How Much Does It Cost To Start An Email Newsletter Business? (In 2024)

"The costs of running this newsletter are as close to $0 as you could possibly get."

Ryan Gilbert is the founder of Workspaces, a newsletter business that started in 2020 and was acquired by YC startup Loops.

"Milk Road started as a Google Doc that the co-founders emailed to friends. They created a simple logo of a milk bottle on Canva and acquired the domain for $2000."

Shaan Puri is the co-founder of Milk Road, a daily crypto newsletter and website that provides tools, analysis, and news to help readers stay updated on cryptocurrency.

Regarding financing, this business didn't require much capital to get started. It mainly needed my intellectual property and hard work. There was no need for credit cards or loans. The only initial costs were for domain hosting, Squarespace, Google business email, and the cold outreach software I was using at the time, which I believe was Mailshake.

Phil Rivers is the founder of Tetra, an email marketing agency for growing e-commerce and digital product businesses that has grown to a team of 15 with $200k MRR and over $200,000,000 in sales generated for clients.

"I quickly designed a landing page on Squarespace and got an email template setup in Email Octopus. This took less than a week and under $100 to get started."

Ida Jakobson is the founder of The Mallorcan, a local media brand focused on Mallorca, Spain, that generates $2.5k per month in sponsorship and advertising revenue.

"Buttondown was very much a nights-and-weekends project for the first few years; it takes a lot of up-front effort to launch a SaaS, especially one in such a competitive space where there are a lot of table stakes."

Justin Duke is the founder of Buttondown, a newsletter software service that started as a side project while he was an engineer at Stripe and has grown into a full-time business.

"When we first started, we didn’t have much budget – we only had a 3D camera, limited writing experience, and grueling effort to try and get as much awareness as possible. Essentially, we started with around $10,000."

Druce is the co-founder of Stacked, a real estate media company that started in early 2017 with a focus on helping buyers and sellers in Singapore through comprehensive editorial content and videos.

"In true entrepreneurial fashion, I figured that if I was going to practice web design, I may as well get paid for it. Thus, I reached out to a handful of local companies to redesign their website. That first week, I redesigned a local artist’s website for $1,000, which acted as the initial funding for KickFlips."

Casey Woodard is the founder of KickFlips, an email newsletter and Discord community that helps people make money by flipping limited-edition sneakers and other profitable items.

"The MVP took just 2 weeks to build and cost only $400. I registered the domain and it cost $12.99. It really didn't cost much."

Phaiboon Trikanjananun is the founder of Taximail, an email marketing and automation platform that serves over 5,000 reputable organizations and continues to grow globally.

"Re: financing, this is my third company and I’ve bootstrapped all three. The first one I loaded up the credit cards. Startup two we had three co-founders and we all worked for free for a few years. Startup three it’s just me, and working for free isn’t enough. :) So it is out-of-pocket cash from me to fund the operation."

Brett Owens is the founder of Afluencer, an influencer marketing platform that matches brands with influencers and has grown rapidly since its inception.

"The business started in October 2020... Within a week we made over $1,000 in sales, charging $49 for lifetime access."

Luc is the founder of Ticker Nerd, a monthly subscription service for investors that analyzes trending stocks.