ConvertKit

Profile: Nathan Barry Built A $25M/Year Newsletter Platform (Started As Solopreneur)

November 13th, 2023

ConvertKit is an email marketing platform designed for online creators offering them tools to collect leads, send emails, automate email marketing, and sell digital products.

Founded By

Nathan Barry

Monthly Revenue

$2.08M

Starting Costs

$5K

Score

Founders

Employees

82 (est.)

Monthly Traffic

7.5M

Profitable

Yes

Year Started

2013

Customer

B2B

Revenue Per Visitor

$0.28

Founded By
Nathan Barry: Monthly Revenue
$2.08M: Starting Costs
$5K: Score
98

Founders
1: Employees
82 (est.): Monthly Traffic
7.5M: Profitable
Yes

Year Started
2013: Customer
B2B: Revenue Per Visitor
$0.28

Who is Nathan Barry?

Nathan Barry is the founder and CEO of ConvertKit. He has always been passionate about creating visually stunning designs. Initially, he started working as a web and software designer but later developed a keen interest in audience building. This passion drove him to establish ConvertKit, which he currently heads.

What problem does ConvertKit solve?

Creators need email automation, and monetization tools that work together to drive continuous growth.

How did Nathan come up with the idea for ConvertKit?

In 2013, Nathan set a challenge for himself: build a $5K/mo SaaS in 6 months with just $5,000. He got the idea after reading people's complaints about Mailchimp online, and decided to build a product that addressed those.

How did Nathan Barry build the initial version of ConvertKit?

ConvertKit initially struggled to grow, stalling at $2,000 MRR. Hiten Shah advised Nathan to either shut down or invest heavily. Nathan focused sharply on professional bloggers, investing $50,000 and building a dedicated team.

This pivot, coupled with direct sales and an emphasis on customer care through concierge migrations, sparked growth.

By leveraging customer referrals and launching an affiliate program, ConvertKit rapidly scaled, reaching $500,000 MRR by 2016.

Continuously innovating, such as with the 2017 redesign for visual automation, ConvertKit remains committed to serving creators independently, focusing on aiding them to earn a living.

What was the growth strategy for ConvertKit and how did they scale?

Initially, Nathan directly outreached to online creators and bloggers, offering to manually help them migrate from their previous email marketing platform to address the main objection.

Affiliate programs then became a core part of how ConvertKit made money and scaled beyond a 1000 customers, with a forever ongoing 30% revenue share on each month a referral is using ConvertKit.

What's the pricing strategy for ConvertKit?

Convertkit has 3 plans: Free, Creator ($9/mo), and Creator Pro ($29/mo).

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