Maximum Fun (MaxFun)

What they do

Founded by Jesse Thorn, Maximum Fun (MaxFun) is a Los Angeles-based podcasting company with 24 employees. MaxFun’s award-winning podcasts are primarily about comedy and culture and are downloaded around 2.5 million times per week. The company produces 13 in-house shows, including Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, distributed to over 150 public radio stations nationwide through NPR. MaxFun also acts as a distributor for 25 externally produced shows, for which their team also provides marketing, fundraising, and other overhead and management business functions.

According to Maximum Fun, the company “has always operated under the principle that doing what is right is more important than doing what is most profitable and that the company should grow responsibly, for the long term.”

“Owning one’s work is also a tradition of the company, starting with the fact that creators on the network own their shows. The worker-owners of Maximum Fun are now entrusted with upholding these values, as they own their own work too. It’s a natural next step for a company that has always defined itself by what it means to people, rather than how much money it makes.”

MaxFun completed its transition to a worker-owned cooperative in June 2023. Check out this 4-minute video on its transition.

Why we invested

The purpose of the Employee Ownership Catalyst Fund is to support businesses throughout the U.S. that want to transition to employee ownership and need capital to finance the transition and transaction. Project Equity conducted a feasibility study with MaxFun and then provided hands-on consulting for the entire transition process.

In participation with Shared Capital, the Fund provided a transition loan to help with the costs of purchasing the business to become a worker coop.