Growth In Reverse — Lessons From Building a $100M Newsletter Empire

Guests: Sean Griffey (Co-founder, Industry Dive)

Hosts: Chenell Basilio and Dylan Redekop

Date: November 5, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features Sean Griffey, co-founder of Industry Dive, sharing candid lessons learned while building his $100M B2B newsletter business. Sean talks through the earliest, scrappiest days, creative growth hacks, the realities of bootstrapping, monetization strategies, content quality, audience loyalty, and where the future of email newsletters is headed. It's an in-depth, "from the trenches" masterclass on turning niche email lists into sustainable, scalable media empires.

Key Topics and Takeaways

1. Founding Industry Dive: Ambition and Early Struggles

• Industry Dive launched in 2012 by Sean and two partners, starting with five daily B2B news verticals.
  • Sean Griffey (00:00): “Launched it in 2012 with five publications. Grew that to a little over a hundred million in revenue. We kind of got big.”
• The rationale for launching with five verticals instead of just one: Ambition required scale, "niche is small," and perfecting one would stall growth.
  • Sean Griffey (02:44): “We can't get trapped into wanting to be great at one.”
• Early days were grueling: three founders, five daily publications, and a few freelancers—mornings dedicated to content, afternoons to business development.
  • Sean Griffey (04:03): "The mornings were really newsletters, and then the afternoon was how do we grow a business?"

2. Finding Product-Market Fit and Audience Significance

• It took about a year for the newsletters to meaningfully “resonate.”
• The importance of knowing that the audience is actually paying attention:
  • Sean Griffey (04:33): “We got a story really wrong...their PR teams were calling us. This is really bad, but this also means we matter.”

3. Creative Early Growth: The LinkedIn Groups Arbitrage

• Audience growth involved testing 20+ channels as no single channel lasts.
  • Pay-per-click was once good but became too expensive.
  • The big growth hack was acquiring LinkedIn Groups and using weekly group messaging:
    • Sean Griffey (05:57): "We would buy these LinkedIn groups off of people and use them as audience development channels."
    • Sean Griffey (08:13): "The power of sending messages to these group members was really great."
  • This tactic is obsolete now, but it was a significant early lever.

4. Paid vs. Organic Growth Philosophy

• Industry Dive was mostly organic, with only modest spend on paid growth—organic built a more meaningful audience.
• Invested first in people to optimize organic channels (referrals, partnerships, landing pages), not just paid media.
  • Sean Griffey (10:40): "We spent money on people to do all of that before. We spent money...on paid channels."
• Early paid budget was very modest—under $10K/year initially.

5. Relentless Focus on Content Excellence

• Content got better via a virtuous cycle: audience grows → better monetization → invest more in editorial talent.
  • Biggest quality leap: hiring professional journalists and editors, moving away from founder-written copy.
  • Sean Griffey (10:40): "The best thing we did with the content was I stopped writing."
• Focused on deeper coverage, original research, in-depth interviews.

6. Audience > Traffic: The Value of Real Engagement

• Not all signups are meaningful; the goal is deep, loyal, connected audiences, not just large lists.
  • Sean Griffey (14:38): “There's something powerful with a newsletter. It says I'm a subscriber. Like, you're identifying yourself as part of that.”
• “Creator economy” isn’t new, but the connection/community layer is where the magic happens.

7. Building Loyalty with Personal Touch (and Unscalable Tactics)

• In the early days, Sean personally emailed every new subscriber for feedback.
  • Sean Griffey (18:19): “Incredibly labor intensive and not scalable. But there's a fight to make people realize there's people behind this...I would spend hours going back and forth.”
• Personalized replies led to trust, word-of-mouth growth, and sometimes direct partnership opportunities.

8. Hiring Philosophy: Seeking the 'Wonky' Factor

• For new verticals: always hire both an editor and reporter, one with deep industry expertise.
• Most valued trait: people who “get wonky”—show insane tenacity and curiosity about niche subjects.
  • Sean Griffey (23:26): “It's a combination of curiosity and tenacity...are you so curious that you can't let it rest?”

9. Monetization Deep Dive: Sponsorship Beyond the Newsletter

• Built primarily on marketing-supported (sponsor) revenue, not subscriptions or events.
  • Sean Griffey (24:49): "It's always been marketing supported. That was what we knew."
• Creative sponsorship models include co-registration on sign-ups, sponsored microsites (“Trend Lines”), and content partnerships.
  • “Trend Lines” example:
    • Repurpose existing editorial into gated, microsites on hot trends, sponsored by relevant brands as lead magnets.
    • Sean Griffey (27:09): “It's been really popular with the audience because it's literally the biggest trends in their industry.”
• Emphasizes transparency: always make lead sharing explicit for users.

10. Sales Team—Essential Early Investment

• Sales is critical from day one; don’t assume good content and audience makes revenue automatic.
  • Sean Griffey (12:24): “You have to think about monetization at the exact same time...we hired salespeople to go out and try to sell our products.”

