No Bedroom Phone

The first hack is simple: no phone in my bedroom. That's it. When my phone stays out of the bedroom, I'm not tempted to scroll before bed or first thing in the morning. It's one of those tools that sounds basic but creates real change.

Brick It

The second hack is using Brick to block all social media when I leave my apartment. It physically prevents me from opening those apps when I'm out in the world. No willpower required.

Between these two changes, my screen time is down more than 50%.

Final Thoughts

Here's the recap:

• Keep your phone out of the bedroom
• Use Brick to block social media when you leave home

These aren't fancy life hacks. They're just simple boundaries that remove the temptation before it starts. Sometimes the best approach is the most straightforward one.

Try one of these this week and see what happens to your screen time.

I was recently featured on Hampton's video series, where I sat down at the Hampton NYC office to talk about something I've spent the last decade thinking deeply about: how to build a loyal audience — and what it actually takes to monetize one.

We covered the lessons I learned building Morning Brew from a college newsletter into a business that reached 5 million subscribers and sold for $75 million, and more importantly, how I'd approach audience building if I were starting from scratch today.

In this article, I'll walk through the key topics we covered, share a link to the full conversation, and include the complete transcript below.

What We Covered

The conversation got into the core principles and tactical frameworks behind building an audience that actually drives business value — not just vanity metrics. Here are some of the themes we explored:

• Media as arbitrage — why finding underutilized platforms and formats (like email newsletters in 2017) matters more than being the best on a crowded one
• Niche down to scale up — why going hyper-specific with your target audience is the path to the largest possible reach, not the smallest
• Showing up daily — how to use AI tools to turn your everyday meetings and learnings into consistent content without burning out
• Video as the default — why video (especially YouTube and short-form) is the language of the current moment, and what to do if you're camera-shy

Watch Now

Watch the full conversation below, or click here to watch on YouTube.

Full Transcript

Hampton Founders: Austin Rief, co-founder of Morning Brew, built one of the most loyal audiences in business media over the past decade. And he did it all over email. So we invited him to the Hampton office to teach us if you wanted to build and monetize an audience today, how would you do it?

Austin Rief: What I would do today if I was building any type of company is...

Hampton Founders: In this video, we'll break down the four tactics anyone can use to build and monetize an audience and Austin's one regret from building Morning Brew. But first, it's important to understand the principle underlying everything Austin built: media as arbitrage.

Austin Rief: So I think media is an arbitrage really, right? Like first thing in building an audience is like you have to figure out what the medium is. We weren't like, oh newsletters are amazing. We started writing newsletters then we found out oh these things are really good, let's keep doing that. In 2017 no one was creating newsletters for inboxes. For someone like BuzzFeed or Business Insider, how do we get more page views to our site? That was all they cared about. Very few people were actually sending emails that you read in your inbox that were designed beautifully, that were written really nicely, that the whole experience could just be contained in the inbox. And so we found a white space or like a little place we could play that very few people were playing.

Hampton Founders: By 2019, Morning Brew had exploded to over a million and a half subscribers and $13 million in revenue. The next year, they sold a majority stake to Axel Springer for $75 million. But not everyone understood the value of what they had built. And what one potential buyer said to Austin shows exactly what most people miss.

Austin Rief: She was viewing an email as an email. And an email is very much not an email. We didn't have 5 million emails, we had 5 million relationships with people who trusted us every single day. And so she was like, well we have 10 million emails. It's like totally, but people don't come to your fintech company for daily business content. So sure, like through the ads you've run the entire life cycle of your business you have 10 million emails. How many of them are going to open your newsletter? How many of them are going to read your content every day? Sure, we had a smaller audience than they had 100% if you define audience as number of emails. But if you look at people who will do what you say and trust who you are and what you stand for, we had way more value. So she was underestimating the value of a real strong relationship and just viewing things as transactional.

