Jack Conte

Conte and Sam Yam founded paid membership platform Patreon in 2013, as a way for self-employed content creators — YouTubers and the like — to earn a steady income. In theory, those artists start Patreon accounts to gift their fans with bonus content, in exchange for the fans financially supporting them via paid monthly subscriptions. And with the exception of a few well-documented PR nightmares, Patreon and its business model have done exceptionally well, attracting more than $400 million in funding. Yet despite his wealth, Conte is first and foremost an indie musician. He is a Bay Area native and Stanford grad. He is married to Nataly Dawn.Now in his late 30s, Conte first came to public notice back in the 2000s, when he began uploading original and cover songs on YouTube. He and Dawn, a fellow Stanford grad, soon formed the band Pomplamoose, which has racked up more than 1.4 million YouTube subscribers and nearly 400 million lifetime views.