SaaS Founder Builds 5,000 Subscribers in 3 Months
Series A, 35 employees
The Challenge
A developer tools founder knew a newsletter would build authority in his space and generate inbound leads. He had tried twice before -- both attempts died after 4 issues. Between product development, fundraising, and customer calls, he simply could not find the 5-6 hours per week needed to research, write, edit, design, and send a quality newsletter. His competitors had established newsletters with thousands of subscribers. He was starting from zero.
The Solution
WrittenByTed was deployed on the Growth plan. Ted conducted a 30-minute voice onboarding call, analyzed the founder's existing blog posts, conference talks, and Twitter threads to build a detailed voice profile. Ted created a content calendar focused on three pillars: developer productivity, engineering leadership, and the founder's contrarian takes on industry trends. Ted wrote twice-weekly newsletters -- a Tuesday deep dive and a Thursday roundup -- designed in the company's brand, and managed sending through Beehiiv. The founder reviewed each draft in 10-15 minutes and approved with minimal edits.
The Results
- 5,247 subscribers in 90 days (from 0)
- 48% average open rate across all issues
- 12 inbound demo requests attributed to newsletter content
- 3 podcast interview invitations from newsletter readers
- Founder's time investment: 2 hours per week (review only)
First issue sent within 36 hours of onboarding. 5K subscribers reached in 90 days.
“I had tried to start a newsletter twice and failed both times. Ted wrote the first draft and I honestly thought someone had read my mind. The voice was mine. The insights were things I would have said if I had the time to sit down and write them. Three months later, I have 5,000 subscribers and leads coming in that I never would have generated.”