Date: 2026-09-01 Time: 12:30 PM EDT Attendees: Blake Stewart, Swekchha (Reo.dev), Aryan (Reo.dev) Note creator: Blake Stewart
Summary
Sales discovery call between Blake Stewart (Founding Journey newsletter) and Swekchha at Reo.dev. Reo.dev is a revenue intelligence platform for dev tools companies, expanding into cybersecurity. 200+ customers including Nvidia, LangChain, Couchbase, BuildKite.
Newsletter Overview Shared
- 60,000 subscribers, ~55% open rate
- Audience: startup founders/operators, pre-seed to Series A, primarily US-based; range from solo founders to teams of 50-100; small percentage of investors
- Format: weekly, one featured placement per issue
- Rate: $3,000 per featured placement (no secondary placements)
- Process: invoice first, then date lock, then copy submission (100 words + CTA)
Reo.dev Situation
- Strong product and customer base, but low brand awareness
- Not based in SF (founders moving there); limited advocacy and events so far
- Treating paid newsletter / LinkedIn / podcast collaborations as an experiment
- First two months are “proof of concept” phase; not ready to go all-in on spend
- September unlikely; targeting October or November for a collaboration
Other Opportunities Raised
- In-person events: Blake open to co-hosting; Reo running a CMO dinner on September 10th (15-20 people); wants small monthly events (15-50 people) in October and November
- Founder Deep Dive: Blake’s founder interviews Reo’s founder, published as a YouTube video
Decisions
- No booking made; Reo.dev to follow up after their September CMO dinner and evaluate co-hosting in October/November
Action Items
- Swekchha: review Founding Journey archive and partnership page (links shared on call)
- Swekchha: follow up after the September 10th CMO dinner; opens door to co-hosted events in Oct/Nov
- Blake S: keep Reo.dev warm for October/November newsletter placement
Notable Transcript Excerpts
Reo.dev on brand awareness problem:
“We have an amazing set of customers, an amazing product, our customers love our product, yet not a lot of people know about you. I’m pretty sure you would not have known about this company before this call happened.”
Swekchha on audience fit:
“I have not heard any other newsletter that is specifically catering to startup founders.”