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How GRIT Capital Migrated 360,000 Subscribers from Substack to beehiiv
How & Why This Financial Analysis Media Company Made the Switch
Kanishka & Brandon Storey
January 22nd, 2025
Imagine you had 360,000 subscribers.
Now, imagine you realized you had to migrate that list (the size of a city) to a new platform.
Sounds scary, right?
Well, that’s exactly what Christian Blackwell and GRIT Capital did just a few months ago.
Recently, Christian Blackwell, general manager of GRIT Capital and co-author of its three newsletters, switched from Substack to beehiiv to tap into the wide range of growth, editing, and monetization features.
Blackwell, shared, “beehiiv is a Swiss Army knife for newsletters. It’s got a lot of tools all in one place.”
GRIT Capital is a financial media platform founded by former $100M money manager Genevieve Roch-Decter with a focus on sharing investment knowledge to the general public. Through the website, social media, and three newsletters, GRIT covers breaking news on stocks, crypto, and finance every week.
The Rate of Return newsletter sends 245,000 investors finance tips to give them an edge in just 5 minutes weekly.
There’s also a paid, VIP version of Rate of Return for just $1 per day with an additional weekly newsletter, digital courses, monthly livestreams, and portfolio access.
The GRIT Alpha newsletter gives 75,000 investors research-backed stock picks in just 5 minutes each week, backed by hedge fund-level research and analysis.
The Rich Habits newsletter gives 45,000 readers financial news and wealth-building habits each week to become financially free.
The Rich Habits also has a podcast, co-hosted Austin Hankwitz, who serves as GRIT’s Head Analyst. The podcast has quickly risen to become one of the Top 10 Business Podcasts on Spotify, amassing over 6 million downloads in just 18 months.
Next, let’s dive into how (and why) Christian Blackwell and the GRIT Capital team recently migrated 360,000+ subscribers over to beehiiv.
Table of Contents
Christian Blackwell is the general manager of GRIT Capital and runs the 245,000 subscriber newsletter, Rate of Return, with co-author Austin Hankwitz.
The reason Blackwell and GRIT moved their three newsletters over to beehiiv is because of their acquisition of Rate of Return.
Blackwell explained, “Rate of Return was acquired by GRIT Capital a few months ago. So, we author that. We also help author the GRIT Alpha newsletter, which is a part of the GRIT Capital ecosystem. So, that's two.”
Blackwell also authors a third newsletter, Rich Habits.
He shared, “It’s connected with our podcast that I'm the executive producer on. So I'm actually writing in beehiiv for three different newsletters every week and every month which is pretty insane. I'm very tied into the beehiiv ecosystem now. But I'm still learning it. I also feel like I don't fully take advantage of all of the tools as well as I should have.”
From Patreon to Substack to beehiiv
So, how did the GRIT Capital newsletter ecosystem begin?
It all started on Patreon.
Blackwell shared, “It was me and Austin Hankwitz (he's an online creator and a podcaster). We realized we both have a talent for written commentary and stock analysis. So, we created a paid community on Patreon. We then switched to Substack and were on that for a long time. We were twice featured as top Substack publications.”
So, why the switch to beehiiv?
Because it made their media more accessible to their audience.
He shared, “We shifted to beehiiv mostly due to functionality. People learn and intake content in a variety of ways. There's an audience that only likes to listen. There's an audience that likes to watch. There's an audience that likes to read. People really appreciate written content. It's got good conversion rates when it comes to affiliates or brand deals or our own products.”
And, the newsletter isn’t just helping them engage with their readers. It’s been a great conversion platform for them as well.
Blackwell shared, “The newsletter has always been a core focus. We've always had generally high open rates and that's always been something that really matters to us (and optimizing for high click-through rates too).”
We asked Blackwell to reveal how he grew his email list to the size of Cleveland, Ohio’s population.
He shared, “Strategy-wise, I would say consistency.”
Blackwell explained how he’s promoted the newsletter consistently, especially on his million-follower audience on social media and other media channels.
He shared, “I always try to make sure that those newsletters are called out, they're featured on social media, they’re announced on podcasts.”
He also spends a lot of time collaborating with other creators online.
Blackwell shared, “Whether it's in live streams, whether it's guest authoring for other publications — I just feel like it's important to try to penetrate new audiences as much as possible.”
Enjoying this beehiiv case study? Here’s how Danielle Tudahl turned the LA Raver newsletter into a $100,000 business.