Hampton Founders: Alright, I told you I was going to share four tactics that Austin shared with us. But before I do that, I met Austin in a community called Hampton. So if you're a founder and you want to meet monthly in person with other founders to workshop your business, check out the description below and apply. Now, the four tactics. It starts with constantly looking for opportunities to be early to a new platform or a new feature.

Austin Rief: You can be amazing but I wouldn't build an audience today on Facebook. Like the original Facebook. So the first thing is you got to find a medium to actually do it. So you look at every new platform shift like there's a reason people rush to every new platform because the goal of a new platform is like to make new celebrities, right? When TikTok came out the biggest TikToker wasn't Kim Kardashian. The biggest TikToker was Charli D'Amelio and these other people and that's very intentional by the mediums. The mediums want new people to emerge because you can make your own little town or your own ecosystem there. I think the key there though is like you have to be early enough that you're differentiated but you can't be too early, right? So maybe 2012, 2013, 2014 for would have done it, would have been too early because no one was doing it to your point and so like it was only experimental people. But we in 2017, 2018 when we first started we got enough people to experiment with it that we can make money. But then like 2019, 2020 comes all of a sudden Axios pours all this money into marketing of them and newsletters and a lot of people were worried about the competition. I was like oh great now more media buyers are going to spend more money on newsletters. They're going to see that it works and then hopefully they'll spend some of that on our newsletter. So obviously timing is everything.

Hampton Founders: But you can't just sit around waiting for the next platform to emerge. And Austin says you should go as niche as possible on existing platforms.

Austin Rief: I think what I would do today if I was building any type of company is I would really think about who am I trying to get in front of. Who is my target buyer? Who is the person I care about? And I would go as niche as possible. The internet incentivizes you being like the X guy or the X girl, right? You're the DTC guy, you're the e-comm guy, you're the SaaS person. And I really would focus on building a brand in the space and really figuring out who you're writing for. So it's not just like oh I'm the social media person writing social media content. It's like no no I am writing content for VP+ heads of social at SaaS companies. And that doesn't mean if a director signs up to your newsletter you should like not send it to them, of course you should. But I just think you have to get very very specific with who you're writing to and who your target is because it is so saturated. And that's why there's never going to be another Morning Brew because you can't just say hey I'm going to get 5 million people in the business world to love and engage with general business content. You just can't do that anymore. Now if there was another platform like if I don't know if there's an AI whatever platform, if we're all wearing Meta glasses and somehow there's some social media there then maybe you could build a Morning Brew but for some new platform. But on a saturated platform you have to go as niche as possible.

Hampton Founders: In Austin's view, niching down is actually the path to the biggest possible audience.

Austin Rief: Social media the power law like the top people have the most followers but it's not like 5 or 10% more. It's like 10 or 20 or 100x more and the algorithms push it over time and so yeah if you're the top person in any space it could be as small a space as possible like you will reach a very wide audience. Like look at Andrew Huberman. Like if you would have said three years ago to Andrew Huberman like the best way to become the most famous health and wellness science doctor person in the world is to sit in front of a camera for two and a half hours and talk about science, no one would have been like yeah that's you're going to have 5 million followers on Instagram. No one would have said that. It's so niche, it's so boring even for people who think about health and wellness, it's pretty niche and pretty boring. But he's the biggest person and I guarantee you every I mean way more than half his followers aren't health and wellness people. They're like I want a tiny bit of health and wellness content in my diet so I'm going to follow the top person and that's how the flywheel starts.

Hampton Founders: A lot of people fall into the trap of trying to capture the broadest audience possible and then getting obsessed with impressions and engagement. Austin thinks it's a lot simpler than that.

