Morning Brew
A free daily business-news email newsletter that grew via on-campus outreach, referrals and newsletter ads into a multi-million-subscriber media brand.
Problem it solves. Makes business and market news easy to consume for students and professionals who don't read traditional business press.
Who pays. young professionals and business-interested readers (students, finance/job-seekers)
Market. newsletters / media
How it makes money. advertising and sponsorships in newsletter and expanded newsletter/podcast portfolio
Claimed. $300k (2017), $3.1M (2018), $13.3M (2019), $20M (2020), $46M (2021)
The post documents a known, real company with specific yearly revenue/subscriber figures and commenters treat it as a legitimate case study (e.g., noting the 2k early subscribers from lecture-hall outreach) rather than calling it promotional or fabricated.
“Do you know what was the cost for referrals/ambassadors initially? I see that you listed a 25 cents/acquirer in 2019 but I just wonder how they did it initially with very little financial resources.” ▲ 30
“Newsletter cross-promotions work because they're cheap, not because they're good. The math fails if you run it through SaaS unit economics.” ▲ 20