Amanda is a podcaster, educator, and queer martini aunt from New York. She runs Multitude, a collection of excellent independent podcasts that also provides marketing and production support to fellow podcasters. She co-hosts Spirits, a podcast about mythology and folklore; Join the Party, a collaborative roleplaying and storytelling podcast; and Waystation, a fancast for the TV show Lost Girl. Her career is dedicated to helping fellow creators make a living by making great stuff online.
Barry Kibrick is a talk show host, producer, writer, director.
Since 1996 Barry hosts and produces the 3-time EMMY winning series, that he created, Between the Lines with Barry Kibrick seen on PBS stations throughout the country.
In its 22nd season, his guests have included the most notable people in their fields. They have ranged from directors like Ron Howard, Joss Wheadon, Jon Favreau and Sir Ridley Scott to producers like Jerry Bruckheimer, Matthew Weiner and Steven Bochco to authors ranging from Ray Bradbury to Anne Rice and from James Ellroy, to Dean Koontz to Jackie Collins and Sidney Sheldon. Plus, a host of dignitaries including, Queen Noor of Jordan, Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Name the topic and Barry has had a conversation with the foremost authority on that subject.
Bryanda Law is a former cytogenetic scientist turned award winning blogger turned media entrepreneur. She is the founder of Quirktastic, a media tech company for people of color who participate in fandoms such as anime, e-sports and comic books.
Within 1 year, Bryanda has successfully scaled the company to six figures in annual revenue pre-venture and has worked with brands including AT&T, Warner Bros., SXSW, and Patreon. She is also currently the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the incubator for Black & Latinx women, Digitalundivided.
Carla Borsoi is Head of Marketing at Patreon, where she leads efforts to help fund the creative class. For more than 20 years, she has worked across marketing, consumer insights, analytics and community roles for large consumer brands, like AOL and Ask.com, as well as nascent software and hardware companies in specialized markets. Carla earned an A.B.H. in Spanish/Theater and an M.B.A. from Rollins College
Colin is the Head of Legal at Patreon where he ensures Patreon's Legal and Trust and Safety teams are as creator first as possible. His goal is for those teams to build trust with creators in every interaction, and turn trust into a differentiator for Patreon. Before joining Patreon in 2015, Colin was in private practice working with independent game developers and small tech companies.
Drew Ackerman is the creator and host of Sleep With Me, the one-of-a-kind bedtime story podcast featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Buzzfeed, Mental Floss, and Dr. Oz. Born out of Drew's childhood insomnia, Sleep With Me was inspired by late-night comedy radio, which was the only thing that helped him fall asleep. Created in 2013, Sleep With Me combines the pain of insomnia with the relief of laughing and turns it into a unique storytelling podcast. Drew's stories on the show are inspired by his childhood as the oldest of six children and past jobs as a fuzzy dice and iron-on patch salesperson, fruit fly monitor for the State of California, and librarian for one of the largest jails in the country. Through Sleep With Me, Drew has dedicated himself to help those who feel alone in the deep dark night and just need someone to tell them a bedtime story.
Eric is a writer, audio producer, and teacher based in Brooklyn, NY. He's the Dungeon Master and co-host of Join the Party, a collaborative audio drama based on the rules of Dungeons & Dragons; the co-host of HORSE, a basketball podcast about everything except for wins and losses; and a founding member of the audio collective Multitude. He likes cardigans, chunky peanut butter, and being five minutes early.
With the anticipation of the arrival of their second child and his lack of joy in being an employee, at the close of the summer of 2014 Glen & Yvette Henry (@beleafmel & @mrsmelanin) decided that Glen would quit his job and become a stay-at-home dad as it would help offset the costs of childcare! Over the course of his first year home with their two sons, Glen documented his days with the boys. In October of 2015 he launched his widely successful YouTube channel, Beleaf in Fatherhood, in which he tells honest stories about the ins and outs of being a dad. The channel’s mission is to equip fathers, give hope to mothers and inspire children.
