Dear investors,

Things aren't bad. In fact, they're pretty damn good. Our spend is under control. We've got years of runway. What we're building is starting to work. Honestly, it's bittersweet, because there are some empty chairs at this celebration. Monuments to those who were once a part of this journey. Tattooed to our collective soul. Indelible.

In our second quarter, we rolled out our initial vision for Metafy Video. It was big—think Netflix, but for gamers. The goal was cinematic, epic, a red carpet walk. The kind of videos that people wouldn't consume, they'd savor.

The Vision?
Crystalline. "Don't touch it, it's precious," I whispered crazily to myself.

The Roadmap?
A masterpiece. “Someone frame this shit,” I declared.

There’s a phrase Alfred Korzybski (don't worry, you're saying it right) coined in the faraway land of 1931: "The map is not the territory." That's the lesson. You could stop reading now, if you wanted.

The first sign of trouble was subtle, a cough in a quiet room. The metrics didn’t add up. We were over budget. The terrain showed us rivers where we expected roads, and mountains where we expected plains.

The map was wrong.

Before long, we had to face the unenviable truth. It wasn't working. Hard realities forced our hand. The result was winding down our content and commercial teams and turning the key for the last time on our Copenhagen office.

For our team in Denmark, it represented their past, before we had acquired their company. It was a home. And for the rest of us, it was hallowed ground, the site of our first offsite, where two teams became one.

George Box, a man who only exists adorably in photos, said it best.

"Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful?"

Most of our initial map for what Metafy Videos would ultimately be was wrong, but the parts that were right? Quite useful.

The Unexpected Turn

So, producing our own shit didn't work. But, the technology we built around it was dope. We put those systems to use in a new way. We tested opening the gates for creators, letting them bring their own content.

And from the abyss, masterpieces burst forth!

Major Melee, an insanely well-edited series from Fraser, which zeroes in on those nearly invisible, blink-and-you-miss-it moves in recent Melee matches.

Last Stock Legends: Season 2, a gripping docuseries unraveling the most obscure, yet pivotal moments in Melee history — a treat for vets and newbies alike.

User-Generated Content (UGC, for cool people) wasn't  catching up. It was taking the lead. With series like these making waves, Metafy Videos was finding its rhythm, and we realized it was time to amplify that beat.

So... what exactly is Metafy becoming?

The sprawling universe you never knew you needed. It's Metafy Videos, Metafy Articles, and what you know us for, Metafy Sessions. It's a fucking promised land for wild ideas. The only limit is your ambition, your drive, your hunger for real, unadulterated power, I mean, knowledge.

We're building a sanctuary where you don't have to dance to the tune of algorithms or worry about the guillotine of demonetization. You can be as honest and open as you damn well please. I mean, as long as you're not, like, the hate-speech type.

When faced with a dead-end, you have two choices—turn back or carve a new path. We chose to carve a new path, a path that celebrates creators and lifts them beyond the confines of traditional platforms. Metafy isn't a platform, it's a playground.

And our community connects it all together.

We've been busy, let's talk about it.

The Numbers

"The following breakdown highlights key metrics for H1 in comparison to H2 22'. Despite a decrease in net revenue compared to the previous year, our focus on efficiency and optimization led to an improved gross profit and margins, reflecting our commitment to financial sustainability."

- Victor Folmann, COO & Obvious Suit

Thanks, Victor! If I can just add an awesome all-time metric for you all. We've now paid out more than 5 Million dollars across over 100,000 coaching sessions.

The essential metrics:

• Booked Sessions: 35,524 → 36,414 (+2.50%)
• Unique Active Experts: 1,399 → 1,325 (-5.29%)
• Unique Active Students: 14,849 → 13,390 (-9.80%)
• Revenue: $1,790,435 → $1,665,883 (-6.95%)
• Cash on Hand: $13,320,244
• Monthly Burn: $583,146

The State of Product

A symbiotic relationship is a sort of... cosmic handshake. A universal "I got your back if you got mine." Think about Venom, the Marvel anti-hero. You know the one. He's not flying solo, baby. He's a dynamic duo. Alone, they're a failed reporter and a homesick blob. Together? They're a teeth-gnashing, headline-snatching phenomenon.