Moving 360,000 Subscribers From Substack to beehiiv
So, what made Blackwell eventually switch from Substack to beehiiv?
Functionality.
He shared, “Substack is still a great platform. I just feel like I didn't have all of the tools necessarily that beehiiv has (and that's what we told them as well). It’s probably a little bit easier to grow on beehiiv.”
Blackwell explained how beehiiv is easier to use when you have a few people running the newsletter.
He explained, “Most of all, beehiiv is more conducive for teams. When you grow a newsletter, there's a lot of people involved. So, probably how conducive it is for group work and for a lot of different contributors.”
Favorite beehiiv Feature: Seamless Collaboration
We asked Blackwell to share his favorite beehiiv feature, and he reiterated the importance of the collaboration features, as well as the all-in-one capabilities.
He shared, “beehiiv is a Swiss Army knife for newsletters. It’s got a lot of tools all in one place.”
Blackwell then went on to compare beehiiv to the usability of Google Docs.
He shared, “beehiiv is good for collaboration — like a Google Docs for newsletters — where it's slightly easier to collaborate than it is on other platforms. It's definitely unique, when it comes to having as many tools as possible. and it seems like it's kind of become a bit of a standard.”
Blackwell shared how the beehiiv editor has saved him time in the newsletter creation process.
He shared, “I really like the shortcuts when you're typing, whether it's putting in images, block quotes, or external links. That's been good.”
He admitted that he still is yet to tap into all the features beehiiv has to offer, especially when it comes to growth and monetization.
Blackwell shared, “There are definitely a lot more tools that I want to use more of for growth, like the Boosts, the recommendations. And the monetization opportunities — we're excited to use them more.”
You can monetize a newsletter a hundred ways.
Depending on your newsletter and your business model, beehiiv can help you tap into a variety of revenue opportunities. For Blackwell and the GRIT Capital team, it’s all about their premium newsletter and sponsored ads.
Blackwell shared, “It just comes down to paid subscribers and selling advertisements. Sometimes those advertisements are based on clicks and opens like the beehiiv Ad Network.”
How does he earn with ads?
He explained, “Most of the time what we strive for is just a flat fee. I think the more your email list grows, the higher you're able to charge flat rates for ads (or the higher the clicks are going to be). So, you can definitely see exponential growth.”
Goals for 2025: Growth & Monetization
We asked Blackwell to share GRIT’s plans for their three newsletters for 2025. He explained how he’s got his eyes on growing their free and paid subscribers.
He shared, “For the two Grit Capital newsletters, we want to drive paid subscribers. For the Rich Habits newsletter, just free subscribers, because that's more of a funnel for that podcast. Subscriber growth is the first thing, both paid and free.”
Blackwell also shared how they’re going to drive more monetization through ad sponsorships.
He remarked, “The second thing is filling up ad slots. We want to find a place where we're leaning more on beehiiv for sourcing those ad placements because it's difficult to do yourself when we're managing so many different properties.”
Blackwell’s Secret to Building a Successful Newsletter
We asked Blackwell what his secrets to building and operating a successful newsletter were. His advice is to get ready to work and be consistent.
Blackwell shared, “I would say that it takes a lot of effort. Consistency is very important. I would just say consistently try to output strong content like the Grit Capital team does, for both the Rate of Return flagship newsletter and the Grit Alpha newsletter. I think it's just extremely important to have consistency there.”
Austin Hankwitz serves as GRIT’s Head Analyst, and collaborates with Blackwell to write the newsletter. One thing he shared that stuck with me: being detail-oriented—or partnering with someone who is—can make a world of difference.
Blackwell explained, “And you need to keep structure. You have to be very detail oriented. If you're replicating the structure of a newsletter, it's very easy to forget about certain hyperlinks or certain images. You always find issues with something that you messed up during the proofreading process. So, having multiple sets of eyes on it can be important.”
Another overlooked aspect of building a successful newsletter is your community. Blackwell shared how you have to have great subscriber support, especially when it comes to responding quickly (and helpfully) to their replies.
He explained, “I also think that it's important to have good support. People are going to reply to your emails (i.e. payment issues).”
Final Advice for Aspiring Newsletter Operators
We asked Blackwell to close out the interview with some advice for anyone considering launching their own newsletter.
He says it comes down to two things:
1. Simplicity
2. Passion
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