Lessons From Building a $100M Newsletter Empire—with Sean Griffey of Industry Dive
Newsletter & Email Growth: Growth In Reverse
Paid vs Organic Growth Philosophy
Sean explains Industry Dive's modest paid spend, why organic channels mattered most, and investing in product that people share.
The Growth Vault is LIVE: Chenell's brand-new offer for newsletter creators is here—filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
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“Organic needs to be your biggest channel if you want a real audience that feels connected to you.” — Sean Griffey, Industry Dive
You might not have aspirations of building a $100m newsletter empire. Neither did Sean Griffey.
But 10 years after cofounding Industry Dive with two peers, Sean and his cofounders sold their newsletter media business for a reported $500 million. We sat down with Sean Griffey, to understand what it took to build a behemoth like they did with Industry Dive, and whether or not Sean is still bullish on the newsletter business model.
In our chat, Sean breaks down exactly how they grew Industry Dive—from buying LinkedIn groups to mastering first-party data—and shares what today’s newsletter operators can learn from Industry Dive’s playbook.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The real reason Industry Dive launched with five newsletters on day one (and why Sean says they all “sucked” at first).
- How a bad story accidentally proved their newsletter finally “mattered.”
- The exact growth levers they pulled early on — including buying LinkedIn groups.
- Why Sean believes “organic audience growth beats paid growth every time” for long-term brand value.
- How they turned a small B2B news business into a 500-person company operating globally.
- The virtuous cycle of investing revenue back into better content.
- What their content studio does—and how it now drives ~40 % of total revenue.
- What Sean believes is the most valuable data point in newsletters.
- How Industry Dive decided which metrics actually mattered.
- The lessons creators today can steal from a company that built 9 figures in newsletter revenue.
LINKS MENTIONED
- Industry Dive
- Sean Griffey on LinkedIn
- Informa (the company that bought Industry Dive)
- Join a community for newsletter creators: Growth In Reverse Pro
- Get The Growth Vault — newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
- Want your newsletter roasted? Submit it here.
- Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
- Check out past Growth In Reverse Deep Dives: https://growthinreverse.com/archive/
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