Episode #28 - Austin Rief

#15MinuteFounder

Austin Rief co-founded Morning Brew as a college student in Michigan, turning a “pretty crappy PDF” sent to 12 friends into a $70 million media business with zero venture capital and 215 employees, without ever chasing the billion-dollar outcome everyone told him to.

In this episode of 15 Minute Founder, Austin explains why he ignored pressure to “go big” and take VC money, the line from investor Fred Wilson that became his north star (“keep it small and keep it all”), and the deceptively simple productivity system he’s never felt the need to upgrade in ten years.

Highlights from the chat

Q: How did Morning Brew actually get its first customers?

My co-founder Alex Lieberman was helping friends at the University of Michigan with interview prep and realized the business world was dry and dense, so he turned it into a newsletter, actually a fairly rough PDF attachment. Those first 12 friends were the first subscribers of what was then called Market Corner, not yet Morning Brew.

Q: How big is Morning Brew today, and how does a newsletter actually make money?

$70 million in revenue, 215 employees, 20 products including podcasts, video, and eight newsletters. About 95% of revenue is advertising: a 100-person revenue org working with brands like Microsoft, JP Morgan, and Fidelity, essentially lending them the trust and engagement Morning Brew has built with its audience, since trust in brands generally is at an all-time low.

Q: Did you ever want to quit along the way?

There were moments, especially as a full-time student who wanted to just party instead. But the business grew like wildfire almost immediately, and seeing that daily traction, literally getting an email notification for every new subscriber became addicting, like a slot machine, which made it easy to keep going through the early years.

Q: What drives you today versus when you started?

Today it’s pleasure, genuinely enjoying running the operations and watching the numbers move. In 2018-2020 it was money; I turned down an investment banking job and wanted to prove to myself, my parents, and the world I could do better without following the traditional path.

Q: Do you think anyone can become an entrepreneur?

It depends on the definition. Anyone can become a small business owner if they set their mind to it. Plenty of people run successful small businesses working 30-40 hours a week, even if “Twitter tech culture” wouldn’t call them entrepreneurs. Building a fast-growth tech company, though, takes a different level of rigor and discipline that not everyone has.

Q: What’s a contrarian belief you hold about building a business?

Nearly everyone pushed Morning Brew to raise venture capital and “go bigger” instead of running what looked like a simple newsletter. We ran our own numbers instead and realized we could build a very profitable, multi-million-dollar business without needing to become the next Facebook or Uber. Investor Fred Wilson once tweeted a line that stuck: “keep it small and keep it all”.

And because we stayed largely bootstrapped, when we eventually sold, we owned the vast majority of the company, unlike founders who are IPO owning only single-digit percentages after a decade of work.

Q: What’s your actual advice on taking venture capital or not?

It depends heavily on the business. Some businesses (like a rocket company) are nearly impossible to bootstrap. But once you take Series A funding and beyond, you’re on a treadmill with a narrowing range of acceptable outcomes. Too many founders are simply good salespeople who can convince VCs to invest, without a real plan to hit the 3-5x-plus outcomes VCs actually need. I believe far more businesses today should be bootstrapped than are.

Q: How many hours do you work, and do you believe in work-life balance?

Roughly 60-70 hours a week on average, though it varies. I don’t believe in “work-life balance” so much as “work-life harmony”, I keep saying “hunt like a lion, not graze like a cow”. I’d say find specific intense seasons (for example 2018-2020 for me) to go all-in, and then find time afterward to enjoy the results.

Q: What does your daily routine actually look like?

Up at 6am (no alarm most weekends now, it’s just my rhythm), asleep by 9:30-10pm. Coffee, stretching, a run, breakfast (eggs, avocado, cottage cheese), then straight into a time-boxed schedule: my single most important task from 9-11am, second priority from 2-4pm, meetings in the middle of the day.

My Monday mornings and Fridays are meeting-free. Mondays to get into flow, Fridays to clean everything up.

Q: What system do you use to track your tasks?

Just a basic to-do list in Notion, nothing fancy. I’ve tried every productivity system out there and I believe people waste more time optimizing their workflow than they’d lose just doing the work with a simple system. Every Sunday night I write down the top three things to accomplish that week, and check daily tasks against that list to stay grounded.

Q: How do you think about building a team: in-office, remote, global?

Pre-COVID I wanted everyone in-office; now I’m “remote empathetic”. Only about half of Morning Brew’s 215 employees are within commuting distance. I’ve since invested in and advise a company called Oceans, which sources global talent (heavily from Sri Lanka), after being burned by lower-caliber overseas VAs who didn’t understand US work culture. The ultimate hack was finding people who could genuinely act as an extension of myself and not just complete isolated tasks.

Q: Final billboard message for someone scared to get started?

I’ll say just do it. There’s no substitute for actually getting the reps in, whether that’s starting a company or a new job. Morning Brew failed constantly in the early days, especially with hiring, but there’s no way to shortcut real experience; you just have to go do it and be okay with failing along the way.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 – Intro

00:29 – Founding Story: Market Corner’s First 12 Customers

01:23 – Morning Brew Today: $70M Revenue, 215 People

01:53 – How Morning Brew Actually Makes Money

02:57 – Did You Ever Want to Quit?

04:29 – The Four Motivators: Money, Power, Pleasure, Fame

06:03 – Can Anyone Be an Entrepreneur?

07:02 – The VC Pressure & “Keep It Small and Keep It All”

08:56 – Should You Take Venture Capital?

10:39 – How Many Hours Do You Work?

11:28 – Work-Life Harmony, Not Balance

12:54 – Austin’s Morning Routine

14:31 – Coffee, Breakfast & Daily Habits

14:58 – Austin’s Simple Task System

16:38 – Building a Remote, Global Team

19:59 – Billboard Message: Just Do It