Revenue
$4.00M
2023
Funding
$16.70M
2023
Revenue
Beehiiv, which launched in October 2021, reported in June 2023 that it had hit annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $3M.
Click here for our Beehiiv dataset.
Currently, Beehiiv hosts a network of 7,500 active newsletters, collectively garnering 35 million unique readers and achieving 350 million monthly impressions. The platform's biggest product plans lie in advertising, with efforts to build a programmatic ad network for newsletters that began just six months ago. These initiatives are currently yielding Beehiiv a take rate of approximately $50k/month.
Product
Beehiiv was founded by ex-Morning Brewers as the productization of the internal toolset that got Morning Brew to 1.5M subscribers in 5 years.
Key features of Beehiiv include:
CMS: Beehiiv offers a content management system (CMS) that allows users to write their newsletters directly within the platform. These newsletters can also be published on the web, expanding their reach beyond the inbox.
Paywalling: Beehiiv provides a paywalling feature that lets writers charge for access to their newsletters. This can be set up on either a monthly or yearly basis, allowing writers to monetize their content and readers to support their favorite writers.
Native ad network: Beehiiv has developed a native ad network where newsletters can feature ads from various publishers. Some of these publishers include Brooklinen, Hims, Masterworks, and others. This provides an additional revenue stream for newsletter creators and adds a dimension of business relevance to the newsletter content.
Advanced analytics: Beehiiv's analytics tools offer customer segmentation, native one-click reader polls, and subscriber attribution. These features can help writers better understand their audience, gather feedback, and track where their subscribers are coming from.
Referral program and recommendation network: Beehiiv supports growth through a referral program and a recommendation network among other newsletters on the platform. This allows for cross-promotion and mutual growth among the community of writers, potentially increasing the visibility and subscriber base of participating newsletters.
Business Model
Beehiiv has positioned itself as a solution for email newsletter writers who want to own their audience and scale their following without paying a cut of all their revenues to a platform like Substack.
Beehiiv's revenue is derived from the monthly subscription fees it charges, with three usage tiers currently in place: free, $42/month, and $84/month. Those rates are flat—Beehiiv charges the same amount no matter how many subscribers you have on your email list, at least up to 200K 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.
Competition
Beehiiv competes with roll-your-own options like Ghost and Wordpress, alternative email newsletter tools like ConvertKit and Substack, and creator platforms like Kajabi, Teachable, and Podia.
Products like Ghost and Wordpress allow writers to spin up personal sites and email newsletters with means of charging readers for premium access.
ConvertKit offers a similar basic toolset for creating emails, distributing them, building an email list, and monetizing it. ConvertKit similarly charge on a monthly SaaS basis rather than taking a cut of each transaction like Substack.
Companies like Kajabi, Teachable and Podia are in a different category of platforms that allow creators to build courses, communicate with their community, and create and distribute content. Like the other platforms mentioned above, they charge on a monthly SaaS basis instead of taking a cut of all the money that is paid to a creator, and so can offer better economics than a Substack.
Risks
Risks to Beehiiv's business model include:
Creator burnout: On Substack, the typical newsletter churns paid subscriptions at about 50% per year. While the last few years have been big for email newsletters, it's possible that consumers will hit email fatigue and there will be a significant pullback in how much people are willing to sign up for and read email newsletters in the future.
Migration: It's critical for email marketing platforms like Beehiiv to make it easy for consumers to export and own their audience if they want to be able to attract users to their platform. Of course, that opens up the risk that those users will eventually leave—tempted to another platform with more vertical-specific features or lower prices.
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