Austin Rief: Building & Selling The Morning Brew For Millions I…
About This Episode
Sam and Shaan interview Austin Rief, co-founder of Morning Brew, to discuss the intense rivalry and ultimate friendship between the two biggest business newsletters. They break down the mechanics of scaling a media company to $75 million in revenue, the psychological impact of a massive early exit, and how to identify high-potential business opportunities in the current economic landscape.
Episode Description
Show Notes
- 01:00- Morning Brew origin story
- 19:10- Ad sales
- 24:10- Austin's strengths
- 32:15- Austin's upbringing
- 42:55- What did you do with your new found wealth?
- 45:55- Ideas brainstorm
- 01:13:14- Future plans
- ----
- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
- ----
- Additional episodes you might enjoy:
- #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
- #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
- #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
- * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
- #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
- Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
- How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Links
- * Morning Brew
- * Toptal
- * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
- * Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
- -----
Key Takeaways
Focus on a 'Main Thing' by establishing a clear North Star metric, such as Morning Brew’s 'Write, Grow, Sell' framework and their daily 'Great Wall of Opens' tracking.
B2B media offers high-margin potential by treating professional audiences like people, using a consumer-style tone to dominate niche industries that are traditionally dry.
In economic downturns, successful new ventures should prioritize either saving companies money through outsourced talent or helping individuals generate side income.
Business Ideas Mentioned
AI Newsletter and Software Holding Company
AI & Automation
Niche B2B Content Marketing Marketplace
Marketplace
Ultra-High-Net-Worth Niche Consumer Newsletters
Content & Media