Austin Rief: I'll see people who have you know 50,000 followers on LinkedIn and they'll drive like two customers a month from their content. I'll see other people who have basically no followers but every post is very smart, it's very targeted, they're very intelligent in what they're talking about and they'll drive a customer for every single post. So it's just about hitting the right people. I have an investor in a company, their customer is very very senior people at media companies: Netflix, Paramount, Hulu. And his content is super esoteric. Like it's it's about churn rates of subscription products. Like it's very complicated to like at least when he writes for those people it's very not accessible to the average person, most people don't care about that stuff. But he's built a network of those senior senior people in the media world because they respect and like his content and very few people are writing content for the EVP of strategy at Paramount. Now he has maybe 3,000 followers on Twitter. He could have 30,000 but would him having 30,000 followers make his company more valuable than having 3,000 of the right followers? Like definitely not. So that's why he's gone that route and it's made sense. The mistake people make is they go okay I'm going to create content to try to get 100,000 followers. It's like no there's no point that's a vanity metric. Like get the 5 or 10,000 followers that you actually care about. The leading indicator is like are people who you respect in the space you're trying to get in front of DMing you "oh that's a really interesting post," are they following you, are they reading your newsletter. So those are maybe the leading indicators but the lagging indicator is like yeah did your LinkedIn post lead to sales over time. If so like it's working. At the end of the day your goal is to get in front of a certain group of people. If you're not doing that you're failing and so you have to figure out what you should do and what you should change to do that.

Hampton Founders: But for your audience to trust you, Austin thinks the most important thing is showing up every day. And he shared a really clever way to do this using AI.

Austin Rief: I would record every one of your meetings. And now it's so easy with Granola, Claude, whatever. And then at the end of the day I would have AI go through all your notes, find the most interesting topics, and turn into a LinkedIn post. And I would just post that. And so like daily posts. And I think one thing that gets very tricky is as you're building a company you learn things but you learn them slowly. And so you start to think oh these things are just common sense. They just make sense. I think one of the hardest things is to actually be like no no over the last two months you learned something that's actually really interesting, you turn that into a LinkedIn post. But it's really hard if every day you learn 1 or 2% of like a big revelation. At the end you don't even think you learned something because it happened gradually. You didn't like win the lottery you like you know made a couple dollars every single day. And so by using AI to turn your LinkedIn posts or your daily conversation and meetings into LinkedIn posts, you're like oh wait like maybe that is interesting. And when I was really trying to grow an audience on Twitter I was doing no AI so I wasn't doing that in 2021. But every day I forced myself like I'm going to take the things I learned and I was always shocked at I'd be like oh my god like that feels so obvious to me and all these people found that so interesting. I'm like oh but when did I actually learn that thing? Oh it was just like in the last month. So if I've been running a company for six years and I just learned it maybe there are all these other people who don't actually know it. And so that's what I would do. I would just learnings from your day is how I'd start.

Hampton Founders: And the last thing, Austin says love it or hate it you probably need video.

Austin Rief: I would default to video. I think video is the most important thing. But if you have someone in front of a camera who's not very good in front of a camera the content's not going to be good then maybe you should not do video. And I mean YouTube is obviously like where everything is going. YouTube is becoming TV. I think the fastest growing segment of YouTube is actually connected TV. So people just turn on their TV instead of watching TV they're watching YouTube which I guess kind of is TV now. I mean the world whether you like it or not the world is a short form video world. And so that's like every I mean Meta that's all Instagram is. Snapchat I don't really use Snapchat but that's all Snapchat is. TikTok obviously. But even every couple months like LinkedIn takes a stab at trying to figure out video and they're not going to stop until they get there. Twitter pushes video every once in a while. So video is the like is the language of the the present.

Hampton Founders: Finally, we asked Austin what one thing he regretted from building Morning Brew was. This is what he shared.

