Beehiiv: The Creator-Centric Newsletter Platform

Welcome to the 13th Network Effects Newsletter.

If you're new here, this newsletter is all about unpacking the vision, strategy, and execution behind the world’s leading tech companies.

Today, we’re exploring Beehiiv, which was founded in 2021 by Tyle Denk (CEO), Benjamin Hargett, Jacob Hurd, and Andrew Platkin (CTO). 

Let’s dive in.

📝 Overview 

Beehiiv is a newsletter platform that empowers creators, media companies, and businesses to build, manage, and monetize their email newsletters. Moving beyond traditional email service providers such as MailChimp, Beehiiv offers an end-to-end solution that integrates content management, audience analytics, and referral programs. 

One of Beehiiv’s unique differentiations is its proprietary Ad Network, which automatically matches creators' content with advertisers; therefore, creators can monetize seamlessly without the need to source, negotiate, or manage sponsors, similar to the YouTube Partner Program. 

As creators shift from rented to owned platforms, businesses begin to value the need for organic, authentic distribution. Newsletters have become sought-after media channels to reach and engage with consumers and audience communities. In 2024, Beehiiv has sent over 15.6 billion emails, growing 380 %+ from 2023 at 4.5 billion emails. As of November 2024, creators on Beehiiv reached over 225M readers and have taken home over $13M in earnings directly via our monetization features. As a platform, the company reached an ARR of $24M with 75 employees globally. 

Customers include Shaan Puri’s Milk Road (sold for $10M after 12 months with 250K subs), Litquidity’s Exec Sum, Times Magazine, and more. 

📌 Thesis 1 - Product Leadership with Expanding Features  

Beehiiv’s minimal viable product was its content management platform focused on email newsletters, then it has quickly expanded to a wide variety of adjacent features and use cases, collapsing multiple fields including CRMs, campaign management, survey and forms, analytics, referral programs, sponsorship management, website building, to solidify further its market positions, which translates into lower churns and higher net dollar retentions

Beehiiv is known for its speed of execution. In the last 12 months, Beehiiv has rolled out a series of core features across different categories and campaigns to accelerate growth. Some of which include 

• Expert directory marketplace where users can browse and work with proven newsletter consultants on the platform, 

• Beehiiv App Marketplaces for users to integrate their newsletter with 3P applications such as Shopify, Slack, Salesforce, Stripe, Zapier, etc. 

• Website Builder, following the acquisition of TypeDrea, which allows users to design personal websites with no-code 

• Key campaigns such as the local newsletter accelerator, local newsletter summit, Kit to Beehiiv campaign, on top of its recurring beach club competitions for top performers

📌 Thesis 2 – Email Programmatic Advertising Market Potential

Email as a channel remains a growing, underserved segment of the advertising category, and Beehiiv is well-positioned to capture the demand. In the past few years, most of the advertising dollars have mainly been invested in social media and search (e.g., mid-roll advertisements on YouTube, page ads in between Instagram stories), and there has been a shift towards email and organic content distribution, for example, direct sponsorship for a YouTube video or email posts. 

In addition, the sunset of cookie tracking implies that advertisers will lose the ability to track users across the web (behavioural targeting), and they are searching for effective environments where the context is clear, making newsletters prime real estate for advertising. According to eMarketer, 50% of US B2B marketers agree that email is the most impactful tool in their multichannel marketing strategy, better than social media (33%) and content marketing (26%). 

(I have written more about the changing advertising landscape in the deep dive on Stackadapt here)

Beehiiv’s unique advantage is that they are already the publisher’s operating platform, which can act as an intermediary to connect advertisers to its publishers. By developing an algorithmic matching platform for advertisers and creators, it allows creators to monetize their distribution without the need to find, negotiate and manage sponsors, similar to the YouTube Partners Program, where creators can monetize simply by opting into the partners program. In Q1 2025, over $1.7 million has been distributed to publishers, nearly 3x from Q1 2024. While the take rate is undisclosed, using The Trade Desk as a proxy, Beehiiv could have a take rate between 15-25% (equivalent to $300k in Q1’25)

🌱 Genesis Story

Tyler’s first entrepreneurial pursuit was founding VentureStorm while he was studying at the University of Maryland. VentureStorm is a web application that connects entrepreneurs and startups to talented software developers. Tyler has stuck with the startup after graduation and found himself with $120K in debt, a failing product, and living in his parents’ basement

In 2017, he was looking for a new role and stumbled across two options: 

• Option 1: new grad consultant at Deloitte, which pays $75k with stability 

• Option 2: first employee at Morningbrew working on a growing but unproven business model (the co-founder, Austin Rief, is his former middle school basketball teammate)

Tyler decided to join MorningBrew with a vision on capturing the asymmetric upside. Since then, he has led the buildout of its proprietary referral program, AdOps platform, content management system (CMS), and landing page for MorningBrew, which eventually led to its exit for $75M by Insider.

