- Backfilled: 2026-09-04 from meeting notes (Michael ruled 2026-09-04 that the public log carries the whole company history)
Decision
Spin up a new arm of the holding company that grows newsletters’ email lists using a partner’s cold-email-to-subscriber system, piloted first on Founding Journey. Date is approximate: reported on 2024-11-19 as “last week”.
Context
A partner had built an email process that produced subscribers at scale. Pilot on the house newsletter worked; the offer sold to outside newsletters immediately (zero to $10k in about a week). In January 2025 Michael believed it could reach $1M ARR in the first half of the year and seed an owned media company.
Consequences
- Ben’s time shifted toward the growth clients; a hire was considered to backfill.
- Combined with the ghostwriting agency into a “done for you newsletter” offer.
- REVERSED: by 2025-06-10 clients were being moved off the partner’s system and the arm was wound down. The partner was informed and accepted it.