The Smartest Founders Build Email First | Funds and founders
Sun Jan 25 2026
Newsletters are not dead
Dylan from Growth in Reverse breaks down how indie founders and B2B operators are building 5-figure audiences and monetizing with just email. He shares the underrated metric every newsletter creator should track, how to launch a newsletter from scratch, and why owning your distribution is your biggest unfair advantage.
We also go deep on:
- Sponsorships
- Paid ads
- Personal vs Company branding
- How to stay consistent even when life gets in the way
Whether you're just starting or scaling, this episode is a must-listen.
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🔗 Connect with Dylan
Newsletter: https://www.growthinreverse.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanredekop/
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About the Host
I'm Abhinav Sinha, host of Funds & Founders—a podcast for Austin entrepreneurs navigating early-stage startups. I explore the highs, lows, and breakthrough moments of local founders through candid conversations, and sit down with VCs to uncover how they evaluate early-stage companies.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhinavbsinha/
Newsletter: https://newsletter.fundsandfounder.com/
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⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Quick intro & Dylan plugs
01:30 – The most overlooked truth about newsletters
02:55 – One North Star metric every founder should track
05:00 – Why owning your distribution is non-negotiable
06:45 – How to start a newsletter from zero
08:30 – Educate, Inform, Entertain: The content trifecta
09:40 – How to sell through newsletters without annoying your readers
11:55 – When to start thinking about sponsorships
13:45 – Monetizing early: ads, partnerships & paid growth
17:00 – Newsletter commitment: Why 10+ editions matter
20:05 – Favorite growth channels: Paid, organic, lead magnets
24:00 – Facebook ad hack that landed 20+ subscribers before launch
27:10 – Building your system: SOPs, templates & content blocks
30:00 – Should you steal playbooks? How to filter growth tactics
33:00 – Writing vs Talking: Choosing the right medium
36:00 – Guest posts, collaborations & ownership issues
38:05 – Smart ways to collect feedback from your audience
42:10 – Building brand: Personal vs Company vs Thematic
45:30 – When personal branding blocks startup acquisitions
47:00 – Behind the scenes at Growth in Reverse
50:00 – Final tips for founders building in public
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#Newsletter #EmailMarketing #CreatorEconomy #Distribution #B2B #IndieFounder #ContentStrategy #FundsAndFounders #AustinStartups #GrowthHacking.
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Newsletters are not dead Dylan from Growth in Reverse breaks down how indie founders and B2B operators are building 5-figure audiences and monetizing with just email. He shares the underrated metric every newsletter creator should track, how to launch a newsletter from scratch, and why owning your distribution is your biggest unfair advantage. We also go deep on: - Sponsorships - Paid ads - Personal vs Company branding - How to stay consistent even when life gets in the way Whether you're just starting or scaling, this episode is a must-listen. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with Dylan Newsletter: https://www.growthinreverse.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanredekop/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About the Host I'm Abhinav Sinha, host of Funds & Founders—a podcast for Austin entrepreneurs navigating early-stage startups. I explore the highs, lows, and breakthrough moments of local founders through candid conversations, and sit down with VCs to uncover how they evaluate early-stage companies. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhinavbsinha/ Newsletter: https://newsletter.fundsandfounder.com/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – Quick intro & Dylan plugs 01:30 – The most overlooked truth about newsletters 02:55 – One North Star metric every founder should track 05:00 – Why owning your distribution is non-negotiable 06:45 – How to start a newsletter from zero 08:30 – Educate, Inform, Entertain: The content trifecta 09:40 – How to sell through newsletters without annoying your readers 11:55 – When to start thinking about sponsorships 13:45 – Monetizing early: ads, partnerships & paid growth 17:00 – Newsletter commitment: Why 10+ editions matter 20:05 – Favorite growth channels: Paid, organic, lead magnets 24:00 – Facebook ad hack that landed 20+ subscribers before launch 27:10 – Building your system: SOPs, templates & content blocks 30:00 – Should you steal playbooks? How to filter growth tactics 33:00 – Writing vs Talking: Choosing the right medium 36:00 – Guest posts, collaborations & ownership issues 38:05 – Smart ways to collect feedback from your audience 42:10 – Building brand: Personal vs Company vs Thematic 45:30 – When personal branding blocks startup acquisitions 47:00 – Behind the scenes at Growth in Reverse 50:00 – Final tips for founders building in public ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Newsletter #EmailMarketing #CreatorEconomy #Distribution #B2B #IndieFounder #ContentStrategy #FundsAndFounders #AustinStartups #GrowthHacking.