How Lenny Rachitsky Built Lenny's Newsletter to $500K ARR in 12 Months
Lenny's Newsletter is a weekly advice column focused on product building, driving growth, and accelerating careers.
About The Lenny's Newsletter Founder
Who is Lenny Rachitsky?
Lenny Rachitsky is the founder of Lenny's Newsletter, a weekly publication where he writes about products, business growth, and shares career advice with his audience. Lenny, a writer and angel investor, has worked for various businesses where he held different roles including product lead and supply growth at Airbnb, and head of research & development at Webmetrics. Lenny holds a BSc in Computer Science from UC San Diego.
About The Business
Idea
How did Lenny Rachitsky get the idea for Lenny's Newsletter?
After leaving his job at Airbnb, Lenny started thinking about what he learned there and what he could do next. He wrote his thoughts on Evernote and ended up publishing it on Medium.
His writing got a lot of attention, even from the big boss at Airbnb! He was surprised that his story could make money and that people liked what he had to say.
This made him want to write more, and thatβs how he started his newsletter.
A snapshot of Lenny's initial Post on MediumBuild
How did Lenny Rachitsky build the initial version of Lenny's Newsletter?
Lenny began by writing notes on Evernote and later published them on Medium. When his initial audience noticed his work, they suggested that he migrate to Substack, which he did.
Initially, the newsletter was free to all subscribers. Lenny announced a paid version in April 2020.
Snapshot of Lenny's newsletter from 2020Growth
What is the growth strategy for Lenny's Newsletter?
Twitter and guest posting were Lenny's initial customer acquisition channels.
That got a little love on Twitter from people that have a nice following, and so that led to my first 500 subscribers, basically, that tweet.β Lenny (Source)
Here is the post: embed:tweet
Guest Posting
He then made a guest post on another newsletter with a similar target audience, and the post resulted in an additional 500 subscribers.
Then I did a guest post on another newsletter that has essentially my target audience subscribed to it, and that led to another 500 subscribers β in total, that got me to 1000 subscribers. β Lenny (Source)
Pricing
How does Lenny's Newsletter price their products?
Three pricing tiers:
- $15/month
- $150/year
- $300/Year
Similar Ideas
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Ann Remo turned her love for urban gardening into a profitable blog, Blooming Anomaly, which earns her around $700 a month through Mediavine ads, Amazon affiliates, and other affiliate programs. She recommends focusing on writing great posts with keywords, and investing in SEO and social media through courses.
More about Lenny's Newsletter
Who is the owner of Lenny's Newsletter?
Lenny Rachitsky is the founder of Lenny's Newsletter.
When did Lenny Rachitsky start Lenny's Newsletter?
2019
What is Lenny Rachitsky's net worth?
Lenny Rachitsky's business makes an average of $41K/month.
How much money has Lenny Rachitsky made from Lenny's Newsletter?
Lenny Rachitsky started the business in 2019, and currently makes an average of $492K/year.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.