🐝 🐝 🐝 From 0 to $10M ARR: Beehiiv's Growth Secrets

Last week, the newsletter hosting platform Beehiiv reached a staggering 10 Million ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). This achievement is particularly impressive considering the market is dominated by giants like Substack and ConvertKit. In fact, this very newsletter is built on Beehiiv! which gives me more reason to cover it and for you to know about it.

Beehiiv was founded in 2021 by Tyler Denk, Ben Hargett, and Jake Hurd, all veterans from the highly successful business newsletter Morning Brew (acquired for ~$75 million). Leveraging their learnings and challenges from building Morning Brew, they launched Beehiiv - a SaaS platform that empowers anyone to create and manage their own newsletters. Beehiiv recently secured a $33 million funding round.

Beehiiv's Growth Factors and Loops

1. Beehiiv Partner Program: Upon joining Beehiiv, you're invited to their lucrative partner program. You can earn 50% commission on your referrals' platform fees for a whole year. Imagine earning $1,000 per month with just 15 successful referrals! Beehiiv further incentivizes referrals with exotic trips (Bahamas, Hawaii, Cabo) for top performers (announced via weekly leaderboards).

2. "Published on Beehiiv" Footer: Beehiiv automatically embeds a "Published on Beehiiv" banner in the footer of every email sent from their platform. This simple strategy has driven over 3 billion email impressions and converted 50 million+ unique readers into new users through the call to action (CTA).

3. Building in Public: The founders and almost everyone working at Beehiiv have their own newsletters. They post company, product, and their newsletter updates (revenue, users) directly on Twitter handles. Team members also use a small bee emoji to identify their affiliation with Beehiiv. This has helped them build trust and a community that is also open to sharing their similar experiences in public interactions with the company.

4. Monetization Made Easy: Now, no one will talk about your product with a megaphone if the outcomes aren’t worth it! Beehiiv understands this and their platform allows creators to start monetizing their audience from the very beginning, regardless of audience size. A quick Twitter search for "Beehiiv" reveals numerous user testimonials about earning revenue with even small subscriber bases.

5. Competitive Pricing and User-Friendly Product: Beehiiv offers a free plan that allows you to host up to 2,500 subscribers. Their pricing scales only as your audience grows. The platform is a no-code tool, making it accessible to anyone with basic technical knowledge. Beehiiv also provides extensive walkthrough videos and a comprehensive knowledge base to empower users. Additionally, they demonstrate a commitment to user experience with frequent product updates.

Excited to Start your Newsletter?

Checkout this end-to-end email course called “Newsletter Mastery” where you can learn how to create and monetize your newsletter from scratch in just 7 days!

PS: It’s FREE 🎉

While SEO and creator-led growth also contribute to Beehiiv's success story, the strategies mentioned above represent the key drivers of their impressive growth.

Did you enjoy this breakdown? Check your inbox for more insightful newsletters like this one! Just search for “growthfolks“ in your inbox.

This Week’s Cheeky Marketing