Austin Rief: Like one of my big regrets is I was too serious in running Morning Brew. Values in some ways are kind of silly but if you can actually reinforce values, the way to do that is to make it like a funny shtick. Like at Morning Brew we had like the Muggies and we'd like give a Morning Brew mug to someone who embodied a value. I think that's fine. But in hindsight like we should have given like a something something ridiculous like a huge blow up life size human size mug and the person had to like walk around with it. Something such that like when you left the company you would still talk about, you'd take that other places because it feels so ridiculous at the time but it actually does a very good job of reinforcing what actually matters. And so we had the great wall of opens which is every day no matter what you're doing at 11 o'clock we stopped what we were doing and we refreshed at the time it was Campaign Monitor which was our ESP and we saw how many opens we had at 11 o'clock. And so and we used the entire wall of the WeWork office which was a very large glass wall and we just write it. And it was the same thing where we would try to understand oh it's way higher than yesterday, why is that? Oh it's just because the subject line's better. Which is important but that's not a sustainable thing unless we can sustainably keep our subject lines to be great. Or like oh it's down a lot. Oh actually we had deliverability problems let's solve that. Same idea of like it reinforced every day what's the thing that actually matters. The thing that matters is getting more people to open our newsletter at the time. Like I think these like what at the time feel silly phrases and and activities are actually really important because we now tell stories about them 10 years later because you remember them.

Hampton Founders: And last thing I forgot to mention, we are making this video for you. Let us know what else you want to see here. What are some problems that you're having in your business that you think that we should cover here? And if you are a founder, check us out at joinhampton.com.

The Numbers

Here's what the top three are projected to spend on CapEx in 2026:

• Amazon: $200B
• Alphabet: $180B
• Meta: $125B

Final Thoughts

Amazon leads with $200B in projected CapEx, followed by Alphabet at $180B and Meta at $125B. Combined, that's over half a trillion dollars in infrastructure investment from just three companies.

These spending levels show that Big Tech remains committed to aggressive expansion despite economic uncertainty. The race to build AI and cloud infrastructure continues to accelerate.

If you're interested in how business leaders think about major capital decisions, check out the best quotes from Warren Buffett's last shareholder letter.

Keep watching these numbers as 2026 unfolds.

The most surprising thing about leaving the company you started is how quickly you become irrelevant.

The CEO Life

As CEO, you feel very important: texts, emails, calls, board meetings and more.

It's a 24/7 job and you think the company can't survive without you.

Then You Leave

But then one day you leave. And life goes on without you. The company keeps running. The meetings still happen. The decisions still get made.

It's a humbling realization that comes with stepping aside from something you built from the ground up.

Final Thoughts

The transition from being essential to being irrelevant happens faster than anyone expects. Your identity becomes so tied to the company that leaving feels like losing a part of yourself.

But this is also a chance for a retirement check in and a new chapter. The company moving forward without you is actually a sign you built something that works.

If you're a founder thinking about your next move, remember: your worth isn't defined by your inbox.

These are the quotes that stood out to me most.

On Aging

Father Time is undefeated; for him, everyone ends up on his scorecard as "wins."

When balance, sight, hearing, and memory are all on a persistently downward slope, you know Father Time is in the neighborhood.

I was late in becoming old—its onset materially varies—but once it appears, it is not to be denied.

On Succession

With a little luck, Berkshire should require only five or six CEOs over the next century.

It should particularly avoid those whose goal is to retire at 65, to become "look at me" rich, or to initiate a dynasty.

Stock Performance

Our stock price will move capriciously, occasionally falling 50% or so, as has happened three times in 60 years under present management.

Do not despair; America will come back, and so will Berkshire shares.

On Mistakes

Do not beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on.

It is never too late to improve.

Get the right heroes and copy them.

Conclusion

Warren Buffett's final shareholder letter as CEO offers timeless wisdom on accepting aging gracefully, building institutions that outlast individuals, and learning from mistakes without dwelling on them.

These principles apply far beyond investing.

Follow me on LinkedIn or X for more.

Seeing that headline pop up on my feed brings back a flood of memories.

Time really does fly.

For Alex (my co-founder) and me, that moment was surreal.

It was the culmination of years of grinding away, building Morning Brew from a simple idea into a newsletter that millions of people rely on.

