Headed to a billion dollars by sending emails, making Creator Flywheels, Nathan Barry of ConvertKit

Nathan Barry and crew dropped some serious marketing wisdom about newsletters, audience building, and the “creator flywheel.”

What’s Going On Here

The idea is simple: creators who build an audience and then reinvest that attention into new projects start compounding faster than traditional businesses. Think of audience → product → reinvestment → bigger audience. Do it enough, and you have a money-printing machine.

Why It Works

• Newsletters = owned traffic, not borrowed.
• Flywheels build momentum over time.
• SEO shifts reward authority and expertise.
• Platforms like ConvertKit make monetization easier.

Real World Examples

• ConvertKit grew from a small SaaS to crossing $40M+ ARR with creator-first marketing.
• Morning Brew scaled to 4M+ readers, then launched new verticals off that base.
• The Hustle built a newsletter audience, then sold to HubSpot.
• Nick Gray leveraged his newsletter to sell books and grow his personal brand.