why we still do things like sponsorships, grants and commercial work. 

And why Patreon is the most important part of our income.

Why are we so expensive?

So in 12,017 our team consists of 11 people working full time. We also pay our collaborators: narration, music and freelancers. We have an office, hardware, software licenses, a cleaning lady, someone to do our taxes, insurances. Weird complicated stuff that happens when you become a company. Our total running expenses are a medium high five figure number.

Patron, youtube ad revenue, sponsors and merchandise combined pay about enough to sustain us most months. Patreon is covering about 20-30% of the monthly costs (depends on a lot of things). 

On top of that we get income through commercial work or donations grants from NGOs and other organizations. 

This is important because income from youtube is not safe. This can for example be a simple thing like not getting a lot of views or losing patrons over a political video. Or something unexpected like a change in the dollar to euro exchange rate.

Don't get me wrong. We are doing great, in fact we have never been as safe as right now. We are able to spend about 80% of our time working on the youtube channel. Which is amazing and way more than I ever dreamed it would be. We are able to save money (goal: Be able to exist without income for 3-6 months) and will probably add one - two people to the team this year.

Your support on Patreon is not just another position in our budget. It is the most direct feedback possible – you guys using your personal money to help us do this. Of all the great things that happened since this channel became a thing this one is the one that gives us the most pause. It is a huge motivation and obligation to do the best we can. And it is the most important part of our income because it is the most reliable. It enables us to say no to things other channels have to say yes to. Because running a business based on a youtube channel is frigging terrifying. You guys give us a rock to climb onto that calms and secures us when a client does not pay or other income does fall flat.

„That’s great and all. But some of your decisions make me question if you are not in this for the money.“

Personally I don’t draw a salary from Patreon earnings, it is strictly for the team and costs like our office etc. My income comes from the business side of the operation, so if that goes well I do well. Which feels right since I would do Kurzgesagt for free anyway (and did so for the first two years).

Money is important though. It makes life a lot easier and comfortable. Kurzgesagt is not a non profit and it will never be because money is also a great motivator. 

But Kurzgesagt was never *about* money.

There were a few offers to buy Kurzgesagt whole or to give us capital in exchange for stakes in the company. Very good offers. 

I rejected all of them because… no. Just no. This is not for sale.

This channel is my reason to get up in the morning and it feels like something actually worth doing in an indifferent universe. 

Our standard for our work is extremely high and Kurzgesagt is the opportunity to live that out in a way that we could not in normal jobs. We want to talk about fascinating and relevant topic and make them as interesting as possible. To awake passion in people about our universe and learning new things. And have fun while doing so. This is what you guys are enabling us to do. Thank you so much for that.

Ok. This got a bit longer than planned. Sorry.

I never wanted to share a lot about Kurzgesagt and the people behind it because it felt/feels wrong. In Germany you are expected to do art for arts sake and it is very hard to separate from that. Also the personality cult thing on youtube is not our thing.

But I went a little bit overboard and now we are very intransparent. So we are trying to open up a little and share what is going on behind the scenes. Still trying to figure out the best way. 

Ok. Let's finally wrap this up. Again and thank you for supporting Kurzgesagt, it means the world to us. –Philipp