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Austin Rief

Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Morning Brew · 2 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveinvestor@austin_rief ↗LinkedIn ↗austinrief.com ↗

Austin Rief co-founded the business newsletter company Morning Brew, scaling it to millions of subscribers before selling a majority stake to Axel Springer. He transitioned from CEO to Executive Chairman and currently invests through Austin Rief Ventures while co-leading the staffing firm Oceans.

17statements → 7claims → 1claims resolved → 3.53/5average certainty → 1.76/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 26said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 5 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 6 assertions · 4 opinions · 5 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Austin argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Morning Brew's publicly reported acquisition price was $75 million
“Seventy-five million, I think is the public number.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 1:39 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Austin Rief on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Austin Rief said on My First Million that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Morning Brew CEO: No More Alpha Left in the Newsletter Game
“I think there's no more alpha in the newsletter game. Everyone talks about everything.”
Austin Rief Jan 24, 2024 ▶ 13:31 Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543)
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Eventually Every Retail Brand Will Have a Creator Face Attached
“I still think ultimately you're going to walk into a liquor store. You're going to walk into target and every brand is going to have a face and association because why wouldn't it, right?”
Austin Rief Jan 24, 2024 ▶ 21:23 Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543)
Opinion
BuzzFeed's media business model was never worth a $1B valuation
“And, you know, even in 2015, 20 17, we were like, yeah, PuzzFeed, it just doesn't make sense. It's not worth a billion dollars.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 7:47 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Opinion
Sam Bankman-Fried Only Mastered Details That Directly Benefited FTX
“Sam was a genius when it came to the things he had to know for FTX and crypto. So for example, Tom Brady was a like sponsored by FTX, right? Sam could have told you every single thing. About Tom Brady. Could have told you his stat line, everything about him, b…”
Austin Rief Jan 24, 2024 ▶ 37:21 Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543)
Insight
Pitching acquisitions to CMOs fails because it threatens their marketing competence
“Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, we were telling the marketing team of a company, we can market your product better than you can. You know, what CMO, what head of marketing is going to buy a company, unless they have a ton of humility, if they believe that…”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 53:29 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Insight
Newsletter subscribers are worth significantly less today due to market saturation
“The value of a subscriber is significantly less than it was when we started because there are so many newsletters out there.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 56:06 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Insight
Startups need an enemy: Morning Brew used TheSkimm and The Hustle
“And I think having an enemy, whether it's real or fake, right for us, it was the skin and the hustle. I think it's really, really important. You know, beehive has convert kit. And I think it just motivates everyone just a little bit more.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 1:09:58 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Insight
Experiential Businesses Scale by Pivoting From $50 B2C to $20K B2B
“You went B to B because that's where the money and all this stuff is right. Selling in, you sell to consumer for 50 bucks, you sell the morning brew for 20 grand and our HR team just sides off and approves it.”
Austin Rief Jan 24, 2024 ▶ 12:12 Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543)
Insight
Beehiiv Did for Newsletters What Shopify Did for E-Commerce
“I think beehive did for newsletters, What Shopify did for e-commerce, right?”
Austin Rief Jan 24, 2024 ▶ 13:35 Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543)
Opinion
A Modern Traeger Competitor Could Become a Multi-Billion Dollar Brand
“I want to build the Traeger or the green egg competitor, sell the 1500 dollar product, sell the 50 dollar a month, hundred dollar a month pellets, and build the next Traeger, which I think is a multi, you know, billion dollar brand.”
Austin Rief Jan 24, 2024 ▶ 17:05 Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543)
Assertion Supported
Morning Brew's publicly reported acquisition price was $75 million
“Seventy-five million, I think is the public number.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 1:39 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morning Brew's first ad deal was $3,000 for three exposures
“In 2016, we did our first ad deal. It was a watch brand called Emla Hart, I believe. It was about a 3000 dollar deal for three, we used to call them exposures.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 16:00 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morning Brew generated $25K in total revenue in 2016
“We did 25,000 that year.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 16:30 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morning Brew reached 100K subscribers and $300K in revenue in 2017
“We ended at a 100,000 subs. We did 300,000 dollars of revenue. We finally started taking a salary. We were taking 60 K each, but that was the first real year.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 20:12 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Morning Brew reinvested $6M to $7M into paid acquisition in 2019
“And we were spending this year, we probably spent six to seven million dollars on paid acquisition. So we spent what you did in revenue almost just pumping growth back in.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 33:41 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Disclosure
Morning Brew's biggest regret was failing to hire an EOS implementer
“And that's my biggest regret is not hiring a, an implementer because I didn't want to be the bad guy. I didn't want to be the bully.”
Austin Rief Apr 4, 2025 ▶ 37:06 How to build a $100M+ newsletter business
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Bongo's Bingo Made Around $20M Annually Pre-COVID
“Apparently, people in the industry said these bongo bingo guys, apparently, pre-COVID, were doing twenty million a year in revenue.”
Austin Rief Jan 24, 2024 ▶ 2:03 Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543)

The other half of the tape: Austin Rief's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 26 times in 10 episodes on My First Million. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Sam Parr 19Shaan Puri 4

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00428320212022202320242025episodesmentions
02320212022202320242025episodes it came up in
0021.54320212022202320242025episodesmentions per episode
2025 8 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
2024 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2023 8 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2022 4 mentions in 1 episode
2021 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
How to build a $100M+ newsletter business Apr 4, 2025 18m
Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543) Jan 24, 2024 19m
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