Since launching Beleaf in Fatherhood, the Henry’s have added another chocolate baby to the family and Yvette has left the classroom to become the stay at home parent while Glen continues growing the platform he has created for their family with Beleaf in Fatherhood. The couple now operates as a team from their home as they work to build their brand. This summer they launched their podcast called, “How Married Are You?!” There you will find them having raw conversations about anything having to do with being married, parenting and more based off their 8 years of marriage.
Goli Sheikholeslami is the CEO of WBEZ Chicago, one of the largest, most decorated, aggressively creative, and journalistically ambitious public media organizations in the nation. At WBEZ, our mission is to tell the stories that matter – stories that provoke thought, entertain, capture emotion and inspire action. Prior to WBEZ, Goli spent 20 years at some other great media companies leading digital innovation.
Grant studied math and computer science at Stanford. After graduating he started coding up visualizations to help explain a tricky idea from math, combining the two loves of programming and teaching each cultivated at Stanford. Around the same time, Khan Academy put out their first "Talent Search", an effort to find new content creators. Grant was in and eventually was named the "Multivariable calculus fellow.” He stayed with Khan until the end of 2016 as a writer and video creator, all the while contributing to his personal math YouTube channel 3blue1brown on the side.
Since then 3blue1brown has grown to a community of over 1 million subscribers and the channel has gained over 43 million views. The stated goal of this channel is to make more people self-identify as loving math. Its videos cover a variety of topics in math, ranging from explicitly student-focused material, such as the series on calculus and linear algebra, to topics outside what one would typically find in a college or high school curriculum. The channel also includes material on related fields, such as neural networks, how bitcoin works, and quantum physics.
Hayley Rosenblum is a champion of creativity who specializes in fan engagement, helping artists build lasting relationships and community with their fans online.
As a longtime, integral member of musician/artist Amanda Palmer’s management and digital marketing team, for nearly a decade Hayley has conceived and executed boundary-redefining digital engagement initiatives that have helped Palmer trailblaze and shape the way for independent artists to use the internet to connect with their fans.
For the last two years, Hayley has had an essential role in managing the daily operations of Palmer’s Patreon community, which has over 11,000 patrons fueling Palmer’s independent art each month (which includes webcasts, music videos, songs, performance art, animations, podcasts, and documentaries).
Jackson Bird is a digital creator and LGBTQ+ activist. He spent eight years organizing first-time activists through a pop culture lens with the Harry Potter Alliance and now focuses primarily on demystifying the transgender experience through his videos and podcast. His TED talk, “How to talk (and listen) to transgender people” has been viewed over a million times. A 2016 YouTube NextUp Creator, Jackson was also a 2015 LogoTV Social Trailblazer nominee and 2018 GLAAD Rising Star. Jackson has shared his story and hosted workshops at conferences spanning from TED Women to San Diego Comic-Con as well as private events at Oxfam, YouTube, Yale, and more. He currently lives in New York, where he spends his spare time hosting weekly pub quizzes, creating zines, and writing his debut novel.
Julia Nunes, singer, songwriter, plays ukulele, makes videos, has a sick Instagram, got her start on accident, posting videos she thought no one would ever find. Her career is powered by people who love her brutally honest songs and big full voice. YouTube, Kickstarter, and Patreon have made it possible for her to grow outside (and sometimes inside) the music industry machine. Sometimes she plays acoustic at a house show, sometimes she’s the front woman of a full band. Her next record drops in March so keep and eye out if you feel like crying or dancing.
Julia is a podcaster, historian, voice actor, and fancy cheese connoisseur. She is a producer at Multitude, a collection of excellent independent podcasts that also provides marketing and production support to fellow podcasters, and co-hosts Spirits, a podcast about mythology and folklore. You can hear her perform on fiction podcasts like Tides, What's the Frequency, and 1994.
Kati Morton is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and mental health advocate who has built a global mental health online community through her YouTube channel and social networks. Kati’s passion is spreading global awareness for mental health. She hopes that by doing this, we as a community can push for better services worldwide, and remove the stigma associated with getting help.
