Building in public: 400 subscriber milestone report for my newsletter

Growing feels great

It feels a little wild to say this, but I'm a few days away from hitting 400 Subscribers to my weekly newsletter, Tiny Improvements. I started writing to share my expertise with the world, and to try to pay forward some of my luck and privilege to anyone who might benefit from it.

I've been writing about startups, building products, design, and React for a few years now, and it feels like the newsletter has really hit its stride lately.

In the past 6 months, I've grown by 350%, and landed about half a dozen sponsored newsletters. It's been really encouraging to see people enjoying what I have to say - and I have gotten some amazing feedback along the way.

The basics: what I've learned so far

For my friends who may be interested in doing something like this, here's my advice: write on a dependable, regular cadence, publish your newsletters for SEO-driven growth, and don't be afraid to share your work.

Growth comes in phases

This chart shows a few important milestones in the story behind Tiny Improvements:

• 0-34 readers: May 2020, when I first announced I was writing
• 34-50 readers: December 2020, months later, after I sent my second dispatch
• 88-143 readers: July - Nov 2022, I started writing weekly
• 143-215 readers: November 9th - Dec 1 2022, I Got laid off from my Job @ Stripe, and went viral
• 215-215 readers: December 2022 - Jan 2023: Flatlined! Turns out I introduced a bug to my site that prevented anyone from subscribing. lol.
• 215-394 readers: This brings us to today! Steady growth from steady writing, half a dozen sponsorships, and some promising deals coming my way.

What's next?

I'll be writing more about my experience as a founder, and sharing the lessons and challenges I will no-doubt run into as we grow. I've also got some ideas for short multi-segment posts/tutorials that I'd like to share, like more about design for developers, and networked note-taking.

Finally, on the business front, I'm hoping I'll be able to start working with sponsors who I think will really connect with my readers - I'm hoping to build relationships with some of the devtools companies which I really love, to see if there are opportunities to work together. I want to really come through for the people who have supported me (if you're reading this, that's you!), and I want to make sure that I'm only working with companies that I think will really benefit my readers.

By the way - if you're interested in sponsoring Tiny Improvements, let's talk!

And of course, I'm looking forward to 400, and then 500 readers, and then anything to come after that!

You should probably subscribe to Tiny Improvements

If you're interested in startups, building products, design, or React, I think you might really like 💌 Tiny Improvements.