Founder Mode

Last week we surpassed $1M MRR — meaning beehiiv is currently generating over $1M in recurring revenue each month. This doesn’t even include revenue from the Ad Network or Boosts.

But the job ain’t done.

It’s a bit difficult to articulate properly — but I think part of what makes me a good founder is also what makes it impossible for me to enjoy a lot of things in the moment.

Leaving a well-paying job at Google to start a company… only to surpass $1M MRR less than 3 years later. That should bring me an immense amount of happiness and joy. It’s kind of all I’ve wanted for nearly a decade now.

And it does, to an extent.

But the other side of that coin is antipathy towards the slightest hint of complacency. I’ll be the first to admit that I really struggle with taking a step back and enjoying the journey as we’re on it. How could I? There’s so much more to do.

It’s the continuous pursuit of “more” and “better” that initially attracted me to entrepreneurship. It’s what attracted me to studying engineering too.

There’s something about building things… then making them better, faster, and more efficient. Then doing it again, and again, and again. It’s like a game that doesn’t have an upper limit, but “winning” translates to helping millions of others across the world.

To some people that means absolutely nothing. To me it means everything.

If we’re being honest, it’s not even the revenue or the MRR that excites me. I’m a product guy through and through. I have this beautiful, ambitious vision for what we’re building… and we’re not even close to achieving it yet. Bringing that vision to life is what actually gets me excited.

The MRR is just a byproduct of whether or not it resonates with other people.

In trying to assess how I feel about the milestone (or truthfully — the lack of feeling), it brings me back to this internal debate I always have about “enough.” I think about “enough” a lot.

There’s a part of me that thinks it’s beautiful. The thought of being fully content, not chasing anything, genuinely happy with where you are in life. This feels like where everyone ultimately wants to be.

And then there’s a part of me that finds it terrifying. The world is vast with opportunities and people and experiences yet to be experienced. To have “enough” means to forgo that drive to pursue more.

Whether a new job or a new partner — there are surely better opportunities or someone out there who is more compatible, attractive, funny, etc. There has to be: with nearly 8 billion people on this planet, the odds are surely in favor of it.

But it’s a fool’s errand to chase that forever: at some point you find “enough.”

My point is: everyone is wired differently. Some people find “enough” much easier than others. There’s nothing wrong with that — like I said, I think that’s where everyone ultimately wants to be.

But for me, I’m just not wired like that. Complacency escapes me whenever it can. And as a founder, I think it’s a bit of a superpower.

When someone compliments beehiiv, I’m always the first to identify the 10 things about it we can improve. The never-ending pursuit of better… is both a sickness and a superpower.

But that’s enough therapy for today.

I’ve spent most of this post talking about how I can barely enjoy the present because of how excited I am for the future. So let me share a few things that I can’t wait to launch soon…

First — what I’ll loosely describe as “hardening” our core features.

We spent the first 2.5 years sprinting to ship as many features as we possibly could. We launched beehiiv into an extremely mature market and desperately needed to catch up in order to compete.

And I think we accomplished that (see above: $1M MRR). But if I were to be a bit more critical, I’d argue that we currently have a ton of features and experiences that are 7/10 good.

Now imagine all of them being 10/10. Where each nuance and experience in the platform left users with “wow.”

Just last week we launched a beautiful new editor and publishing experience. I’d go as far as to say it’s one of the best publishing experiences on the internet. (That’s what the tweet I wrote says too 👇️).

Think that — but for every single feature from automations, to segmentation, the referral program, Boosts, surveys, and all of the rest. I want users to constantly be amazed at the simplicity and intuitiveness with each click.

Second — the beehiiv Ad Network.

The Ad Network makes it seamless for newsletters to monetize with premium sponsors. These premium sponsors include brands like Netflix, Hubspot, Chime, Betterment, and dozens of other incredible companies.

Oh, and the Ad Network pays publishers (i.e. our users) nearly a half million dollars each month. It’s beautifully integrated directly into the beehiiv platform, and is built right into our user’s existing workflows.

But it’s about to get so much better. We’re going to introduce…

• Better scheduling and inventory management tools

• Dynamic invoicing and lead generation

• New and improved workflows

• Ad units that range from CPC to CPM

• Tons of new integrations to plug-in with CRMs and other tools

And a few other surprises that I think will really blow people away.

Third — the new website builder.

I think some people forgot that we acquired Typedream earlier this year…

Typedream is an AI-based website builder and I genuinely believe it’s one of the best platforms for building custom websites available on the internet.

And we’re just a few short months away from offering something even better and 100% native within beehiiv. Meaning, each and every beehiiv user will soon have access to world-class tools and a library of beautiful templates to build the website of their dreams.

But what excites me the most is what comes after…

A website is just the front door, the portal to everything else. But after launching this new experience, the possibilities are endless: link in bio, storefronts, courses, community, etc.

So yeah — there’s a reason why it’s hard for me to enjoy the journey sometimes when my head is always in the clouds. We have a big vision to execute.

The job ain’t done yet.

If you enjoyed this post or know someone who may find it useful, please share it with them and encourage them to subscribe: mail.bigdeskenergy.com/p/founder-mode

Speaking of $1M MRR — one of the secrets to our success is taking advantage of amazing global talent. We hire the best person for the job. Period.

I was introduced to Oceans a year ago, and since then, they have connected us with some of the most impactful members of our team.

Dulara and Udaiyanee handle everything from maintaining our sales pipeline, qualifying leads, invoicing, billing, scheduling, and tons of other admin work.

Best of all — these are full-time hires that we only pay $3,000 /mo.

Actually, even better — Oceans handles the sourcing, hiring, onboarding, and admin of everything. No placement fees, no headaches.

Next stop: $2M MRR 📈 

By the way: you can get $500 off your first month because you’re a reader of Big Desk Energy.

Thanks to my comrade Jake for the reader submission 🫡. I have to admit, this is pretty damn close to a dream office setup for me…

• High ceilings

• Beach views

• Floor-to-ceiling windows

• Modern furniture

• Great artwork

• Multiple lounge areas

• Charts that go 📈 on every screen

Reply with your own AI generated office and I’ll feature it in an upcoming issue.

Turn on, tune in, drop out. Click on any of the tracks below to get in a groove — each selected from the full Big Desk Energy playlist.

Some of my favorite content I found on the internet this week…

• I’ll be in San Francisco speaking at an event with Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup, this Thursday (9/12). Reserved a few spaces for BDE readers (RSVP)

• Allbirds stock is trading below $1 per share. Drew Fallon breaks how they went from unicorn darling to worth roughly $100M (Twitter)

• I can’t tell if it’s hilarious or terrifying that right-wing influencers were taking brand deals… from the Kremlin (AP News)

• Guest post Phil Carta dropped an absolute banger of a post on the subscription value loop (Lenny’s Newsletter)

• One of the charts from that post is still blowing my mind…

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Until next Tuesday 🕺🏽

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