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SOIRÉE by Pepper: Adding Extra Spice to 100,000 Inboxes Every Week
Pepper App’s Journey to 100K Subscribers and 10x ROI on beehiiv Ads
Kanishka Kumawat & Brandon Storey
December 25th, 2024
Can you imagine if Gordon Ramsay gave you a shoutout?
And no, I’m not talking about being shouted at like on Hell’s Kitchen.
I’m talking about being given props for your contribution to the cooking world.
Well, if you’re Matt Schkolnick and The Pepper App team, you’ll know exactly how that feels.
A social food app that lets you easily find recipes made by home cooks like you, used by more than 1 million people worldwide.
Recently, Matt Schkolnick, the co-founder of Pepper App, launched a beehiiv newsletter, SOIRÉE by Pepper, to build the community, reach new people, and grow the brand.
Schkolnick, shared, “beehiiv has been amazing for us to engage with our community, provide value outside the app, and monetize our newsletter.”
SOIRÉE by Pepper is the newsletter built on the back of the Pepper App.
As the newsletter home page mentions, it’s dedicated to reviving the “lost art of entertaining” and making food, and the culture around it, FUN’
And, every week, co-founder Matt Schkolnick and team send out a newsletter to home cooks to spice up their inboxes and their kitchens with amazing recipes, insights, and more.
Now, let’s dive into how beehiiv helped Schkolnick and the team grow the newsletter to 100,000 engaged readers in under one year… and how they’re already getting a 5-10x ROI on beehiiv’s new Cost Per Mille (CPM) ads through the Ad Network.
Table of Contents
Pepper App Backstory
So, how exactly did Matt Schkolnick co-found the Pepper App?
Let’s dive in.
Schkolnick shared, “I am a co-founder and COO of Pepper, which is a social app and community for home cooks to organize and share recipes.”
He continued, “I created the platform because of my own passion for cooking. My desire to bring people together through food and recipes became important in my life and I wanted to bring that same feeling to people all around the world.”
While there are thousands of food blogs and social media influencers dedicated to sharing recipes online, there wasn’t really a dedicated community that included the average home cook. It was all about the influencer. That’s where Pepper came in.
Schkolnick shared, “The app came out of my own desire to have a platform that was specifically focused on sharing recipes and finding inspiration. It was about leaning into this idea of real people and real recipes. But what I really felt was missing in the market was this idea of having a place to document and share what you cooked with a community of other home cooks.”
So, why did Schkolnick start a newsletter?
The goal was to add a bit of spice to the home cooking industry.
Schkolnick shared, “Our newsletter is called SOIRÉE by Pepper. It's actually a collaboration with a friend of mine who has a company called SOIRÉE. Our newsletter is dedicated to reviving the lost art of entertaining and making food (and the culture around it) fun.”
Building a brand in 2025 is all about leveraging community. That’s one of the reasons Schkolnick started a beehiiv newsletter.
He explained, “Starting the newsletter was really just focused on continuing to engage with our community beyond just the app. I think that newsletters have such a powerful ability to remind you of what's going on in the app, but also have those other touch points where you're truly just providing value around education and entertainment and unique stories to your audience.”
Every week, Schkolnick and the team send a newsletter packed with unique stories about food and recipes to help you become a better home cook.
Schkolnick shared, “The newsletter is about educating you on different seasonal ingredients and recipes that you can bake depending on the time of year. It’s about emphasizing the role that food plays in all of our lives and how special and important it can be and hoping to inspire people through food and through cooking and through recipes.”
So far, he’s loving beehiiv.
He shared, “It’s been a really amazing experience on beehiiv. I honestly get excited to post on beehiiv because I just love interacting with the platform. It's so incredibly easy to use. I love the analytics. I think the CPM advertising model has been an absolute game changer for us.”
For newsletters with a larger audience, the CPM model in beehiiv’s Ad Network can be a streamlined revenue experience..
If you want to fortify your brand and ensure you’re staying top of mind with your audience, you need to implement multi-channel marketing. That’s another reason Schkolnick started a beehiiv newsletter.
