How Brad Hargreaves built Thesis Driven, a newsletter and data product focused on real estate
Apr 4, 2024
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Brad Hargreaves, founder of a rental property management company, discusses his transition to launching a paid newsletter focused on real estate investment. He explains why he chose a paid-only model, differentiates his content, and shares plans for a data platform. Topics include challenging transitions, growing a subscription-based newsletter, diversifying content, and building a real estate developer database.
Brad Hargreaves transitioned from Common to focus on a data platform for real estate investors.
Thesis Driven gained revenue success as a paid newsletter with unique real estate journalism content.
Brad aims to develop a Bloomberg Terminal-like tool for real estate investors.
Deep dives
Brad Hargraves: From Common to Thesis Driven
Brad Hargraves, an experienced entrepreneur, transitioned from his role at Common to focus on building out a data platform catered to real estate investors. His paid newsletter, Thesis Driven, quickly gained traction earning six figures in revenue, prompting him to step back from Common. In the interview, he delves into the reasons behind launching a paid-only newsletter, highlighting the differentiation of his content in real estate journalism and his vision for creating a Bloomberg terminal for real estate investors.
General Assembly and Common: The Transition
Reflecting on his entrepreneurial journey, Brad Hargraves discusses his involvement in co-founding General Assembly, a tech and design skills school. The evolution from a coding boot camp to offering a range of digital courses pivotal to transforming careers. Subsequently, Brad's shift towards creating Common, a company managing rental properties and innovating housing layouts to address the housing crisis, showcases his multifaceted experience in education and real estate.
Educating in the Built World: Brad's Transition
The podcast episode unfolds Brad's shift from conventional business ventures in education and real estate to a more media-focused trajectory through Thesis Driven. With a strategic move to provide in-depth content about real estate data, Brad engages in investigative journalism, exploring obscure yet intriguing topics like new city developments worldwide, broadening the newsletter's appeal beyond institutional real estate investors to resonate with broader real estate professionals and enthusiasts.
Database Product: Revolutionizing Real Estate Insights
An innovative step in Brad's media realm involves venturing into building a database product to streamline real estate industry insights about developers and their projects. The database, carefully curated with over 2,500 developer profiles and project details, offers a unique platform to navigate the real estate landscape efficiently. With plans to expand globally and cater to a diverse audience, the database becomes a pivotal tool bridging the gap in real estate data accessibility.
Potential Expansion and Strategic Growth
Brad Hargraves envisions a transformative growth trajectory for Thesis Driven, contemplating a shift towards a data-centric business model while maintaining a strong media presence. The strategic emphasis on expanding the top of the funnel through free content initiatives, educational courses, and global reach amplifies the company's trajectory towards becoming a significant player in the real estate data and media sector, fostering sustainable growth and innovation in the industry.
When it comes to knowing all the intricacies of real estate investment, few are more knowledgeable than Brad Hargreaves. In 2015 he founded Common, a company that manages rental properties and consults with real estate investors on building design.
And then in 2022 Brad decided to begin sharing his knowledge through a paid newsletter called Thesis Driven. Within a matter of months, it was generating six figures in revenue, and he decided to step down from his role at Common so he could focus on building out a data platform geared toward real estate investors.
In our interview, we talked about why he launched Thesis Driven as a paid only newsletter, how his content is differentiated from most other real estate journalism, and why he think there’s an opportunity to build a Bloomberg Terminal for real estate investors.
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