Pomplamoose

Nataly Dawn (real name: Natalie Knutsen) and Jack Conte both graduated from Stanford University. They were both part of the campus music scene and met in 2005 when she opened for his band at the campus coffeehouse, CoHo. They started dating and making music together a year later.

Pomplamoose's primary platform is YouTube. All of their songs come with videos of varying complexity that they post there on a regular basis. They started doing this in 2008 when there weren't many "creators" on the platform posting quality material consistently - it was before the era of the "YouTube star." Their methodical approach gradually built them a huge fanbase that connected with them on an intimate level, quite a contrast to the YouTube sensations that had a viral video but were soon forgotten (we're talking to you, "Chocolate Rain" guy). By the time other performers realized YouTube could build a career, it was saturated, but Pomplamoose was already out to a commanding lead with enough subscribers to sustain them as long as they kept making music.

Jack Conte is the co-founder of the crowdfunding platform Patreon, which launched in 2013. He formed the company with his former roommate at Stanford, Sam Yam. Pomplamoose served as a test case for Patreon, which asks fans to sign up for subscriptions for ongoing perks instead of making one-time donations. Patreon worked out very well for Pomplamoose, which had a very dedicated fanbase by that point. Being an authentic user helped Conte maintain quality control - if something was buggy, he was likely to find it and fix it.