Keith Knight is the world's foremost gentleman cartoonist and Star Wars prequel-denier. His award-winning cartoons have graced the pages of MAD,the Washington Post, the New Yorker, the Nib, McSweeney's, Ebony, ESPN the Magazine, and many, many more. His comic strip slideshow on police brutality and racism in the U.S. has garnered accolades from around the world,earning him a 2015 History Maker Award from the NAACP. He raises hell from his home in Carrboro, North Carolina.
As the host of Oh My Dollar!, a weekly syndicated financial advice radio show and podcast, Lillian has built a reputation for talking money without being boring or stiff - covering the kinds of modern money issues that millennials face (sometimes in costume.) Her work has been featured on CBS, NPR, Forbes, Vox Media, the Portland Mercury, the Oregonian, and the Journal of Higher Education. A repeat speaker at community events, she has given fun money management talks to creators. Her cat-filled purrsonal finance illustrated book, Get Your Money Together, was 225% funded on Kickstarter and came out on tax day 2018. She has 12 Bowie costumes and is an aspiring spandex style icon.
Lindsay Ellis is video essayist on YouTube who examines media through a humorous, critical eye. She has a degree in Cinema Studies from NYU, and an MFA in Film and Television Productions from the University of Southern California. Her “The Whole Plate” series unpacks film theory through Michael Bay’s Transformers movies. Her miniseries “It’s Lit!” focuses on our favorite books and why we love to read, and can be found at the PBS Digital Studios.
Maritza Dominguez has been fighting fraud, disputing chargebacks, and handling account security at Patreon for the last 2 years. With over 10 years experience she brings her background in e-commerce, developing fraud prevention strategies, identifying trends in payment failures, and creating chargeback best practices to her role as Risk Operation Manager. In her spare time Maritza loves to add to her collection of 25 tattoos.
Maura Church is a numbers nerd with a passion for all kinds of art. She’s leads Patreon’s Data Science team, which is responsible for equipping both teammates at Patreon and creators around the world with the data they need to make great decisions. She loves talking to creators about data, good data visualization, and really hazy IPAs.
Mindy Day is at Patreon to fight for creators. As Senior Community Manager, she manages the creator forum, community events, and social media, but also dabbles in any area where a creator may be impacted. Originally from England, she's been creating and managing communities for 7 years and feels pretty damn lucky to have turned her love of cat GIFs and internet communities into a professional career.
Peter Hollens is an American entrepreneur, educator, and is best known as a classically trained vocal artist specializing in a capella music on YouTube and Facebook. With over 5 million followers and subscribers, his content has reached over a billion total views since 2011. His eighth LP, Legendary Folk Songs, earned his first Billboard No. 1s opening atop two classical charts (Classical Albums and Classical Crossover Albums dated June 26, 2018) and became the first a capella artist to reach the top 10 of the Emerging Artists chart. Hollens' cites Patreon, the membership platform for creators, as allowing him to make a living as an independent artist, build a team and start an education company, Creator Education. Creator Education launched in December 2017 and creates online courses to teach creators the skills and strategies needed to live in the creator revolution. Hollens advises many companies in the creator space including Patreon and Tubular.
Philip is a Senior Software Engineer on the Platform team, where he helps Patreon put the internet to work for creators. He has used his career to help independents run businesses on the internet, at Eventbrite, Stripe, and now at Patreon. In his spare time, he speaks at technical conferences around the world, goes wine and beer tasting, and plays the ukulele.
Raised on stories of his Grampa's time as a WWII Spitfire pilot, pilot/filmmaker Steve resolved to learn all he can about aviation, so he, too, can someday fly a Spitfire, the pinnacle of pre jet-age flight.
"Flight Chops" began in 2013, and has since gained 200,000 subscribers, and over 25 million views of the episodes he’s produced. A successful Patreon campaign plus aviation industry sponsors, have made Flight Chops Steve's full time job.
