Patreon is cutting 20% of its workforce, eliminating 93 jobs, Jack Conte, the company’s CEO, confirmed in a blog post.
Conte described the membership platform’s core business as “healthy and strong” and said it would remain “a rock for creators for decades to come.” He added, “This change allows us to continue building from a position of strength, no matter how chaotic the world around us continues to be.”
In an email to staff, Conte explained that “the market in which we operate has undergone profound change over the last 6 months.” He said the company needed to “adjust our cost structure to ensure that we remain a stable, dependable rock for our creators as we work toward our long term ambition,” and noted that Patreon is “flattening the organization” as part of the restructuring.
Conte directly addressed speculation that the layoffs were driven by artificial intelligence. “We are not making the above changes because AI replaces humans,” he stated. “Our product vision and our business are both predicated on the value of human creativity and human connection. AI has fundamentally transformed the tech industry, though, including how we work, how we build products, how we communicate, and more. That does have an impact on how we operate and organize.”