He shared, “Using the newsletter to funnel people back into the app has been really powerful. If you just think about the customer journey, they're going to only go on the app so many times a week. But, they’ll interact with you over an email newsletter, which is really powerful, and they're reminded, ‘I remember that app. Let me go check out what's going on there.’
Schkolnick continued, “I think about the newsletter as a way to interact with our audience beyond just the app and have more opportunities to provide value and educate them.”
From Zero to 100,000 Subscribers
Growing to 1,000 subscribers is a worthy milestone.
Growing to 10,000 is something to celebrate.
Growing to 100,000 is a whole new ball game.
We had to know the secret behind SOIRÉE by Pepper’s rapid growth, especially since it was done in under one year.
Schkolnick explained it all starts with creating high-quality content.
He shared, “I think it really just all comes down to providing value to people. Our newsletter has had various iterations of the type of content that we promote. But, we're really excited about our collaboration with SOIRÉE. It's just been special to see our open rates rise and our click-through rates rise as the content has become better.”
The second major growth factor has been to promote his newsletter regularly on social media.
Schkolnick shared, “While creating a great product is super important (and that will drive in new subscribers), I do think constantly promoting the newsletter on our social media channels has been able to drive in new subscribers. Elevating the content has caused people to want to share it with others because they're enjoying it so much.”
Enjoying this beehiiv case study? Here’s how the LA Raver turned TikTok fame into a $100,000 newsletter business.
Why beehiiv?
Schkolnick started his newsletter from scratch on beehiiv. So, naturally, we were curious why he chose the newsletter platform over dozens of other options.
Schkolnick shared, “For a company like Pepper — where my main focus is on the app — to have a platform that makes sending a newsletter to 100,000 people every week easy and fun and seamless (and also gives you the ability to monetize), it has been an absolute game changer.”
He continued, “The platform is so easy to use that it makes the process of sending a newsletter enjoyable, which I never thought I'd be able to say.”
Schkolnick was never an ‘email guy’ or ‘newsletter guy.’ But, he credits beehiiv for making him love the newsletter creation process.
He shared, “Being able to see all of the analytics on our posts easily, to segment our subscribers, to A/B test different headlines, and just this entire process of creating a newsletter (and making it so simple) has meant a lot to our business. And, it's an area that we want to continue to invest in.”
Another area Schkolnick has been impressed with is with the beehiiv Ad Network.
He shared:
Fueled by the beehiiv Community
While beehiiv’s user-friendliness and ability to monetize are some of his favorite aspects of the platform, it was beehiiv’s community that originally caught his eye.
Schkolnick shared, “I think what made beehiiv stand out was just the number of people I saw on social media that were speaking so highly of the platform. There really seems to be a community around the product.”
Once he set up his beehiiv account, Schkolnick was surprised to be invited to a community of other beehiiv users called ‘the hiiv.’
He shared, “I remember we were added to the beehiiv Slack channel. I love getting tips from other people and reading the founder’s newsletter about how he's building his own newsletter — there really is this community around the product.”
Schkolnick shared, I have friends with newsletters and I’m like, ‘Oh you’re on beehiiv? I'm on beehiiv. I love using them.’ It's really just a fun product and there’s a great community around the product. The customer support is phenomenal. Whenever we have an issue, we reach out and we receive responses immediately.”
The team, the community, and the brand all enable Schkolnick to feel supported through his journey with his newsletter.
He shared:
Favorite beehiiv Features
We asked Schkolnick to fill us in on his favorite beehiiv feature, and he couldn’t pick just one.
He shared, “The features are obviously incredible. For us, I think it’s the ease of use, the intuitive design, how fun it is to interact with the platform, and also the community of other people.”
He was quick to point out how much he’s enjoying the three As:
Analytics
A/B testing
Ad Network
He shared, “The CPM advertisements are massive for us. Even just seeing the analytics on our post so easily is amazing. So, to see our open rates continue to rise and understand, ‘Hey, what’s the content that's driving that?’ The ability to A/B test different headlines I think is super powerful — to make sure that we're hitting those higher open rates.”
How SOIRÉE by Pepper Monetizes With the Ad Network
Schkolnick is monetizing the SOIRÉE by Pepper newsletter with beehiiv’s Ad Network — specifically with the new CPM deals.
Before beehiiv, Schkolnick would have to send cold DMs to brands on Instagram and LinkedIn.
