I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Our first acquisition!
Yesterday we made one of the biggest announcements in ConvertKit’s 8 year history. When I teased it on Twitter a few people correctly guessed it was an acquisition. But they assumed that ConvertKit was the one being acquired.
Nope, around here acquisitions only go one way: with ConvertKit as the acquirer.
In our fully transparent style I wanted to write a blog post sharing how it all started. While I can’t share every detail (like terms of the deal), I’ll share as much as I can.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Over the last two years we’ve been bringing more and more musicians onto ConvertKit. That started with Tim McGraw and then this last year we expanded with Drew Holcomb, Josh Abbott Band, Mary Lambert, and many more. A lot of that driven by Creator Sessions, our pivot to virtual at-home concerts when COVID ruined our event plans.
With our initial traction we started forming partnerships with agencies, managers, artists, and other music industry veterans to get more artists on ConvertKit.
In September 2020 we recorded a ConvertKit Creator Session with Mandy Moore. She had released a new album, that was really personal, and she wanted the opportunity to share more behind-the-scenes stories. After watching a rough cut, I was thinking about how amazing it would be to have her on ConvertKit. So I did what I always do: go to the creator’s site, then open browser dev tools to see what email platform they use.
That’s when I saw FanBridge. I’d first heard of FanBridge back in 2017 when I met with the music team at Paradigm, a huge talent agency. In a world where marketing platforms try to serve every kind of customer, I really admired how FanBridge focused specifically on musicians.
After digging around on the FanBridge website for a while, I found a phone number. Without thinking much I just dialed it.
I’m not sure what I expected. Maybe a voicemail box or a phone tree to navigate for each department. What I didn’t expect was someone to answer right away—requiring me to think fast and make up a reason for my call.
I said I was a manager, representing a few different artists, looking for a new email platform. A very helpful person named Scott—who I later learned was FanBridge’s general manager—talked me through the platform and answered my questions about the benefits, types of clients we serve, and their long-term development plans.
I later heard from Scott and Noah (FanBridge’s co-founder) that after I got off the call Scott thought something seemed odd about it. A music manager in Idaho? My 208 area code had given me away. He did some digging and quickly tied the number back to me and ConvertKit (yes, I called from my cell phone).
If you ever need to hire someone for corporate espionage, I’m definitely not your guy.
If you're reading this right when it hits your inbox, I'm live on the Future Belongs to Creators podcast talking about the acquisition!
FROM ART OF NEWSLETTERS
Mario Gabriele - from lifelong obsession to thriving business
Mario Gabriele is the founder of The Generalist. His mission? To bring the most interesting tech writing to your inbox, every week. And he’s not doing it alone, either: Mario works with a team of contributors to deliver new ideas from some of the most original minds in venture capital and tech.
In this episode, Mario talks about how and why he left a career in venture investing to build The Generalist, and his lifelong obsessions with writing and technology. The Generalist is not only a really successful newsletter, it’s a thriving business, too! Tune in to hear how Mario did it.
You’ll learn about approaching and collaborating with the people you only dream of working with. Mario talks about how he went from merely admiring certain writers’ work to joining their “club” in 18 months!
Mario also shares the most reliable way to advance your career, and the safest ways to accelerate it. There’s a lot of good stuff in this conversation!
Listen to the whole episode here »
Have a great week!
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
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