The Next Web Was a Very Formative Period

Before the major social platforms launch a new product, they’ll often run small experiments within a subset of their users to test it out. More often than not, the first person to spot these new products is a guy named Matt Navarra, and his mini scoops have been cited in thousands of news articles over the years.

Matt got his career start running the digital communications for the UK government and then later became the director of social media for The Next Web. In 2018, he struck off his own and launched his own marketing consultancy.

It was that same year that he began writing Geekout, a weekly newsletter that curates emerging news and information around the marketing industry. Within a few months it amassed thousands of subscribers, and today it drives six figures in revenue, mostly through sponsorships.

In my interview with Matt, we talked about where he gets his product scoops, his audience growth strategies, and how he built a six figure newsletter business as basically a side hustle.