Upon exit, Tyler joined Google as a product lead for YouTube Music. However, Tyler was drawn to the success of MorningBrew and saw the growing opportunities in newsletters and multimedia platforms. While he was at Google, Tyler teamed up with former Brew co-workers Ben Hargett and Jake Hurd to expand Denk’s idea for a newsletter platform into Beehiiv. After months of working nights and weekends, the trio developed a business model that would allow creators to make money through both advertising and paid subscriptions.

In the summer of 2021, Denk went to Los Angeles and managed to raise $2.6 million in pre-seed funding. “As soon as that money hit the bank,” he says, “I quit Google.” And his co-founders quit Morning Brew.

🖥️ Products & Services 

Beehiiv has evolved from a simple newsletter tool into a multi-product platform catering to the diverse needs of creators and businesses. This ecosystem expands to include a content management platform, website builder and its proprietary advertising network:

Content Management Platform (CMS)

Beehiiv’s Content Management System (CMS) enables content creation and simultaneous publication to email and the web, maximizing reach and content utility. Beehiiv operates on a 0% revenue share model, allowing creators to connect directly to their Stripe accounts, which significantly incentivizes adoption and empowers creators to maximize their earnings. 

Some of the select key features include: 

• Paywallling & Scheduling Tools

• Tiered Subscriptions

• Content Editing & AI Revision Tools 

• Subscribe Forms 

• Subscribe-Based Analytics 

• Titles & Subtitles A/B Testing 

• Audio Newsletter 

• Third-Party Application Integrations

• Direct Sponsorship Packages

• Referral Programs & Recommendation Network

• Beehiiv’s Expert Network (Hire an expert) 

Users can monetize via 

• Paid Subscriptions 

• Direct Sponsorship

• Boost 

• Beehiiv’s Ad Network

(More on Boost & Ad Network in the Email Ad Network section)

Website Builder 

The Website Builder empowers creators to establish a central online presence for their content and brand through an intuitive, no-code, drag-and-drop interface. This comprehensive functionality includes the ability to create customizable pages, manage navigation menus, and optimize for SEO, effectively transforming the newsletter into a broader media property

In June 12 2025, Beehiiv launched a new version of its website builder, with additional features including (1) Lead Magnets, (2) Podcast Feeds, (3) Responsive Web Apps (e.g., Stock Feeds) to create a more immersive audience experience for publishers, further differentiating with incubments providers such as Wix and SquareSpace.

Email Ad Networks 

This native ad network connects newsletters with reputable brands such as Brooklinen, Hims, and Masterworks, streamlining the often complex process of securing advertising deals. By facilitating these connections, Beehiiv provides a passive and diversified revenue stream for creators, allowing them to leverage their audience reach and content relevance without needing to manage the sales process themselves. This feature not only enhances creator monetization but also adds a layer of business relevance to the newsletter content itself.

As of May 2024, leading companies, including HubSpot, Writer, Notion, and Intercom, have become customers of Beehiiv’s AdNetworks, with opportunities available for publishers for $4 CPC (cost per click) and $10 CPM (cost per thousand opens). Compared to YouTube’s $15 CPM, there is an underutilized opportunity for early adopters to market their products & services more cost-efficiently compared to traditional methods. 

🏢 Markets 

Email as a Marketing Channel 

Email remains a cornerstone of digital marketing, demonstrating robust growth and unparalleled return on investment. In 2024, there are 4.5 billion email users worldwide, exchanging 376.4 billion emails per day, which is expected to grow to 408 billion emails 2027. 

To marketers, email is one of the most defensible channels as they are not subjected to algorithmic or policy changes, for example, only 6% of your Facebook fanbase will see your post organically, and the more fans you have, the less will see each post. Therefore, marketers have been investing in email advertisements. As of early 2024, a survey suggested that 41% of marketing professionals chose email as a more effective channel over both social media (16%) and paid search ads (16%) 

Beehiiv’s customers are broadly segmented into three categories: Individual Creators, SMBs/Corporate, and Media Companies. Their goals vary from audience growth to leads conversion to monetization. While large incumbents provide white-gloves services to enterprise/media companies (e.g., Hubspot, MailChimp), individual creators have become the most underserved market for content management systems (CMS). 

Rise of Independent Platforms & Growing Value of Distribution 

With the introduction of publishing platforms and tools such as Beehiiv and Substack, it provided opportunities for independent writers who are not part of incumbent media platforms to build an audience across their preferred channels (Newsletters, Podcasts, Videos). The number of self-published books has increased by 264% since 2020. 

