My view on this considering Workweek is building a newsletter platform and the decisions facing Founders in this new era. 1) The reason we choose not to charge creators is because the tool of sending email isn’t what’s valuable. What is valuable is growth and revenue. This why Substack has done so well. The ability to help growth and network effects matters most. The more focused you can be on that the better chance you will win if your product is getting commoditized. beehiiv has to focus on keeping happy paid customers while doing user network effects. Hard to do both amazing. 2)This the risk a business takes expand when they expand ICP to grow instead of expanding usage of core customers. beehiiv has invested tens of millions into improving the platform. They now serve small creators, huge creators, and enterprise media. And within those segments there are many different types of customers. It’s very hard to compound that value for users, and can make users feel like the product is getting worse despite the investment. It’s why we’re treating our email platform like vertical SaaS and going deeper on one customer profile. It’s too difficult to win in the age of democratized software unless you have relentless focus. 3) the reality is the that beehiiv is more than a widget to send emails. The deliverabilty, the security with data, and other factors don’t get solved with only code, but with actual work. And that work scales. But beehiiv is built on a Sendgrid. Sendgrid charges beehiiv somewhere around $0.0002 to send that email. Beehiiv charges their customers $0.001 to $0.003 depending on usage. That’s 15x higher. That’s what beehiiv has to show in value when companies like ours, Substack, and others offer this for free with advertising/rev share as a model. If you zoom out, the bigger decision is around business model and GTM decisions. For years Founders didn’t have to think too hard on pricing or GTM, there were clear SaaS playbooks that always aligned well with customers at scale. Today, choosing a business model that scales is less clear and never had bigger consequences. I’d expect a lot of businesses pivot their model as more clear paths are formed.

Four years ago this month, we launched Workweek. That November, we booked $18K. I remember how grateful I felt for every single dollar. This month, so far, we’ve booked $1.9M. We’re on track to more than double last year’s Q4 bookings. I’m still just as grateful. But here’s the truth: the revenue is just the scoreboard. The inputs are what makes me actually thankful. Our team is world-class. They love the grind, lean into the grit, and push themselves to get better every day. And they do it all in this uniquely fun way. That effort shows up in our product, our usage, and, ultimately, our revenue. I'm not kidding that I struggle to fall asleep out of excitement and jump out of bed ready to go back at it. When Becca and I started Workweek, we wanted to build something we loved so much that we’d never want to stop. That’s still our north star. That’s how we win in the long run. 1,500 days in, we’re nowhere near done. We’re building something category-defining. Something I promise to myself will be worthy of the people behind it. And somehow, it still feels like Day 1. Here’s to never wanting to stop and keeping that feeling.

A glimpse into Workweek’s Upfronts event a couple of weeks ago. What a ride.

One week out: our 2nd Annual Upfronts. 50 of thet op B2B marketing leaders join us in Austin to talk 2026 trends, strategy with creators, and scaling opportunities. Plus a few good parties. I have 3 spots to give out. DM if you want in.