Newsletter and media building

Austin Rief

Co-founder and Executive Chairman

Notes from an operator turned investor.

austin rief

Hi! Welcome to my personal site.

I'm the Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew and Investor in Oceans Talent.

This is a new site. I'm experimenting here. For my latest content, see my X below and sign up for my newsletter.

Rough Timeline

Year

What Happened

1995

I was born and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland.

2011

My interest in the business world began during my junior year of high school.

2013

I graduated from Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School.

2014

I started college at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

2015

My future co-founder, Alex Lieberman, started a basic business newsletter; I joined him as a sophomore to help build it. We officially launched Morning Brew as a daily email newsletter, with me as co-founder and COO.

2016

We focused on grassroots growth for Morning Brew, using an ambassador program to expand to more universities nationwide.

2017

I graduated from college and we secured a $750,000 seed funding round for Morning Brew.

2018

Morning Brew hit 1 million subscribers, and I was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

2019

Morning Brew neared 2 million subscribers and $13 million in revenue; we also launched our first podcast, "Business Casual."

2020

Insider Inc. acquired a majority stake in Morning Brew in a deal valuing us at $75 million; we launched new newsletters.

2021

I became CEO of Morning Brew, focused on expanding our content, and began making personal investments through Austin Rief Ventures.

2022

Morning Brew hit 4 million subscribers and $50 million in revenue; we launched several new B2B newsletters like IT Brew.

2023

We launched our "Money Scoop" personal finance newsletter and our daily news podcast, "Morning Brew Daily."

2024

Morning Brew celebrated reaching 5 million subscribers; I also invested in Beehiiv through Austin Rief Ventures.

2025

Axel Springer fully acquired Morning Brew, and I transitioned from CEO to the role of Executive Chairman.

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