He explained, “It was super time-consuming to even get one newsletter sponsorship. So, to have brands that are aligned with our newsletter around food and beverage (and adjacent worlds) be able to see our newsletter and reach out to us — and know that every single week we're going to be able to monetize the newsletter has been really amazing.”
Schkolnick doesn’t have to chase down advertisers anymore. They come to him directly within beehiiv’s platform.
He shared, “I have seven pending advertising opportunities right now. And so that's been a game changer. We're covering our costs for what we pay every month for beehiiv and then we're also making money every single month. The newsletter is now a revenue stream in and of itself.”
Generating a 5-10x ROI With beehiiv
We asked Schkolnick to share what kind of return on investment he’s gotten from beehiiv both in terms of revenue and time saved.
He shared, “It's time saved on reaching out to advertisers and that entire terrible process of sending cold DMs, exchanging messages, and being connected to the right person just to be told that the budget isn't going to work. I'm saving so much time using beehiiv because the advertisers are literally knocking on my door.”
So, how much money is his investment in beehiiv earning him?
He shared, “We're making between five and ten times what we're spending on beehiiv every single month. It’s meaningful revenue that’s distributed to our amazing writers, and then also being able to funnel that back into the business.”
Goals for 2025
So, what does the future hold for Pepper App and the SOIRÉE by Pepper newsletter?
Schkolnick shared, “In terms of the app, we launched a subscription about two months ago and so our goal is to increase the number of total new users, increase the number of paid subscribers, grow our brand on social media, and try to interact with as many home cooks as possible is always a goal.
He continued, “We want to continue to improve the product and make sure that we're delivering value for people.”
As for plans with the newsletter, the plan is to keep growing and tapping into more revenue.
Schkolnick shared, “In terms of the newsletter, I think the goal is really just increasing our reach, continuing to monetize it through these CPM ads, continuing to provide value to our readers, and growing our subscribers. We’ll keep sending our newsletter out weekly, tell interesting stories, educate, and just grow the media arm of our business.”
Advice on How You Can Succeed With a Newsletter
Schkolnick had plenty of advice to share when it comes to succeeding with a newsletter in 2025. He explained how it comes down to one thing: providing value to your readers and solving their problems. If you can do that, you’ll win.
He shared, “Building a newsletter audience is really just about providing value to your readers and delivering high-quality content. I think we live in a world where there's so much content on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook that the ability to curate and deliver high-quality information and tell unique stories is so powerful.”
Schkolnick explained how there are 3 main questions you need to ask yourself when coming up with your content strategy:
“What is your unique voice?”
“What is your unique story that you are trying to tell?”
“How are you providing value to your readers?’”
He shared, “While email is valuable real estate, there's also a lot of other emails that you're competing with. If you put yourself in the reader’s shoes, they’ll say, ‘Why would I read this piece of content? Why would I read this newsletter? How is it improving my life? How is it educating me? How is it entertaining me?’
He continued, “Delivering that content every single week is challenging. But when you're writing about topics that you love, it makes it really easy.”
We asked Schkolnick if he had any advice for someone looking to get started with their own newsletter in 2025.
He shared, “Just send that first issue. Even if you have four subscribers, ask them for some feedback on what they thought, and how you can improve, and watch it grow to 8 and 16 subscribers, etc. The power of compounding is amazing.”
Schkolnick emphasized that the number one secret for building a successful newsletter is to focus on nailing down your content.
He shared, “If you just continuously deliver high-quality content, you will see your subscribers grow because you have that organic effect of people telling their friends and their families or posting to their social media audience. No matter how many subscribers you have, just start. If you're passionate about something, start sharing your thoughts and you will find your audience.”
Schkolnick closed by sharing, “beehiiv has 100% exceeded my expectations. I never thought that a newsletter would be a meaningful part of our business and a meaningful way to interact with our community and subscribers.”
“I just genuinely get excited about sending it every week. It's really fun. It's easy to use. beehiiv is continuously coming out with new features. It just makes me want to use the platform and tell other people. And whenever I have friends that are saying, ‘Hey, I might start a newsletter,’ I literally say, ‘You have to do it on beehiiv.’”
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