Morning Brew doing things that don't scale

In the world of digital media, Morning Brew stands as a remarkable success story—a business newsletter that grew from a college dorm room project to a media empire valued at over $75 million. But like many successful startups, Morning Brew’s early growth wasn’t driven by sophisticated marketing campaigns or massive funding. Instead, founders Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief relied on a decidedly low-tech, unscalable approach: physically showing up in business classes at the University of Michigan and pitching their newsletter to fellow students.

The Genesis: A Solution to a Personal Problem

Morning Brew’s story begins in 2014 when Alex Lieberman, then a senior at the University of Michigan, noticed a problem. As a business student preparing for job interviews on Wall Street, he found traditional business news sources like The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times to be dry, dense, and disconnected from the way his generation consumed information.

“I was helping friends prepare for job interviews, and I realized none of them enjoyed reading traditional business news,” Lieberman later recalled. “Yet they all needed to be informed about the business world for their careers.”

This observation led Lieberman to create “Market Corner,” a simple PDF newsletter that translated the day’s business news into a conversational, digestible format tailored for college students. The newsletter was initially sent to a small group of friends who were preparing for job interviews in finance and consulting.

What started as a helpful resource for friends quickly gained popularity among business students at Michigan. Lieberman’s classmates appreciated his ability to distill complex business concepts into accessible, engaging content with a touch of humor—a stark contrast to the staid tone of traditional business publications.

Enter Austin Rief: From Reader to Co-Founder

Among the early readers of Market Corner was Austin Rief, a sophomore at Michigan who was impressed by the newsletter and saw its potential. Rather than just passively consuming the content, Rief reached out to Lieberman with suggestions for improving the newsletter.

“Austin was the first person to email me with feedback,” Lieberman said in an interview. “He had ideas about the content, the format, and how we could potentially grow this into something bigger.”

Impressed by Rief’s insights and enthusiasm, Lieberman invited him to join the project. The two quickly formed a partnership that would prove instrumental in transforming a simple PDF newsletter into a media company. They renamed the newsletter “Morning Brew” to better reflect its purpose—providing readers with their daily dose of business news to start their day.

The Unscalable Beginning: Classroom by Classroom

With a refined product and a shared vision, Lieberman and Rief faced their first major challenge: how to grow their subscriber base beyond their immediate circle of friends. Without funding for marketing or a built-in distribution network, they turned to a method that couldn’t possibly scale but proved remarkably effective—physically pitching their newsletter in business classes across the University of Michigan campus.

“We would visit business classes and clubs across campus and ask professors if they could pitch to students,” Lieberman explained in a later interview. This approach was time-consuming and limited by the number of classrooms they could physically visit, but it allowed them to connect directly with their target audience.

The pitch was simple but effective. Lieberman or Rief would stand in front of a classroom of business students and deliver a brief, engaging presentation about Morning Brew. They highlighted the newsletter’s value proposition—staying informed about business news in a way that was actually enjoyable to read—and emphasized that it was completely free. At the end of each pitch, they would pass around a signup sheet or direct students to a simple landing page where they could subscribe.

This grassroots approach yielded impressive results. According to Lieberman, they got their “first 100 users by pitching in business classes.” The face-to-face interaction allowed them to refine their pitch based on immediate feedback, answer questions, and build credibility with their audience.

The classroom pitches also provided valuable insights into what resonated with their target readers. They could observe firsthand which aspects of their value proposition generated the most interest and which objections or questions consistently arose. This direct feedback loop helped them refine both their product and their messaging.

Expanding Beyond the Classroom: Campus Organizations and Events

As the newsletter gained traction among business students, Lieberman and Rief expanded their approach to include pitches at campus organizations and events. They targeted business fraternities, investment clubs, entrepreneurship groups, and other organizations where business-minded students gathered.

These venues offered the advantage of reaching students who were particularly interested in business news and likely to value the content Morning Brew provided. The founders would attend meetings, give brief presentations, and collect email addresses from interested students.

They also set up tables at campus events, career fairs, and networking sessions, where they could engage with students one-on-one and explain the benefits of subscribing to Morning Brew. This hands-on approach allowed them to build personal connections with potential subscribers and create a sense of community around their brand.

The Power of Word-of-Mouth: Leveraging the Campus Network

While the classroom and organization pitches were effective, they were significantly amplified by word-of-mouth referrals. Students who enjoyed the newsletter would recommend it to their friends, roommates, and classmates, creating a viral effect within the campus community.

Lieberman and Rief recognized the power of these organic referrals and began to encourage them more systematically. They would ask satisfied readers to forward the newsletter to friends who might be interested or to mention it to classmates preparing for business interviews.