That's symbiosis, the soul food of our operation.

We're building an ecosystem where all the different parts—the products, the communities, the users—aren't just coexisting. They're collaborating, co-evolving, and conspiring for maximum ass kickery.

It's not a one-man show, and it sure as hell isn't gonna build itself. You bring your passion. We bring our platform shaped playground. That’s how we create something bigger, badder, and, dare I say it, teeth-gnashing and headline-snatching.

There's a delicate balance to maintain if we're to keep the symbiotic from becoming parasitic. Clever little systems will be needed to keep both sides in check. I wrote about those systems in detail in our 2023 state of product.

Improving Video

Imagine a world where the barriers between content creation and content delivery are shattered. That's what the hell we're up to at Metafy.

Create, publish, and flourish as effortlessly as you would on YouTube. Get paid more fairly, and use it as a jumping off point for Sessions and Articles too. As our community grows, we're not just a place for you to monetize your content.

We're your stage, your amplifier, your spotlight. We're not just helping you increase your revenue, we're helping you increase your reach by planting you firmly at the heart of the vibrant communities you already love.

It's not for the creators that own empires. It's for the sweaty gamers, it's for us.

Introducing Articles

These aren't puff pieces and recycled blog posts. Real articles. Unhinged opinions in long-form. Your idiosyncratic strategies for abusing the ledge grab limit? A welcome scripture. Your left-field theories on the narrative arc of Baldur's Gate 3? Canonized on the spot.

We're unveiling a place for paid and public writing, at the game level, where knowledge thrives, unique perspectives are celebrated, and players of all levels can find content they actually give a crap about.

I hope you guys still know how to read.

Profiles for everyone

Your personal page to show everything you are and create. Available to anyone and everyone, except for nazis and Johnathan, the kid who used to beat me up at the bus stop every week. Your profile? Less resume and more mix tape. Personal, eclectic, probably too edgy for us to get, but 100% you.

Profiles will sit squarely at the center of the Metafy universe. You should claim yours before your life long nemesis claims it for you.

(Which we don't approve of)

Creating Community

We're not flirting with the idea of building a competitor to twitter and reddit for gaming, we're full on french kissing it. We wanna build a giant, underground rendezvous where the best conversations in gaming happen, far away from the reek of social media’s turds. Game and character centric feeds are our answer.

Before social media ruined the internet, communities like this weren’t all that uncommon. Places like Smashboards, GameFaqs and Newgrounds were where I found my people. Unapologetic weirdos. You know the ones.

If we play our cards right, people will say we ruined the internet.

That's all folks

I'm a professional. I wear a suit and tie at home, even though I don't have to. Even in the shower. As a professional, I'd love to know how you felt about this issue of Letters to My Investors. Please reach out, it'd make my day. Or ruin it.

Send an electronic mail: josh@metafy.gg
Xeet me, xerds: @joshfabian

Our second quarter was tough, but ultimately rewarding. So much of what we've been working on for the last two years is coming together in the next few weeks thanks to the hard work, and long hours of our freakishly talented team.

Speaking of which, we've decided to add another engineer to the team. You'd need to be dope with Ruby and Typescript. You'll work directly with our CTO and Co-Founder, Tom. He's Australian, so the accent is a company perk. Apply here

Until the next one, I'll see you in the discord.

- Josh

P.S. Be sure to check out our 2023 State of Product

P.P.S. Thanks for the taking the time to read this. I hope it made you do things involuntarily, like laugh. Or think. Or think about laughing.

Extra credit

You just can't get enough, can you? Here's a small collection of our favorite tweets from the quarter. I'm going to get the "You do not need a metafy coach, you need a therapist" tweet framed.