beehiiv’s Founder on Nearly Selling the Company and Starting Over

In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar are joined by beehiiv co-founder and CEO Tyler Denk to talk about why he shares the company’s revenue, burn, and cash so publicly, how beehiiv reset the business after nearly selling and cutting spend by 90%, how growth and onboarding differ across creators, brands, and media companies, and why more software companies are starting to think like media businesses.—SPONSORS:beehiiv is a modern newsletter platform built for creators who want to grow and monetize their audience without platform tax. With best-in-class deliverability, built-in automations, customization, and powerful analytics, beehiiv helps writers scale with full ownership of their audience. Trusted by serious newsletter operators, it’s designed for people who treat newsletters like a business. Try it free at https://www.beehiiv.com/kyle and use code KYLE30 for 30% off your first three months.Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/runLightfield is an AI-first CRM built for modern sales teams that want to manage deals without manual data entry or dashboards. By joining sales calls, reading emails, and maintaining full account context, Lightfield helps teams prioritize deals, automate follow-ups, and stay prepared for every interaction. It’s like having a sales coach, RevOps analyst, and EA in one. Start a 14-day free trial at https://www.lightfield.app and use code MOSTLYGROWTH to get 3 months free.—LINKS: Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-denk/Company: https://www.beehiiv.com/Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.comCJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/—RELATED EPISODES:Building a CRM for the futurehttps://youtu.be/7OQ0kgU4zps—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 beehiiv MCP discussion3:54 Building in public: revenue transparency6:19 Acquisition interest: why Tyler stayed the course8:46 Morning Brew origin story9:06 Platform consolidation thesis11:23 Sponsors — beehiiv | Tabs | Lightfield14:23 Wide ICP challenge: PLG to enterprise16:52 Podcast launch success17:42 Multi product stickiness and churn20:33 Ad network and SaaS flywheel24:58 Ad revenue vs. subscription thesis26:03 Boost feature for subscriber acquisition26:58 Creator economy M&A wave28:07 Hustle acquisition analogy33:36 Creator Spotlight origin and evolution34:20 Top 3 growth bets to 50M ARR35:07 Bet 2: enterprise sales36:20 Bet 3: ad network / ML investment37:30 Bet 4: MCP as agentic infrastructure37:43 Things we tried: Claude skill building40:05 Credits#MostlyGrowthPodcast #CreatorEconomy #Newsletter #SaaS #ProductGrowth