This deal was not just an acquisition; it was a massive vote of confidence in our vision to make business news more engaging and accessible for our generation.

Looking back, that partnership was a pivotal moment that supercharged our growth and allowed us to build so much more than we ever imagined.

I am incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished since then.

I shared the full story of building Morning Brew on the My First Million podcast.

A huge thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey with us.

Follow me on LinkedIn and X for more content like this.

The wild part is what Blade is doing next. The company will rebrand to Strata and focus solely on organ transportation.

And get this: Blade did $36m in organ transportation in Q1. That's a big business.

Business pivots like this remind me of my own transition at Morning Brew.

I was reading the official announcement.

Here are the details:

Joby Aviation (JOBY 19.90% ▲) agreed to acquire Blade Air Mobility's passenger division for up to $125 million, adding to its commercial passenger aircraft endeavors. The transportation company will receive operations in the U.S. and Europe, lounges and terminals, and the Blade brand. Operations will continue with the business functioning as a stand-alone entity within Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Joby upon closing. Joby will have the choice to pay the purchase price in cash or stock. Shares of Blade surged 27% to $4.82, while Joby jumped 17% to $20.05. Joby Chief Executive JoeBen Bevirt in an interview with CNBC pointed to momentum in the business by way of a recent executive order from the Trump administration and stances from regulators around the world. He added that some aircraft testing is currently approved in Dubai. "We think with the executive order, there may be the potential to pull the timeline on commercialization here in the U.S.," said Bevirt. The divestiture by Blade puts its focus more on its core business of medical logistics, specifically air transportation. Medical revenue totaled nearly $36 million of the roughly $54 million reported in its first quarter. Blade's passenger business provides short-distance passenger flights using helicopters and planes primarily in the northeast U.S., southern Europe and western Canada.

Want to read the full article? Click here.

Follow me on LinkedIn, Patron View, or X for more content like this.

Granola

My note-taking tool of choice these days.

Granola automatically transcribes and organizes meeting notes with AI, making it perfect for keeping track of client calls and brainstorming sessions.

Lindy AI

Handles my AI automations seamlessly.

This tool creates custom AI workflows that can manage everything from email responses to data entry, saving hours of repetitive work.

Perplexity

My go-to LLM for research and quick answers.

Unlike ChatGPT, Perplexity cites real-time sources and gives you up-to-date information, making it incredibly reliable for business research.

Oceans

Where I find all my offshore talent.

Oceans specializes in connecting you with pre-vetted remote workers from specific regions, streamlining the entire hiring process.

HubSpot

My CRM backbone for managing all customer relationships.

HubSpot's free tier is incredibly robust, and their sales pipeline tools make tracking deals effortless.

Clay

Enriches my CRM data with additional contact information.

Clay automatically finds email addresses, social profiles, and company data to fill in the gaps that HubSpot misses.

Mercury

My business banking solution that actually works for startups.

Mercury offers real banking built for modern businesses, with no minimum balances and excellent API integrations.

Ramp

Keeps my business spending organized and under control.

Ramp's corporate cards come with automatic expense categorization and spending controls that save me hours of bookkeeping.

Fuelfinance

My FP&A solution for financial planning and analysis.

Fuelfinance makes cash flow forecasting and financial reporting simple, even for non-finance people like me.

Superhuman

The email client that makes inbox zero actually achievable.

Superhuman's keyboard shortcuts and AI-powered features turn email management from a chore into something almost enjoyable.

storyarb

My secret weapon for B2B content creation.

storyarb helps create compelling business narratives and case studies that actually convert prospects into customers.

Beehiiv

My email service provider for newsletters and campaigns.

Beehiiv combines the simplicity of Substack with the power of professional email marketing tools, perfect for growing an audience.

Conclusion

These tools form the core of my business operations.

