Beehive's Newsletter Infrastructure Growth

Beehive took Morning Brew's internal newsletter tools and infrastructure and turned them into a standalone product that helps others build and grow newsletters. The company demonstrates the opportunity in productizing successful internal tools.

Key Points:

• Origin Story:

  • Built originally as internal tools at Morning Brew ($100M/year newsletter business)
  • Helped Morning Brew grow to 5M subscribers
  • Spun out as separate company by Tyler (Morning Brew employee)

• Core Product Features:

  • Newsletter writing and formatting tools
  • Built-in growth features:
    • Referral systems
    • Reader recommendation tools
    • Email sharing capabilities
  • Reward management (stickers, mugs, t-shirts for referrals)

• Business Success:

  • Reached $7M ARR by February
  • Approaching $10M ARR by March
  • Additional revenue from ad network (not included in numbers)

• Value Proposition:

  • Allows small teams to run professional newsletters
  • Example: Milk Road (3 people) built and sold newsletter for millions using Beehive
  • No need to build infrastructure or hire large teams
  • Provides enterprise-grade tools to small operators

• Business Model:

  • SaaS platform for newsletter creators
  • Additional revenue from ad network integration