Prominent examples in newsletter-led businesses include 

• Casey Newton’s Platformer

• James Clear’s 3-2-1 Thursday

• Sahil Bloom’s Curiousity Chronicle 

• Litquidity’s Exec Sum

• Ben Thompson’s Stratechery

• And many others…. 

The value of these platforms has become increasingly valuable as the shift in AI capabilities allows businesses to accelerate their product development; however, brand and customer acquisitions have become differentiated areas for businesses.

⚔️ Competitions

Content Management Systems (MailChimp, ConvertKit) 

Traditional email marketing platforms like MailChimp and ConvertKit primarily focus on email list management and campaign sending. While many features are commoditized in the email competitive landscape, such as automation workflows, analytics, referral programs, these companies don’t provide the network-effect driven features of Beehiiv, including its advertising program and expertise networks. Their monetization models may also involve revenue sharing or complex tiered pricing, which contrasts sharply with Beehiiv's 0% revenue cut on paid subscriptions

Centralized Publishing Platforms (Substack, Medium)

First mover publication platforms such as Medium and Substack have gained traction by simplifying content publishing and offering built-in audience reach. However, they represent a more centralized model where the platform often takes a significant cut of creator revenue (e.g., Substack's 10% on paid subscriptions) and maintains greater control over the creator's audience and content distribution. In contrast, Beehiiv empowers creators with full ownership of their audience data, a customizable website that serves as an owned digital hub

Email AdNetwork (Paved)

Specialized email ad networks like Paved focus exclusively on connecting advertisers with newsletters for sponsored content opportunities. While effective for monetizing ad inventory, these platforms are typically standalone services that require creators to manage their primary newsletter publishing, audience growth, and website presence at a different platform. Beehiiv, however, integrates its native ad network directly into its content management system (CMS). 

⚙️ Business Model

Beehiiv's revenue is derived from the monthly subscription fees it charges, with three usage tiers currently in place: free, $43/month, and $96/month. Those rates are flat—Beehiiv charges the same amount no matter how many subscribers you have on your email list, until you reach 200,000 subscribers, at which point you're prompted to sign up for a Beehiiv Enterprise plan.

 The free "Launch" tier is designed for those just getting started and includes features like web hosting, custom newsletters, analytics, magic links, and limited audience segmentation, among others. As creators grow their newsletters, they switch to the $42/month "Grow" tier that includes additional features like custom domains, premium subscriptions, unlimited polls, and A/B testing. The $84/month "Scale" tier is designed for established newsletters and provides advanced features like an integrated referral program, automated journeys, and multiple publications. The Enterprise tier caters to the needs of newsletter powerhouses with features like unlimited subscribers, unlimited sends, and dedicated IP addresses, among other offerings.

💰Valuations & Fundraising

The company has raised about $50M across 4 funding rounds, including a $33M Series B in April 2024. Key investors of the round include New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sapphire Ventures

The lead investors for the previous round include Social Leverage (Seed), Lightspeed Venture Partners (Series A), and NEA (Series B)

In April 2024, Beehiiv raised $1M on Wefunder in a round that valued them at $192M. Based on their ARR at the time, which was $13M, Beehiiv traded at a 14.8x revenue multiple.

♟️ Key Opportunities

Ad Network 

The ad exchange will mark as Beehiiv’s next “S-surve” opportunity to rapidly expand its market opportunity and coverage across the value chain, providing publishers a seamless solution to one of their largest pain points with monetizations, while providing a new avenue for advertisers to reach new audiences through a growing channel. 

Audio Content Management Capabilities

The most effective media platforms are usually multi-media in nature, which means publishers would be creating content across platforms, from emails to podcasts to short-form videos. Beehiiv, with a world-class CMS for written publications, is well-positioned to expand to audio platforms. 

In July 2024, Beehiiv rolled out its “Audio Newsletter” feature, allowing newsletters to be consumed in audio format using AI. The opportunity to expand its CMS with a podcast allows Beehiiv to better serve users who do both newsletters and podcasts, and expand its market opportunity with podcast creators.

Publisher AI Chatbots 

In May 2025, Beehiiv began piloting its AI Chatbots feature in partnership with Delphi, where creators can upload a knowledge base of themselves (including all the newsletters published on Beehiiv, podcast/video features from other platforms, and document uploads) to create a chatbot that mimics their personality. 

With the success of Character AI, there is a real growing market for personalized engagement through custom AI chatbots. This feature can further deepen reader-publisher relationships and improve the visibility of historical content. 

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Resources 

• Big Desk Energy - Tyler Denk’s Newsletter

• The Zack’s File - Tyler Denk Interview

• Beehiiv Reddit Community 

• Twitter - Beehiiv / Tyler Denk