It's been over two years since we launched Escape Collective, and for as long as it makes sense and there's something substantial to report, we're committed to updating our members in our annual Transparency Report. This year's report builds on our 2023–24 report, so please feel free to go back and read that if you want more context.
Why does this matter? We feel a responsibility to provide transparency to our members who directly fund our operations. We aim for this report to give you insight into our business operations, how we're spending your money, where we see ourselves going in the future, and to make sure we bring you along for the ride.
Before we start, I want to thank each and every member who believed in us at the beginning, or discovered us later and supports our mission of independence, quality, and spreading our passion we have for the bike to the entire world. After all, the bike is the answer to many of the world's most pressing problems, isn't it? We couldn't have come this far without you, and in this alternate business model of working directly for our members – not the frequently perverse commercial incentives of the internet – we truly believe, and have proven, that there is a different way that works. We couldn't have done this without you.
1. Where We've Been: The Second Year of Escape
Year one was all about laying the foundation of what we're building. That meant:
- Establishing a team for all critical roles
- Establishing the community and setting the foundation for the business
- Building and launching the Escape website, podcast network, our games, and classifieds
- Launching editorial operations in road cycling (podcasts/website).
Year two had a different mandate than year one. Last year was all about improving and building upon the foundations we laid:
- Improve our editorial direction, quality, and output based on member feedback
- Increase our video capabilities and presence on social media
- Improve operational efficiency
- Improve the member experience on all our services (Games, Classifieds, Discord)
- Grow the number of members to reach profitability by 2025.
Most of these happened, some didn't, but none are forgotten and we intend to get to all of them.
2. The Team
We currently have 18 staff and regular contractors, comprised of our Editorial team and Operations team. As a proportion of our overall staff, we invested early in creating an organisation around a positive membership experience and setting up this part of the business for success.
Current Team: 18 staff and regular contractors
Editorial Staff: Caley Fretz (Editor-in-Chief), Matt de Neef (Senior Editor), Dane Cash (Reporter), Suvi Loponen (Tech Reporter), Alex Hunt (Tech Reporter), Josh Weinberg (Tech and Culture Editor), Joe Lindsey (Managing Editor), Jonny Long (Senior Reporter), Ronan Mc Laughlin (Tech Editor), Abby Mickey (Reporter), Kit Nicholson (Weekend Editor), Dave Rome (Head of Tech), Iain Treloar (Senior Reporter)
Operations Team: Wade Wallace (CEO), Andy van Bergen (Head of Membership), Lou Hudec (Financial Controller), Jase de Puit (Head of Platform), Denis Dorushchuk (Developer)
Recent Hires: Josh, Suvi, and Alex joined the team this year
Operations Investment: ~27% of our team (5 of 18 people) focus on membership experience, infrastructure, and administration
Regular Contributors: Gracie Elvin, Loren Rowney, Jayu Yang, Kevin Benkenstein, Georgie Howe, Chris Schwenker, Alan Cote, Chris Marshall-Bell, Dr Alan McCubbin, Cosmo Catalano, Brad Copeland, Kate Wagner, Rob English, Ryan Simonovich, Zac Williams, Jered and Ashley Gruber, Kristof Ramon, Cor Vos, and many more.
3. Major Challenges and How We Addressed Them
To use a sports analogy, the last 12 months will likely be looked back on as our 'sophomore slump' year. From a business perspective, that is. We had a tremendous rookie year with lots of successes and excitement, and last year we faced some challenges to overcome.
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