This combination of direct pitching and word-of-mouth referrals helped Morning Brew grow to approximately 1,000 subscribers while still focused primarily on the University of Michigan campus. It was a modest number by today’s standards but represented significant traction for a student-run newsletter with no marketing budget.

Beyond Michigan: Expanding to Other Campuses

With their approach validated at Michigan, the founders began to expand to other universities with strong business programs. They couldn’t personally visit every business class at every university, so they adapted their strategy to leverage student ambassadors.

They recruited enthusiastic readers at other schools to serve as campus representatives, equipping them with the same pitch they had refined at Michigan. These ambassadors would visit business classes at their own universities, pitch Morning Brew to their peers, and collect email addresses.

This ambassador program allowed Morning Brew to replicate their successful classroom pitching strategy at scale, reaching students at dozens of universities across the country. While still fundamentally an unscalable approach—relying on in-person pitches rather than digital marketing—it provided a bridge between their initial grassroots efforts and the more scalable growth strategies they would later employ.

The Transition to Scalable Growth

By the time Lieberman graduated in 2015 and Rief in 2017, Morning Brew had grown to approximately 10,000 subscribers through their classroom pitching strategy and campus ambassador program. This traction gave them the confidence to pursue Morning Brew full-time and seek more scalable growth methods.

They began to implement digital marketing strategies, including a referral program that incentivized existing subscribers to share the newsletter with friends. They also partnered with other newsletters and content creators to reach new audiences and experimented with social media marketing.

However, the insights gained from their early, unscalable approach continued to inform their growth strategy. The direct feedback from classroom pitches had helped them develop a deep understanding of their audience’s preferences, pain points, and content consumption habits. This knowledge proved invaluable as they scaled the business.

The Results: From Classroom Pitches to Media Empire

The combination of their initial unscalable approach and subsequent scalable growth strategies yielded remarkable results. Morning Brew grew from 10,000 subscribers in 2017 to over 1 million by 2019, and more than 3 million by 2020.

This explosive growth attracted the attention of investors and potential acquirers. In October 2020, Business Insider (now Insider Inc.) acquired a majority stake in Morning Brew, valuing the company at approximately $75 million. At the time of the acquisition, Morning Brew was generating around $20 million in annual revenue and was profitable.

Today, Morning Brew has expanded beyond its flagship daily newsletter to include a suite of industry-specific newsletters, podcasts, and other media products. The company has grown from two college students pitching in business classes to a media organization with dozens of employees and millions of subscribers.

Lessons for Entrepreneurs: The Value of Unscalable Beginnings

Morning Brew’s journey from classroom pitches to media empire offers several valuable lessons for entrepreneurs:

1. Start with a genuine problem: Lieberman created Morning Brew to solve a real problem he and his peers faced—the need for accessible, engaging business news. This authentic connection to the problem helped them create a product that resonated with their target audience.
2. Embrace unscalable methods: The founders’ willingness to do things that wouldn’t scale—physically visiting classrooms and pitching their newsletter—allowed them to build initial traction without a marketing budget. These direct interactions also provided invaluable feedback that shaped the product.
3. Know your audience intimately: By pitching directly to business students, Lieberman and Rief developed a deep understanding of their target audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points. This knowledge informed their content strategy and messaging as they scaled.
4. Leverage existing communities: The founders strategically targeted business classes and organizations where their potential readers already gathered. This approach allowed them to reach their ideal audience efficiently.
5. Build a bridge to scalability: While starting with unscalable methods, the founders developed a path to more scalable growth through their campus ambassador program and, eventually, digital marketing strategies.

The Legacy of Morning Brew’s Classroom Pitches

While Morning Brew has long since outgrown its origins in University of Michigan business classrooms, the impact of those early pitches continues to influence the company. The direct connection with readers established during those classroom visits helped shape the conversational, accessible voice that remains a hallmark of Morning Brew’s content.

The founders’ willingness to do the unglamorous work of pitching their newsletter one classroom at a time demonstrates an important truth about entrepreneurship: sometimes the best way to start isn’t with sophisticated technology or massive funding, but with a simple, direct approach that connects you with your audience.

As Lieberman reflected in a later interview, “Getting our first 100 users by pitching in business classes taught us more about our readers and our value proposition than any market research could have. That foundation of understanding has been crucial to our growth.”

Morning Brew’s story serves as a reminder that in the early days of building a business, doing things that don’t scale isn’t just a necessity—it can be a strategic advantage that provides the insights, connections, and foundation for future growth.