MaxFun Co-Op: One Year In

Posted by C.N. Josephs on 25th July 2024

Hi there!

If you can believe it, it’s been a whole year since we became a worker-owned co-op! So much has happened in the past year—let’s talk about it.

MaxFun Co-Op: Year One Retrospective

We did a whole lot of cool stuff since June 30, 2023—all while figuring out how to operate as a cooperative!

Over the past twelve months, we have…

… brought nine shows to MaxFun!

Whether a show is brand new or just new to us, getting a show up and running on the network inevitably costs money. Because of your support, we were able to bring nine shows onto the network over the past twelve months. Thank you!

(P.S. Speaking of support, Primer is currently fundraising for a second season—if you wanna help us explore another genre of music from outside the English-speaking world, you can make a one-time contribution until the end of August!)

… had some exciting events—with more coming!

  • Next month, Sequoia Holmes (host of Black People Love Paramore) and Bikram Chatterji (CEO of MaxFun) will be presenting panels at Podcast Movement in Washington, D.C.
  • MaxFun worker-owners were invited to speak on panels about
    worker-ownership     hosted by Project Equity and WGA East! We also hosted our own event, Co-Optober, and connected with a bunch of other great worker-owned cooperatives
  • We threw a great wrap party for Primer at Gold Line in Los Angeles!
  • Plus, our podcasts had live shows all over North America and Europe–with more coming soon! Check out our events calendar for tickets

… gotten accolades, an award, and other exciting shout-outs!

… held two elections for new board members!

As a cooperative, MaxFun is led by a board of elected worker-owners. Over the past year, we’ve gotten to hold two elections to replace positions at the end of their term! Huge welcome to April, Julian, Jennifer, and David, and big thanks to founding board members Stacey, Bikram, Gabe, and Kevin.

And of course, thanks to founding board member K.T., whose term extends to the end of the year! 

So… what’s next?

Well, that’s a good question!


The media world is still upside-down and our budget is still tight… but I’m pleased to say, we’ve had a fantastic first year as a co-op! Still, it’s hard to say exactly what the next year will hold.

We’re working on some exciting things behind-the-scenes, but if the past several years have taught us anything, it’s that you can never know with absolute certainty what’s going to happen a year or a month or even a day from now. But I can tell you with certainty that we’re going to keep making cool art and supporting our community—and that we’re only able to do that because our community supports us.

Thank you for your support. Both the podcasting industry and the world as a whole have had a wild and unpredictable past few years, and we’ve only weathered it all as well as we have because we have such an engaged, creative audience full of people who care about uplifting art, doing good in the world, and being truly excellent to each other. I can’t wait to see what we can all accomplish together over the next year!

— C.N. and your friends at MaxFun

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