The archive · Content & Film · Product decision · 2015–2020
Morning Brew turns a college email into a $75M newsletter business
Two Michigan students rewrite business news as a witty daily email, reach 2.5M subscribers and sell a majority stake to Insider Inc. for ~$75M.
Morning Brew
What it had to solve
In 2015, University of Michigan finance students found the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times too dry and jargon-heavy for students prepping for Wall Street interviews. Alex Lieberman started writing a friendlier daily digest for classmates.
How it works
Morning Brew began in 2015 when Alex Lieberman, a finance student at the University of Michigan, started writing a daily email that summarized business news in a casual, conversational tone. His classmates preparing for Wall Street interviews were reading the same dry, jargon-heavy financial press, and he believed the material could be explained like a friend over coffee.
Lieberman brought in classmate Austin Rief as co-founder, and the two grew the list campus by campus with short pitches before lectures at Michigan and then other universities. A referral program that rewarded readers for recruiting friends turned every subscriber into a marketer and drove much of the growth.
The business ran on advertising sold at premium rates, because the audience of young professionals was exactly who sponsors wanted to reach. By October 2020 Morning Brew had over 2.5 million subscribers and was profitable with little outside capital.
On 30 October 2020, Insider Inc., the parent company of Business Insider, announced it had acquired a majority stake in Morning Brew in an all-cash deal that sources valued at around $75 million. The founders stayed on as CEO and COO, keeping a sizeable minority stake, and the brand kept operating independently.
Why it lands
- The product fixed a real pain: students had to read business news but hated how it was written.
- Pitching in classrooms gave the first thousands of subscribers a trusted, face-to-face channel.
- A referral program with real rewards turned readers into the acquisition engine.
- A tightly defined young-professional audience commanded premium ad rates, making the economics work without venture capital.
What it did
Morning Brew reached 2.5 million subscribers by October 2020, profitable with little outside capital, when Insider Inc. — parent of Business Insider — bought a majority stake in an all-cash deal valuing it at about $75 million.
What you can take
Find readers who must stay informed but hate the material, write in their voice, and let them recruit each other with rewards — distribution gets free when the product makes people look good.
Since then
Morning Brew kept growing under Insider Inc., passing 4 million subscribers in the years after the deal and expanding into vertical newsletters and a podcast. The acquisition helped make newsletters a mainstream media asset class and became a reference point for creator-economy deals. Lieberman and Rief remained at the helm at first, with Lieberman later stepping back from day-to-day leadership while remaining a visible founder figure.
Sources
- Insider group acquires majority stake in Morning Brew
- Business Insider parent buys majority stake in Morning Brew
- How Two College Students Built a Newsletter to 4M+ Subscribers and a $75M Acquisition
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