11. Data and Metrics: Relentless about Quality, Not Vanity

• North Star metric: Engagement among the right subscribers (titles, company functions advertisers care about), not vanity metrics.
  • Purposefully filter out bot/automated opens and clicks.
  • Sean Griffey (43:14): “The only thing I cared about: engagement of the right job, the right people, however you want to look at.”
  • Sean Griffey (44:30): “[Bot traffic]...I just don't believe you understand what's happening to your newsletter...I'm militant about all the bot traffic, about making sure these are actual humans.”

12. Client Services and Revenue Mix

• Launched a full Content Studio offering white-labeled content, newsletters, and custom campaigns for clients.
  • Revenue mix is about 35-40% content studio, 60-65% direct advertising (with blurring between).
• The “killer feature” for B2B: First-party customer data, starting with work email + job title.
  • Sean Griffey (39:28): “The number one thing is email address...personally identifiable...for B2B, that email address can be really important.”

13. Current Advertising Market Reality

• Selling sponsorships or advertising is never easy; don’t assume it was easier in the past.
  • Sean Griffey (33:25): “I don't think it's ever easy...Don't think you've missed the easy time.”
  • Best opportunities come when marketers are also readers.
• The key to resilience is serving tightly-targeted, valuable audiences.

14. Future Outlook: AI, Community, Opportunity

• Still bullish on newsletters — all of the original advantages remain, and now tooling is better than ever.
• Sean is excited (“snow globe being shaken”) about AI tools putting everyone on equal footing, and the next evolution will be facilitating audience-to-audience community and connection.
  • Sean Griffey (47:20): “It's a really incredible time to start something and build something because it feels like the snow globe's being shaken.”
  • Predicts the next wave in media is helping audiences connect with each other, not just with the publisher.
• Newsletters as a business are more viable and easier to execute now than ever before.
  • Sean Griffey (49:43): “None of the reasons why it was great 20 years ago are gone now, but there's only new reasons why it's great.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On perfecting too long:
  Sean Griffey (02:44): "There's a lot of people that say, I'm going to do this one, and when I perfect it, I'll do the second. And then you wake up and it's been 10 years and you're still on the first because none of them are ever perfect."
• On audience vs. traffic:
  Sean Griffey (14:38): “You can have 100,000 people sign up to your email list, but that doesn't mean that's your audience.”
• On “wonky” hires:
  Sean Griffey (23:26): "It's a combination of curiosity and tenacity. You know, like, it's sort of do you, you know, are you so curious that you can't let it rest. And that, that, like, works really well for journalists."
• On manual customer development:
  Sean Griffey (18:19): “There was a period where we emailed every subscriber and asked how we were doing...Incredibly labor intensive and not scalable. But there's a fight to like make people realize that there's people behind this...”
• On monetization:
  Sean Griffey (24:49): "It's always been marketing supported. That was what we knew."
• Advice for newsletter founders:
  Sean Griffey (49:43): "Absolutely. None of the reasons why it was great 20 years ago are gone now, but there's only new reasons why it's great."
• Reality check on sponsorships:
  Sean Griffey (33:25): "I don't think it's ever easy...People who are doing this today don't think you've missed the easy time. Like, none of us thought it was easy before."
• Final encouragement:
  Podcast Host 1 (50:33): "Stop listening to this podcast and go build something."

Essential Timestamps

• Background & Launch Story — 00:00–04:41
• Launching 5 Verticals: 02:29–03:49
• First signs of traction: 04:24–05:47
• Early growth tactics (acquiring LinkedIn groups): 05:49–08:40
• Paid vs. organic growth philosophy: 08:40–12:24
• Sales and business focus: 12:24–14:07
• Audience quality vs. traffic: 14:07–17:51
• Building loyalty via personal subscriber outreach: 18:10–19:27
• Hiring philosophy (“wonky” talent): 21:08–24:26
• Monetization & creative sponsorships: 24:49–30:20
• Trend Lines (repurposing content): 27:09–31:38
• Sales vs. editorial responsibilities: 33:00–33:25
• Sponsorship market realities: 33:25–34:29
• Custom content and studio offering: 34:56–39:28
• First-party data as business edge: 39:28–41:03
• Metrics that matter (North Star, anti-vanity metrics): 41:17–44:30
• Future of newsletters, AI, and community: 47:20–50:33
• Bullishness on newsletters, call to action: 49:29–50:41

Tone and Language

Sean is no-nonsense, candid, sometimes self-deprecating but brimming with wisdom from long experience. The hosts ask incisive questions but keep the tone friendly, energetic, and deeply respectful of their guest’s expertise.

Who Should Listen (or Read This)?

Anyone growing, monetizing, or strategizing for newsletters—whether solo creators, small teams, or established operators—will find practical, hard-earned advice throughout this episode. Sean’s lessons apply regardless of your niche, business size, or current stage.

Summary Prepared for Busy Newsletter Builders and Media Entrepreneurs — Growth In Reverse, “Lessons From Building a $100M Newsletter Empire with Sean Griffey” (Nov 2025)