Breadpig
Owner | Breadpig, Inc. |
---|---|
Created by | Alexis Ohanian |
URL | http://breadpig.com/ |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | None |
Breadpig produces a variety of items that appeal to geeks, most notably publishing the xkcd book.[1]
Uncorporation
Breadpig calls itself an "uncorporation," which means in practice they give a lot of their profits away to charity. As explained by them: "[rather than following the typical corporate directive of maximizing shareholder wealth, breadpig aims to do interesting (good) things with its profits."[2] For example, the proceeds fundraised from the xkcd book tour went to build a school in Laos.[3] At the end of 2009, Breadpig donated its publisher profits from the book ($53,000) to Room to Read for construction of more schools and libraries in 2010 - locations to be determined by the Breadpig community.[4]
History
Breadpig was founded by Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of the social news site reddit. Alexis and Steve Huffman, the other reddit co-founder, were searching for expired domains for their yet unnamed website that had the word "read" in them. A search returned "breadpig.com" and the pair bought it purely out of comic value. Steve imaged the "breadpig" as a "pig with bread wings" and Alexis doodled the first version.[5]
Activities
In 2008, Breadpigs raised over $30,000 from creating and selling LOLmagnetz - magnetic poetry for Lolspeak [6]
In Feb 2009, Breadpig donated $15,000 to the SF SPCA [7]
In Oct 2009, Breadpig raised $32,000 for Room to Read to construct a primary school in Laos. [8] Breadpig went on to raise $52,961.78, via the sale of xkcd: volume 0 - this money was used for the development of a school room, a reading room, and a local language publishing room, also via Room to Read.[9]
As of Dec 2010, Breadpig has raised over $150,000 for charity (this includes both funds raised, and profits donated). [10] [11]
XKCD Book
Breadpig teamed up with Randall Munroe, of XKCD fame, to publish xkcd: volume 0, containing selected xkcd comics [12] [13].
See also
References
- ^ Noam Cohen (April 20, 2009). "When Pixels Find New Life on Real Paper".
- ^ "breadpig - WTF".
- ^ "The xkcd school in Laos is complete! Rejoice!". March 15, 2010.
- ^ Alexis Ohanian (February 17, 2010). "Reasons to self-publish, or start your own niche publishing company (or not)".
- ^ "breadpig: the legend".
- ^ Alexis Ohanian (Feb 03, 2009). "How breadpig made $30,000 (for charity) in 2008 selling magnets with LOLspeak in our spare time".
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Alexis Ohanian (Feb 03, 2009). "Breadpig Hands SF/SPCA $15,000 Check From LOLmagnetz, Plays With Puppy".
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Alexis Ohanian (Oct 02, 2009). "We did it! You raised enough money to build our xkcd school in Laos".
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Alexis Ohanian (May 10, 2010). "How Should We Donate $53,000 of xkcd Book Profits?".
- ^ Alexis Ohanian (Dec 26, 2010). "Breadpig Inc, Donations (link to Google Spreadsheet)".
- ^ Michael Arrington (Dec 26, 2010). "Reddit Cofounder Alexis Ohanian To Join Y Combinator".
- ^ Randall Munroe (September 10th, 2009). "There's an xkcd book!".
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Noam Cohen (April 19, 2009). "When Pixels Find New Life on Real Paper ".