Steven Ray Morris is a podcast producer, audio engineer, podcast host, writer, and an Okapi in his next life. He attended UC Santa Barbara, graduating with a Film & Media Studies degree (and English minor!) with brief stints in New Zealand and London working on perfecting those respective accents. Before becoming Los Angeles’s resident podcast expert, Steven covered movies, pop culture, and comedy for publications like Geek & Sundry, Rogues Portal, The Mary Sue, and Yay! LA Magazine. In 2015, his book, a primer guide to the Jurassic Park franchise, Molding A Jurassic Universe, was published by Thought Catalog. The current slate of podcasts that Steven produces include the smash hit comedy true-crime podcast, My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, the science-obsessed Ologies podcast with Alie Ward, Totally Laime, and Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg. Plus he hosts and produces his own podcasts including The Purrrcast (featured in O Magazine), See Jurassic Right, and Popular Music: The Podcast. In-between editing podcasts, spending weekends with celebrity cats, and weekly trips to Universal Studios (the wi-fi is better than at home!), he is building up an impressive candle collection while multi-tasking into oblivion. After reading the late-great Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, he’ll never be the same again.
Susie Meister is best known for appearing on MTV's Road Rules and The Challenge. After appearing on seven seasons of the reality shows, she earned a doctorate in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. She decided to combine her love of pop culture and academia by creating The Brain Candy Podcast, where she and her co-host talk about everything from the Kardashians to quantum physics. Her success in the podcast space inspired her to found WAVE Podcast Network, which is home to many of the top-rated female-hosted podcasts. Her writing on religion, politics, and pop culture has appeared on Vox, Huffington Post, Observer, Jezebel, and Salon.
Tanya is the Founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit foundation based in Chicago. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep live play stream on twitch.tv/dnd, a GM on Roll20 for a new Star Trek RPG, a partnered variety broadcaster; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. Her writing appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Vice Gaming, Mic, Waypoint, Wiscon Chronicles, Paste Games & other publications.
Tony Lucca is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter who's catalogue of music runs the gambit from soul-infused pop to tear-jerker folk balladry. His music has been featured in shows like Parenthood, Friday Night Lights, Felicity and Brothers and Sisters. He was a frequent member of the house band on Last Call with Carson Daly where he performed alongside then fellow up-and-comers like Kamasi Washington, Zane Carney and Brian Wright, stalwarts like Marc Ford and Cordovas front man, Joe Firstman. In 2012, Lucca took 3rd on NBC's The Voice, earning himself a record deal with coach Adam Levine's 222 Records. He has toured alongside such artists as Sara Bareilles, Jonny Lang, Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, Rachel Yamagata, Emerson Hart and Gabe Dixon. Lucca currently resides in Nashville with his wife, Rachel, their kids Liam and Sparrow, along with their dog Apple.
Vanessa manages the Experience Research team at Patreon. Her team's mission is to help Patreon better understand creators and patrons needs so that we can make more informed product decisions. When she's not researching, Vanessa loves hanging with her frenchie named Tipitina, riding motorcycles with her girl-gang, or improving her sourdough bread recipe.
As Patreon’s VP of Product & Engineering, Wyatt Jenkins is in charge of developing a world class business platform that will fund the creative community. He overseas the end to end product experience from how creators set up their membership benefits to payments, internationalization & helping creators deliver merchandise. Wyatt manages several areas at the company including design, product management, research, international & product marketing.
Lindsey Doe, DHS is a clinical sexologist, doctor of human sexuality, and host of the YouTube channel Sexplanations. In 2001 she started as an editor for one of the first online forums for youth sex education, allaboutsex.com where she realized how little accurate and comprehensive sex education is available. After completing her bachelor’s in psychology, followed by a master’s in health and human performance, Lindsey went on to earn her doctorate at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco hoping to address this lack of information. For almost a decade she taught Human Sexuality at the University of Montana and worked with clients in private practice.
Now, Lindsey is able to focus on Sexplanations (with the help of Patreon)! She posts free short-form sex education produced by Complexly (a Hank and John Green company) at youtube.com/Sexplanations. There’s over 300 videos on the channel ranging from topics like masturbation and relationships to dry humping and honeypotting. If you want to know whether or not the Marauder's Map of Hogwarts is really showing a blowjob in the dungeon, ask her, or watch the video all about it.
Lindsey cares a lot about sexuality, in fact she will be on tour for most of 2019 doing free live Sexplanations shows at public libraries and parks around the country who need and want the knowledge most. Lindsey’s also quite passionate about growing flowers, cuddling with her pit-cross, and spending time with loved ones.
