Thank you to everyone out there who supports us with a membership! I’ve got exciting news about the finale show later on, but first, I’m going to turn the newsletter over to my boss, Bikram Chatterji (who works for the Board that I help elect, so I’m technically kinda his boss, too? Co-ops!).
A message from our CEO
Last week you heard a little about the NYC MaxFun Meetup from Stacey. Here in Los Angeles, we gathered on the outskirts of Little Tokyo and talked about Philip Glass, scanlations, and the 1998 TV movie, You Lucky Dog, starring Kirk Cameron, which a MaxFunster worked on, way back when.
It was really special to spend an evening with MaxFun fans like you.
A week ago we announced that our goal for this year’s MaxFunDrive is 16,000 new, boosting, or upgrading members. That was based on a budget I made, which accounted for a bunch of rising costs (healthcare, software, development), some savings (our beautiful new offices actually cost less than our previous digs; outfitting them was expensive, but thanks to so many of you, we we able to absorb that one-time cost), and the continuing challenges of other revenue streams like advertising and live events. The goal was a real number, and we are pretty far away from that goal right now, which means our budget is at risk.
The most important reason to become a MaxFun member is to support the shows that you love. That will always be true. A portion of your support goes to MaxFunHQ, to keep the lights on, as we say, but also so that we can better support your favorite shows. We can help them promote their work, we can get them booked on other podcasts and featured in apps, we can help with advice and technical know-how, we can connect them with advertisers that they want to endorse and allow them to turn down ads they don’t vibe with. We can give them a world-class (okay, sometimes slow) membership platform that isn’t subject to the inevitable ensh*tification that comes for every single VC-backed platform I know of. We can give them a clear, distinctive, unique choice, and it is so important for creative people to have choices.
MaxFun is partly a media company and partly a technology company and honestly, both of those businesses are rapacious and awful. We are very consciously not awful, but we can only be what we are because of your support. We can only keep serving our shows the way we do because of your support.
MaxFun is also, wholly, a creative company, and wholly a community company (I am good at math, I promise). We want to be a focal point for good people to gather and do great things together. The not-awfulness is key to fostering a creative community, and things like last week’s Meetups are key to strengthening and growing it. A desire for growth is unsavory, because in the framework of capitalism it means growth-at-all-costs. I want to be clear: I would like MaxFun to grow. I want our audience to grow, I want our membership to grow, because I think that we are doing good in the world, and I would like to do more of it.
The way we’re going to grow is by doing a lot of hard work at MaxFunHQ, supporting our shows, supporting our members, and supporting our community. But we can only do any of that with your support. I believe there are enough people out there with $5 a month (officially less than a latte; half a beer, it turns out, in a bar on the outskirts of Little Tokyo) to help us do that work.
Will you help us?
Bikram Chatterji, CEO and worker-owner, Maximum Fun
–>>Join as a member <<–
Hopefully you read Bikram’s section, clicked through, and are just now returning. Welcome back! I have one final(e) thing for today’s newsletter: another chance to hang out with fellow fans and laugh together. Either in person in Los Angeles, by holding a watch party with your pals, or hanging in the YouTube chat.
MaxFunDrive Finale Relay
We’ve got a stacked 5-show lineup of back-to-back entertainment for you on Friday, May 1 to celebrate the last day of MaxFunDrive. So clear your schedules! Or at the very least clear a corner of your computer screen!
MaxFunDrive Podcast Justice
MaxFunDrive Podcast Justice will be live and in person at The Stray in East Hollywood (and livestreamed on MaxFunHQ’s YouTube, of course). Hosts from across the network will be having their petty arguments decided by Judge John Hodgman. Featuring:
- Jordan Morris and Emily Fleming (Free with Ads)
- Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin (The Jackie and Laurie Show)
- Sequoia Homes and Ryann Graham (Black People Love Paramore)
- Jeremy Bent and Oscar Montoya (Eurovangelists)
And if you’re not able to be there in person, we’ll see you in the chat!
–>>See all upcoming events<<–
If you already support Maximum Fun, we’re so grateful to you!
If you are not a member yet, you appreciate our work and our shows, and you have the means, we could really use your support today.
— Your friends at MaxFun