Here's a quick rundown:

• Granola – Note-taking
• Lindy AI – AI automations
• Perplexity – LLM
• Oceans – Offshore hiring
• HubSpot – CRM
• Clay – CRM Enrichment
• Mercury – Business Banking
• Ramp – Spend Management
• Fuelfinance – FP&A solution
• Superhuman – Email Client
• storyarb – B2B content creation
• Beehiiv – ESP

Each one solves a specific problem and integrates well with the others.

These tools evolved from my decade building Morning Brew.

The key is finding tools that actually save you time rather than creating more complexity.

Follow me on LinkedIn, Patron View, or X for more content like this.

Some bittersweet news: I am moving on from CEO of Morning Brew.

The last decade of starting and running Morning Brew has been the journey of a lifetime.

Thank you to everyone who has read, listened, watched, or shared our content. This has only been possible because of you.

Warren Buffett recently shared similar reflections on leadership transitions in his final shareholder letter.

Team —

Morning Brew's first core value was to be curious.

Unsurprisingly, it was originally curiosity that brought Alex and me together at the University of Michigan almost exactly 10 years ago. When we began Morning Brew, all we were trying to do was answer this question: Why are none of our classmates engaging with business news?

That simple question became the first brick in the foundation of this company.

From day one, we wanted to create something different. While the rest of the media world was raising millions for social video, we stayed lean and scrappy, building what we believed to be the best business newsletter in the world.

A lot of people called us crazy for focusing on something as small as a single newsletter, but we knew that creating and maintaining a relationship with our audience was the first step in building a daily habit with the next generation of business leaders.

It wasn't always easy. With little funding, we recruited a group of outsiders (some of whom are still here today!), set up shop in the Financial District, and spent two straight years writing, growing, and monetizing the newsletter that is today known as Morning Brew.

In those days, it felt like it was us against the world. We were always aware that we could go away at any point, but our determination and passion paid off. Over the past decade, we've grown from that singular best-in-class newsletter into an incredibly dynamic content organization that can go toe-to-toe with anyone. And you don't have to take my word for it – just ask Joe Biden, Alexis Ohanian, or anyone else who consistently shares our content.

And while it's heartening to see things like that to know that we've made a real mark on the business world, it's the continued relationship we have with an ever-growing audience that gives me the confidence to know that this business, now Morning Brew Inc., has transcended any one person and will remain influential in the business world for decades to come.

It is hard to believe it's been a decade since Alex and I mocked up that first newsletter. Ten years is truly a milestone, particularly in the ever-changing world of business media, and for me, significant milestones are always a time for reflection.

In that spirit of reflection, I have decided it is the right moment for me to move on from my time as Morning Brew Inc.'s CEO.

When I took that job in 2021, we were a 50-person company focused mostly on newsletters. My #1 goal was to turn this fast growing media start-up into a sustainable, multiplatform brand.

And over the last four years we've done just that. We've evolved into a business with several creator-led consumer franchises and a stable of seven B2B industry publications. These new franchises have helped us track for over $70m of annual revenue in 2025 with significant double digit profit margins.

The culmination of this transition came at the end of last year, when we launched our new corporate identity and website: MorningBrewInc.com

With Morning Brew Inc. now well-established, the continued growth of our core newsletter business and multi-media offerings, as well as the success of our B2B industry-specific content and events, it is the natural time for my role to evolve and I'm excited to continue my journey with Morning Brew Inc. as Executive Chairman.

While the success of our content has brought me immense pride over the last 10 years, the thing that I am proudest of is the group of talented and hardworking people we have brought in to lead this business.

Starting today, Robert Dippell will step into the CEO role. As you know, Robert has been with us for over two years, most recently as COO / CRO. His experience running successful media organizations, his knowledge of Morning Brew Inc., and his passion for the business make him the perfect person to lead us for the next decade. We are lucky to have him at the helm of our business.

Additionally, Devin McCue Emery will become President. Devin joined Morning Brew in 2022 as Chief Content Officer and has been a principal architect of the multimedia strategy that has made audio and video content a larger part of Morning Brew Inc. Devin has evolved our company in ways I couldn't have imagined, and I look forward to him having a larger role in the operation of the business everyday.

