Decision
Take the beehiiv sponsor deal (potential ~$17k offer) when it comes available in early October. Do not prioritize posting actively on Substack in the near term. Focus social distribution on other platforms initially.
Context
Came up in content after Michael scoped the cost of building custom newsletter-sending infrastructure and concluded it was not worth it vs. renewing with beehiiv. The secondary question was: use the beehiiv money or redirect energy to Substack (where Rye Valley has a large but very unengaged audience)? Blake re-engages beehiiv in early October.
Options considered
- Active Substack posting: Wins if 3+ Megaphone/JOLT/Lore/Hockey Stick clients sign from it within 6 months. Downside: the existing audience is stale and unengaged, so early engagement signals to the platform will be poor. Client acquisition has come primarily from warm intros, not the newsletter, making the 3-client threshold hard to forecast.
- beehiiv sponsor deal (chosen): ~$17k offer on the table. Blake and Michael agreed this likely exceeds the upside of a Substack reactivation push. Re-evaluate Substack in 6 months.
Consequences
- Blake re-engages beehiiv sponsor contact in early October.
- Substack deferred, not abandoned. Revisit in ~6 months.
- Social focus stays on other platforms (X, LinkedIn, etc.) in the near term.
Source: content thread (permalink: https://ryevalley.slack.com/archives/C07Q8FGH4CU/p1789416848340599)