Hi, friends đ
First offâŠholy smokes. On Saturday (9/23), we crossed 10,000 folks reading HTG!
This definitely is not where I parked my car.
My first post, How Notion Grows, was published on September 21st, 2022. Pretty much exactly one year ago. When it went out, I had just under 200 subscribers (from over a year writing another newsletter).
363 days and 73 posts laterâthanks to every single one of you whoâve been kind enough to give me your email, trust me with your time, and share HTGâthis project has grown to over 10,000 readers. Or, 50X.
Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. â€ïž This has been an absolute hoot, Iâve learned a ton studying these companies, and have thoroughly enjoyed meeting and collaborating with other incredible creators like
, , and , as well as meeting other brilliant authors from the community like , , , and several others.Joining Substack and writing for all of you guysâŠand myselfâŠhas been one of the best decisions Iâve made. And it goes without sayingâŠweâre just getting started. đ«Ą
And with this double milestoneâ10K strong and 1 year of writingâcomes this postâs second announcement.
Not to bury the leadâŠIâm adding a paid membership tier. Except, not to worry, nothing will change in terms of what youâre getting right now. Iâm doing it differently from most other paid newsletters.
Iâve been writing each week for a year now, and Iâve spent a good deal of time over the past few months noodling over how to go paid, or why to even do it at all.
Letâs start with why Iâve decided to add a paid plan. After a lot of thought, Iâve nailed it down to 3 reasons:
Reason #1: While this was meant to be a pet project, this has turned into a real thing. And the feedback youâve been sharing with me about how valuable some of you have found HTG has been immensely gratifying and validating. â€ïž For instance.
âI recently subscribed to your HTG newsletter and I must say I LOVE it!!!! OMG!!! I read a lot of newsletters, and yours is definitely among one of the very best! đâ
âDude - you deliver RIDICULOUS VALUE. When I read your OpenAI email that was the first time in a while I scrolled up to read "who the F wrote this?" and I Googled you. Standing ovation.ââJaryd writes growth content with a depth and clarity that's hard to find elsewhere. Learned a ton from Duolingo in particular.â
âI absolutely love the content and the depth of your newsletter. My favorite part - the âWhat you can do with thisâ section. It gives clear actionable insightâ
âJust came right from reading the TikTok issue. I learned so much.â
âI feel a lot smarter everytime I read your newsletterâ
âJaryd, wanted to let you know that your How they Grow series is badass, and I'm lovin' it so far! Just found it recently and couldn't be happier I stumbled across it.â
Reason #2: I only plan on delivering even more value to every single one of you. As my writing gets better and my research process goes deeper, expect more actionable and insightful content to help you get better at product, growth, strategy, and startups.
Reason #3: Lastly, I spend a lot of time working on this. đ About 80 hours a month researching and writing. Each deep dive takes about 30 hours (2 per month), and then thereâs the weekly 5 bits (4 hours each).
So, thatâs the why. Now, what does âgoing paidâ here mean and how does it affect you?
The status quo is for writers to paywall most of their contentâwhether entire posts are for paid readers or have a paywall somewhere in the middle. Honestly, looking at this with my PM hat on, this is probably the best way to get more conversions.
Call me the village idiot then, but Iâd like to try something different.
For starters, if you find my writing valuable, Iâd like to ask you to consider supporting my work for the price of a single coffee (in New York) per month. â
But letâs get more specificâŠ
Why should I subscribe?
To get better at your job
To get better at building and growing products
âš I am launching a new subscribers-only series. âš
To show your support for this newsletter and get my eternal gratitude đ«¶
If you apply even just one learning successfully, I am absolutely confident this will pay for itself at least 100X over.
PLUS: Iâm tinkering with a few other ideas. And early paid members will get large discounts on things like:
Digital products I launch, like a searchable swipe library of actionable frameworks and mental models.
Coaching and micro consulting
Courses
Whatâs changing?
Nothing. đ If you decide to remain free, thatâs totally fair. You will still keep getting all my posts (deep dives, 5-bits, etc) that you originally subscribed for and came to expect. I never want a subscription to stop you from reading.
As mentioned above, Iâll be adding a new series called From The Garden. A $7/m subscription will also unlock these insider posts for you. âš
What will it cost?
The regular price is $10 a month, or $100 a year. But, to thank you for being an early supporter, the first 500 folks who become How They Grow founding members and join the community will get it for $7/month, for life.
Thatâs what a single coffee costs. Youâll get 80 hours of my work per month, and content that can make you better at your job.
I think thatâs a fair price. You can also cancel anytime.
If it helps with experimenting with just one approach that helps you or your team work better, itâs a win that Iâm pretty sure the ROI on will easily be 100x.
Also, this is of course expensible to your company. Almost every employer will reimburse you $70 for an annual subscription that makes you better at work. Feel free to use this template to send your boss.
âš And, to those first 500 of you who join, youâll also get 30% off any future HTG products. For example, some of the stuff Iâm thinking about creating include (1) premium digital products (coming soon), (2) courses, and (3) micro-consulting and 1:1 coaching/mentoring. âš
If youâve found value in this newsletter, or just want to support the work Iâm doing, consider subscribing. It would mean a lot to me. đ
As always, thank you so much for reading, being here, and just making this newsletter a real thing. I appreciate it so much, and am so excited to see where we take this thing.
â Jaryd
Congrats!