As for myself, I am as excited as ever about the future of Morning Brew and will remain actively involved as Executive Chairman. I will have regular conversations with Robert, Devin, and look forward to catching up with many of you around the office.

Having spent the last four years looking for leaders who embody the ethos of Morning Brew Inc., I feel fortunate that we have two internal leaders ready to take the reins.

As I write this final email as CEO, I feel an immense sense of gratitude for each and every one of you. When I started Morning Brew, I told my family that my dream was to not have a "real job." While running Morning Brew Inc. hasn't always been easy, it has certainly never felt like a "real job" and the only reason I've been able to live out that dream is because of all of you. Thank you for all the hard work and dedication you've put in to make this company great.

While there are too many of you to thank individually, I want to give Alex Lieberman a special shoutout. Without Alex's passion, curiosity, and creativity, this business would not be what it is today.

As I alluded to at the start of this email, in 2019 we rolled out our first set of core values. While our values have evolved over time, their essence is what has made Morning Brew Inc. unique and successful. My parting advice is to let these guide you throughout your time here and wherever your career may take you:

We are CURIOUS: We strive to learn every day through constant questioning and exploration.

We are PURPOSEFUL: We do everything with the highest level of thoughtfulness, preparation and focus.

We are CHALLENGERS: We approach every day with an underdog mentality and are never complacent.

We are EMPATHETIC: We are good, genuine people who embrace others' perspectives.

As long as we stay curious about the stories we cover, stay purposeful about what and how we work, never lose that challenger mentality from our early days, and most importantly continue to hire the most empathetic and best people in media, Morning Brew Inc. will continue to thrive.

Onwards.

Austin

Our success was built by people who took bold approaches to join us. I've shared the best job pitch I ever received.

Follow me on LinkedIn, Patron View, or X for more content like this.

• Training for a half-ironman
• Reading 1 hour/day (mostly history)
• Playing around with AI tools
• Meeting new people in NYC
• Growing Oceans. Outsourcing has a bad reputation. We’re fixing it with highly experienced and motivated talent, while saving you up to 80% of a US hire.

If you’re in NYC and want to hang out, send me a note.

1. Hotels > Airbnbs. Airbnbs just aren’t worth the risk. Too many issues.
2. Luxury hotels in major cities are a waste of money. You don’t spend enough time at the hotel, and there’s so many good options.
3. On the flip side, luxury hotels & resorts outside of cities (on the beach or in coastal towns) are the place to spend your money. Pay up for the best location and place. It’s worth it.
4. 12 days is the ideal trip length.
5. The best vacations are a mix of being active and relaxing. Half the time at the beach, and half the time sightseeing or hiking.
6. Reviews from hotel review sites for 4 and 5 star hotels are worthless. They say everything is good. You need to get advice from Reddit.

Every summer we see this on Twitter and it makes no sense. Here's why:

Walking a mile burns ~100 calories per mile.

1 bowl of carbonara has ~500 calories.

I've written more about this in 2026 Big Tech Projected CapEx Spend.

1 slice of pizza has ~250 calories.

1 scoop of Gelato has ~250 calories.

You aren't walking off those extra carbs.

What I think is actually happening:

• People significantly underestimate how much crap they eat outside of meals in their "normal life"
• Portions are way smaller in Italy
• Food quality makes you feel better
• No one tweets: "I went to Italy, ate like a pig and gained 10 lbs".

That was my reality when Morning Brew sold, and it's one of the stories I shared with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri on the My First Million podcast. But the real story isn't about that moment—it's about the wild journey that got me there, from crashing college lectures with printed spreadsheets to building a media empire one email at a time.

Podcast Clip

You can watch the 22-minute clip from our conversation right here, where we dive into some of these stories.