Elle Mills, born in the Philippines and raised in Canada, is a breakout creative star whose influence is growing at a significant rate. Starting off 2017 with just 15K subscribers, Elle ended out the year at over 1M. Elle is a creator to the core and has been recognized by some of YouTube’s biggest influencers. Elle is wildly known for her unique sense of humor and ability to take any situation and enhance it for pure entertainment. Her videos are relatable and leave you feeling like you just watched your favorite scene in any classic coming-of-age story. She has a director’s eye for detail and will stop at nothing to show you a good time. Elle has a huge personality with a laid-back attitude and on any given day you can find her talking about her love of burgers, wearing red Converse and her favorite Coca-Cola shirt.
Jordan Cope: As a member of the Creator Partnerships team at Patreon, Jordan splits his time between acquiring new creators, brokering network deals and serving as a voice for creators inside the company’s walls. Jordan lives in San Francisco with his cat Diva, where hosts the podcast Sad Boyz. It’s okay.
Jarvis Johnson: Jarvis is an engineering manager on Patreon's Creator Acquisition team which works cross-functionally to build products connecting creators with resources that make their launches as awesome as possible. If that sounds similar to what Jordan said...it isn't and you're imagining things. Outside of work, you can find Jarvis trying to defeat the youtube algorithm in combat and hosting the podcast Sad Boyz with the aforementioned Jordan. We have nothing in common.
Lauren Shippen is the writer and creator of the science fiction podcast, The Bright Sessions. Additionally, Lauren is co-producing a new podcast, Passenger List, for Panoply and the BBC, starring Kelly Marie Tran. She is also writing three YA novels for Tor Teen. On top of her writing work, Lauren has acted in numerous podcasts - including her own. She was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media for 2018 and currently resides in Los Angeles.
Michelle Vautier is the Head of Payments & Risk at Patreon focusing on building the next generation platform to get creators paid. With 15+ years experience at companies like dLocal, Facebook, MasterCard, Netflix and UPS, Michelle brings her focus on global strategy, revenue and authorization optimization, innovative payment product development and partnerships to the team. When Michelle is not thinking about payments and risk she is raising a 1 year old little girl who loves to travel and explore just as much as she does.
Nicole Sweeney is a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host for Crash Course. She also works on several other Complexly projects like Eons and How To Vote in Every State. She has a bachelor's in Sociology and a master's in Global Communications and spends her free time nerding out about media & fan cultures with her side project, Snark Squad. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
Trevor photographs rockets, lighthouses, and landscapes for a living. He went to college dreaming to become an astronaut but after picking up a camera his freshman year he discovered his true calling: he dropped out to be a creator. He has been at it for ~2 years, collaborated on things most never have the privilege to, and wouldn’t be where he is without that teamwork!
Ursula grew up in Italy, finished her studies in California, and is passionate about creating delightful product experiences. She's currently the product manager for the Creator Revenue team at Patreon, and works with an incredible group of people committed to helping creators get closer to reaching their financial dreams
Zach is a podcaster, filmmaker, technologist, and mental health advocate. He is best known for executive producing and starring in [Wolf 359], a Webby Award nominated sci-fi drama podcast with over 7 million downloads. As an advocate for mental health, Zach has spoken at Harvard, Mass General Hospital, The National University of Singapore, and NAMI SWPA. He has also been published by The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and Salon.com.
Stuart Schuffman describes himself as a "Motherfucking Hustler". That's because he's spent nearly 15 years building the Broke-Ass Stuart media brand with zero investors. From having his own line of books to hosting his own TV show to running one of the Bay Area's most influential arts & culture sites, Stuart has turned his creative side hustle into his full-time job. Because of this he's truly living the dream.
Jack Conte is a musician, filmmaker, half of Pomplamoose, and a co-founder of Patreon, a membership platform that makes it easy for creators to earn salaries directly from their biggest fans. Patreon.
As a musician and filmmaker, Jack spent his days making YouTube videos that have amassed over 120 million views. Now, he’s in full-time CEO mode at Patreon HQ in San Francisco where the company is paying millions of dollars to creators every month around the world