How Email Newsletter Platform Beehiiv Grew to $750K/Month
Who is Tyler Denk?π
Tyler Denk, from Baltimore, is a self-taught software developer who studied mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland and co-founded the newsletter platform Beehiiv after playing a pivotal role at Morning Brew.
What problem does Beehiiv solve?π
Beehiiv excels by addressing the pain points of managing and growing email newsletters, crucial for writers and operators who face opaque legacy platforms, lack of cohesive tools, and inefficient growth strategies. Beehiiv's integrated suiteβcomprising tools for composition, growth, monetization, and intuitive designβsimplifies and amplifies these functions, enabling creators to focus on content rather than logistics. This holistic support and attention to user needs make it a compelling choice, effectively reducing the complexity and time investment required for newsletter success.
How did Tyler come up with the idea for Beehiiv?π
Tyler Denk founded Beehiiv based on his deep involvement with the success of Morning Brew, where he built major growth and tech features crucial to its rise. When Morning Brew's readers frequently inquired about the tools and systems behind its excellent referral program and well-constructed newsletters, Tyler realized there was a significant gap in the market for an intuitive, all-in-one newsletter platform. During his tenure at Google, Tyler and his co-founders moonlighted on building Beehiiv, constantly seeking feedback from potential users to fine-tune their MVP.
They validated their idea through exhaustive conversations with prospective users, confirming the need for a user-friendly platform specifically designed for newsletter creators. The initial focus was on building core essentials like a text editor and basic website functionality, knowing they could grow the feature set rapidly once users were on board. Tyler's journey reflects the importance of user-centric design and adaptability, wherein they remained responsive to customer feedback and industry needs, ensuring their product evolved in line with real-world demands. This hands-on and adaptive approach enabled Beehiiv to stand out even in a crowded market.
How did Tyler build the initial version of Beehiiv?π
Tyler Denk and his team built Beehiiv through a meticulous and hands-on approach to product development. Initially, they developed a text editor for content creation, a basic email-sending framework, and a rudimentary website builder to archive posts and collect emails, launching this as their MVP in late 2021. They employed Ruby on Rails for coding, with a full-stack engineering team that handled both front-end and back-end development, enabling faster iteration and feature release.
The development process was highly customer-focused, with Denk personally responding to feedback and making product decisions based on user needs. This close feedback loop allowed them to prioritize features that users wanted most, such as customizable landing pages and referral programs. To ensure rapid product deployment, Denk and his team maintained a quarterly roadmap while leaving room to incorporate real-time user feedback, aiming to release new features every two weeks.
Prototyping and initial builds were identified as challenging due to the high standards of the competitive market. However, Denkβs hands-on coding experience and a full-stack engineering team helped quickly pivot and iterate as necessary. By the end of their first year, Beehiiv had advanced to include features like a recommendation network and a boost network to facilitate newsletter growth, showing the seriousness with which they approached customer feedback and product evolution.
What were the initial startup costs for Beehiiv?π
- Product Development: Tyler and his co-founders spent nearly ten months building the MVP of Beehive while working other jobs, eventually raising $2.6 million in a seed round to cover initial costs including $50,000-$80,000 in contracts for email vendors.
- Customer Support and Marketing: They brought on an everything-else hire to handle customer support, marketing, growth, etc., before hiring more specified roles post-Series A.
- Additional Funding: Besides the initial $2.6 million seed round, they secured $1.6 million in an extension round and raised a $12.5 million Series A in 2023, totaling $16.7 million.
- Remote Work and Team Growth: The company is fully remote with 45 employees across eight countries, utilizing tools like Slack, Google Meet, Linear for project management, and Zendesk for customer support.
- Unexpected Costs: The sudden passing of CTO Andrew Plotkin led to additional, unplanned efforts and learning new technical domains to cover his critical role.
How did Tyler launch Beehiiv and get initial traction?π
Expanding Network
Tyler Denk capitalized on his existing relationships and professional reputation to create initial buzz for Beehiiv. By leveraging connections with well-known figures in the newsletter industry, they managed to attract attention early on.
They started by securing strategic investors who either had substantial email lists or significant followings on various social platforms. For instance, Liquidity, with their extensive newsletter subscriber base, migrated to Beehiiv, showcasing Beehiiv's capabilities to a wider audience immediately.
Referral Magic
A notable strategy employed was the launch of the referral program, which was instrumental in growing Morning Brew and similarly vital for Beehiiv.
Launched two months after the initial product rollout, the referral program incentivized current users to share the platform with their network, earning them rewards. This user-based marketing rapidly increased signups and engagement, turning loyal users into de facto marketers for Beehiiv, rapidly expanding their reach and growing the customer base organically.
Product Drops and Public Engagement
Tyler ensured Beehiiv maintained a high level of public engagement by consistently communicating updates and new features through various channels. Each product or feature release was treated similarly to a grand reveal, much like how consumer brands handle product drops.
They routinely sent out feature updates via email to all users, posted on social platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, and utilized visually engaging content like animated videos to explain new functionalities. Regular and exciting updates kept the community engaged and attracted more users to try out the platform, driving further buzz and awareness.