The "1 to 100" Operator Mindset

Sam called out my "private equity-like ability" to analyze businesses and know which levers to pull for growth. He's right—that's where I thrive.

While creators like Sam and Shaan excel at the "0 to 1" phase of starting something new, I'm a "1 to 100" guy. I love taking that initial spark and building a durable, profitable machine around it.

This mindset came from my undergraduate business degree, where I took every accounting class possible, and was solidified during my investment banking summers. Learning to live inside a P&L gave me the conviction that focusing on key metrics made success almost mathematically certain.

First 50,000 Subscribers

Before we had marketing money, we had to get creative. Our strategy was simple but effective: crash college lectures.

We'd walk into massive Econ 101 or Psych 101 classes at the University of Michigan, give a 60-second Morning Brew pitch, then literally walk the aisles with a printed spreadsheet getting students to write down their email addresses. We wouldn't let them leave until they did!

It was pure, unscalable hustle. But we replicated it at universities nationwide—Penn State, Miami, NYU—until we hit 50,000 subscribers. We were notoriously frugal, making new hires bring their own laptops and packing sticker envelopes ourselves on Friday afternoons. This intense focus and grit built our foundation.

Anti-Climactic Exit Moment

People imagine selling a company involves popping champagne on a yacht. For me, it was the complete opposite.

The deal closed during peak COVID. I was 25, living in my childhood bedroom at my parents' house. When the life-altering wire transfer hit my account, I was sitting at my desk while my parents were in the next room and my mom was probably thinking about dinner. It was the most surreal and anti-climactic moment imaginable.

This taught me that external milestones are rarely as fulfilling as the daily process of building. The real joy was in the trenches, not the finish line.

My Philosophy

After the exit, I hired a financial team and put 90% of the money into conservative investments—Vanguard funds, bonds, and real estate.

For the rest, I adopted Ramit Sethi's "Rich Life" philosophy: spend extravagantly on things you absolutely love, cut costs mercilessly on things you don't.

• Things I'll spend on: Travel, business-class flights, and really nice hotels. Those experiences are priceless to me.
• Things I won't spend on: Flashy cars. I live in New York City—buying a Lamborghini to sit in a parking garage 360 days a year is terrible money management. I bought a brand new Acura and love it.

This approach helps avoid lifestyle creep while enjoying the freedom financial success provides.

I've compiled my favorite business tools that help me manage finances and operations efficiently.

Conclusion

Looking back, our success wasn't about a single stroke of genius.

It was about relentless focus, understanding our numbers, and having the grit to do unglamorous work every single day.

I've written more about what makes the best businesses successful.

Full Podcast Episode

The conversation covered so much more than what's in the clip.

If you want to dive into the full hour-long episode and hear more stories about our investors, my trip to Kid Rock's ranch, and building company culture, you can watch it below, or on YouTube by clicking here.

– Nike convinced the world that everyone is an athlete

– Apple convinced the world that everyone is a creator

– Shopify convinced the world that everyone is an entrepreneur

Champion customers and they will reward you.

Here’s the email:

Hey Fellow Austin!

I've got a pretty sweet win-win opportunity for you. Either you get $20, or you get a loyal, hard-working, smart employee!

See, I'm about to graduate from college, and I really want a job that not only plays towards my strengths but also fulfills me. I currently have four job offers (Nike, IBM, Walgreens, and SC Johnson), and while I'm excited about them, I'm not quite sure if I want to feel like a cog in a machine for the rest of my life. That's why I want to work for an industry leader in a new space like the Brew.

My proposal is simple. If you read this message and accept, I'll write a full Morning Brew newsletter for tomorrow and send it to you. If it's equal to or better than the one you guys send out, all I ask for is an interview. If it's garbage, well tell me and I'll Venmo you $20. Almost as free as Arbitrage!

Let me know if that's something you're interested in!

I replied back, and he made this mockup.

It was great. I gave him the interview.

Lesson: Shoot your shot.