Prompt Cast
The Success Story of Morning Brew: From College Side Project to a Multi-Million Subscriber Business
TLDR Morning Brew, founded by Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief as a college side project, has grown into a successful business with over two and a half million subscribers by focusing on engaging content, organic growth strategies, and early monetization efforts. Morning Brew differentiates itself by curating must-read newsletters, maintaining transparency in native advertising, and adapting to the future of media through niche content creation and multimedia expansion.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Business partners Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief founded Morning Brew as a side project in college, which has now grown into a successful business with over two and a half million subscribers.
04:07
Alex Lieberman started writing a daily newsletter called Market Corner as a hobby during college, which eventually led to the launch of Morning Brew with Austin Rief in March 2015.
07:44
Morning Brew's growth from Michigan to other Big Ten schools and beyond was fueled by a combination of organic strategies, including a college ambassador program and a referral program, as well as a focus on creating engaging content consistently over time.
11:12
Morning Brew initially focused on creating engaging content for superfans through merchandise and hired talented writers to maintain a consistent tone in their newsletter, eventually expanding by leveraging college students as writers and utilizing a tone editor to add personality to their blurbs.
14:53
Morning Brew raised $750,000 from 28 investors and chose to focus on monetization from day one rather than raising more funding.
19:12
Morning Brew differentiates itself by curating engaging and accessible content for readers, making it a daily must-read newsletter.
22:52
Morning Brew focuses on creating intimate relationships with readers through engaging content and native advertising in their voice, aiming to maintain transparency and responsibility in an era of media disaggregation.
26:35
Morning Brew feels a responsibility to curate important news for their readers, ensuring a clear separation between editorial content and revenue-generating native ads, with monetization starting around two and a half years after the newsletter's inception.
30:05
The future of media is in niche content creation and expanding into various multimedia formats to cater to different consumer preferences and channels of distribution.
33:56
The global smartwatch industry, valued at $45 billion annually, saw Samsung challenging Apple's dominance in the market following Steve Jobs' death, leading to a fierce battle over wearable technology.
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