Direct Communication and Support
Tyler did something quite unconventional: he made himself extremely available to the budding community of Beehiiv users. By answering direct messages on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, he built a reputation for being accessible and responsive to user needs and feedback.
This direct line of communication provided invaluable insights into user needs, enabling the Beehiiv team to prioritize feature development effectively. It also fostered a sense of loyalty and personal connection for many users, making them more likely to stay and promote Beehiiv within their circles.
By combining these tactics β leveraging strategic investor relationships, an effective referral program, high engagement through public feature releases, and maintaining direct communication β Beehiiv successfully attracted its first wave of customers and rapidly grew its user base, setting a strong foundation for future growth.
What was the growth strategy for Beehiiv and how did they scale?π
Referral Programπ
Beehiivβs referral program, inspired by the Morning Brewβs successful model, incentivizes readers to share the newsletter with others. The program rewards people with points for each new referral, which they can redeem for freebies like mugs, t-shirts, or exclusive content. This approach leveraged Beehiivβs core user base to drive organic growth without needing hefty advertising budgets. It worked well because it provided tangible rewards that appealed to their usersβ interests, making them more likely to share the newsletter with friends and colleagues.
Product-Led Growth & Customer Interactionπ
Tyler Denk, the CEO, was very active on social media, especially Twitter, responding to customer concerns, gathering feedback, and communicating new feature launches. This agile and audience-centric approach allowed the team to develop features that users actually wanted, increasing adoption rates and user satisfaction. Beehiiv also prioritized rapid product iteration. Their policy of shipping new features frequently helped build a narrative that the platform was continuously improving, which was crucial for retaining and attracting users in a competitive market.
Boost Networkπ
The Boost Network is another innovative growth tool Beehiiv offered. It enables users to pay to grow their newsletters by leveraging other newsletters in the ecosystem. Essentially, one newsletter can pay $2 per subscriber to grow their audience, while other newsletters in the network receive payment to promote them. This symbiotic relationship allowed smaller newsletters to monetize their smaller audiences immediately while helping larger newsletters grow rapidly without heavy marketing expenses.
Social Proof and Engagementπ
Beehiiv's strategy also involved celebrating user milestones publicly on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. Every time a user hit a subscriber milestone (e.g., 10,000 subscribers), they would share it on social media, tagging Beehiiv. Beehiiv would then retweet or share these accomplishments. This not only validated their platform's effectiveness but also encouraged other users to share their progress, creating a cycle of positive reinforcement and organic promotion across social platforms.
Ad Networkπ
Tyler and his team have been working on building the largest ad network for newsletters, capitalizing on the hundreds of millions of emails they send each month. This feature allows advertisers to target niche audiences with high precision using first-party data collected by Beehiiv. Advertisers can purchase ad space across multiple newsletters, which is facilitated by Beehiiv, making it easier for smaller newsletters to monetize through high-quality ads without needing a dedicated sales team. This approach aims to harness the high engagement rates of newsletters while simplifying the advertising process for brands.
Together, these strategies paint a picture of a company that leverages community-driven growth, product innovation, and responsive user interactions to build and scale its market presence effectively.
What's the pricing strategy for Beehiiv?π
Beehiiv offers a tiered pricing model with a Free plan, $49/month, and $99/month for up to 100,000 subscribers, incorporating advanced newsletter growth tools.
What were the biggest lessons learned from building Beehiiv?π
- Emphasize Rapid Iteration: Beehiiv's success was significantly driven by their ability to ship new features every week, maintaining a rapid product development cadence. This created a narrative of continuous improvement and reliability, encouraging users to trust that any missing features would be added soon.
- Direct Customer Interaction: Tyler Denk's strategy of answering every Twitter and LinkedIn DM personally played a crucial role in retaining and acquiring customers. It demonstrated a high level of responsiveness and willingness to address user concerns, instilling confidence in the platform.
- Strategic Networking During Seed Round: By including strategic investors who had large followings and owned big newsletters, Beehiiv ensured early adoption and generated credible word-of-mouth marketing. This approach leveraged the influence of their investors to accelerate initial growth.
- Building in Public: Sharing the journey, challenges, and achievements openly on social platforms like Twitter helped Beehiiv build a loyal following. It established trust and transparency, which attracted users who felt a personal connection to the growth story.
- Focus on Core User Needs: The decision to build a simplistic text editor, basic website functionalities, and an email collector as their MVP allowed Beehiiv to meet the essential needs of their target audience. They added advanced tools like the referral program shortly after, based on user feedback, proving their commitment to growth tools essential for newsletters.
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More about Beehiiv:π
Who is the owner of Beehiiv?π
Tyler Denk is the founder of Beehiiv.
When did Tyler Denk start Beehiiv?π
2021
What is Tyler Denk's net worth?π
Tyler Denk's business makes an average of $583K/month.
How much money has Tyler Denk made from Beehiiv?π
Tyler Denk started the business in 2021, and currently makes an average of $7M/year.
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