Creator-economy startup Patreon’s chief executive officer, Jack Conte, announced Thursday (US time) that the company was laying off about 20% of its workforce, accounting for 93 employees. Sharing the news in a public blog post titled “A Painful Update About Our Team,” he dismissed artificial intelligence as a factor fuelling the job cuts.
In the note shared online, Conte went into great detail about what was changing at Patreon amid the ongoing restructuring and how things would move forward after the workforce reduction. Despite the changes, the platform’s top boss affirmed that nothing about their “core business” would take a hit.
According to Conte’s memo, more than 300,000 creators in nearly every country in the world are making money on Patreon. The membership platform helps content creators connect with fans and supporters while allowing them to financially support and reward podcasters, writers, and YouTubers. Conte, who is himself a musician in addition to being Patreon’s co-founder, stated that creators are earning billions of dollars each year on the platform.
“Creators, members, revenue, and processing volume continue to show strong, consistent growth every month,” he added. And yet, the changes were still inevitable at Patreon. Here’s why.
Thursday’s layoffs marked the largest such workforce reduction since the company eliminated 80 employees, about 17% of the team, in 2022, when Patreon axed its creator partnerships team.
Patreon’s CEO announces layoffs: What he told employees
“I’m making a painful announcement today at Patreon. We’re reducing the size of our team by 20%, or 93 teammates,” Jack Conte wrote in his memo, noting that all teammates would receive emails confirming their fate soon after his note went live online.
“It’s going to be a hard day for our team. My note to our teammates, which is pasted below, explains most of what I want you all to know about this decision, but there are a few extra thoughts I wanted to share with you all directly.”
Praising the workforce that consists of “special, beautiful humans,” Conte continued, “So many wonderful humans are going to lose their jobs today in an especially painful moment and market. I am the person responsible for that decision, and I take that with the utmost seriousness.”
The Patreon leader particularly highlighted two key changes coming the company’s way with Thursday’s layoffs: A workforce reduction, and changes in organisation structure and how the team works.
Explaining the rationale behind the move, he said that creators are finding it increasingly difficult to reach their followers and build strong communities as “the attention economy is optimizing for addiction instead of long-term relationships.” Moreover, he pointed out that the market they were operating in has undergone some serious changes over the last six months, which demand that they adjust their cost structure to ensure stability for Patreon’s creators.
“The changes we’re making today are painful, but they’re necessary to ensure that Patreon can take the time we need to address the above problems from a position of strength,” Conte admitted. Without mincing words, he said that the organisation was being “flattened,” while teams would be refocused on “top priorities” and key aspects of operations would be evolved to make it easier for the company to adapt to change faster.
Despite doubling down on the need for “increased agility as a company” at a time when artificial intelligence is aggressively pushing the ceiling to the next level, the Patreon CEO ascertained, “AI is not a replacement for human creativity.” Even though he acknowledged the threat AI posed to the already ruthlessly competitive market, Conte reiterated that Thursday’s layoffs were not being executed to replace the human workforce with AI.
He not only laid the message down as his personal opinion, but also foregrounded it as the foundation of Patreon’s strategy. Prioritising human creativity and human connection above all, he wrote, “The more we have learned to use these new tools, the clearer it has become that they are not substitutes for the creativity, judgment, detail orientation, or craftsmanship that our teammates have in spades, nor do they replace the desire for human connection that all of us cherish so deeply.”
Severance packages for laid-off Patreon employees
As could have been expected, Conte notified the employees that access to internal systems would be removed for those affected by the layoffs. For the time being, access to Patreon laptops and Slack was retained through 5 pm PT Thursday. The company also created a “#gratitude-and-farewell Slack channel” for all employees to say goodbye and connect if they feel comfortable joining.
Baring all the severance details in his memo, the Patreon exec revealed that laid-off employees would continue to receive 16 weeks of pay starting Thursday. They would also remain on payroll through the company’s “August 20th vesting date.”
Moreover, the package includes an extra week of pay for every full year an employee has worked at the company. An additional cash payment was listed therein. This has been done to accommodate recent hires who haven’t hit the 1-year-mark at the company and more tenured workers who haven’t yet received their 2026 refresh grant.
As Patreon seeks to support affected employees through the transition period, eligible staff members and their families may continue to avail healthcare coverage through the end of the year. Lastly, a $1,500 stipend is also being offered to impacted workers to replace their company laptop.
Other layoffs announced this week
Patreon’s job cuts added to the growing list of layoffs announced this week alone. The news comes on the heels of Walt Disney eliminating several hundred employees on Tuesday. Multiple divisions were impacted in the process, with the iconic animation banner Pixar being most heavily impacted on the company’s studio side, while National Geographic suffered the most on the TV business side of things.
But that’s not all. Amazon also confirmed new AI-related layoffs within its own artificial general intelligence (AGI) organisation. Then, Uber was added to the list as well, as the company cut 10% of jobs within its customer service operations in a continued bid to “embrace” AI. On top of that, Israeli workplace software maker Monday.com divulged the same day that it is reducing its workforce by 20%, or about 630 staff members, to “support a leaner, more focused operating model,” while focusing on its AI Work Platform.
