By Taylor Cromwell 

It’s no secret that Swifties (Taylor Swift fans, if you’ve been living under a rock) are a powerful force to be reckoned with. 

Krista Doyle knows this more than most. For seven years, she co-hosted the Holy Swift podcast. She later realized the community was missing a newsletter dedicated to them. And thus, Taypedia was born. 

But Doyle didn’t stop there. Less than two years later, she funneled the growth of her beehiiv newsletter into a new startup, called Chalant: a social media network for pop culture fans. 

Her story is proof of what’s possible when you turn what you love into a business — and shows the power of what you can build through beehiiv. 

Here’s how she did it. 

Krista didn't start as a newsletter person. As a podcast host, she dove deep into how Swift built and maintained her massive fandom. "By the end, we had spent so much time learning about how she uses it for marketing and community building. It was just such a fascinating world to be in," she told me.

When the podcast ended in 2022, right before the Eras Tour exploded, Doyle realized she missed that connection to the Swiftie community. She also noticed something: plenty of Taylor Swift podcasts existed, but there were almost no newsletters or publications specifically for fans.

"I decided to take it into writing and target that community," she said.

That became Taypedia, her first real newsletter. 

The learning curve was steep in the early days. "I had never run a full-on newsletter before. I had to learn what is a good open rate, what are realistic growth benchmarks, and how do you get subscribers without SEO."

One of the biggest growth levers for the newsletter was leveraging giveaways through the newsletters. By organizing giveaways like Eras floor seat tickets and Taylor Swift merch, Doyle was able to 10x the newsletter audience in just a few months. 

After seeing the growth of the newsletter and its flourishing community, Krista started seeing bigger possibilities. 

She was considering expanding into a family of newsletters when her future co-founder, Bekah June, reached out on LinkedIn. "She had been seeing and following what I was doing with Taypedia. She was like, 'Hey, I see what you've been doing. I've had similar ideas — would you be open to meeting?'"

June had been thinking about a social media network for pop culture fans, while Doyle had been learning distribution and community building through Taypedia. "We met and started talking. I told her everything I had been learning with Taypedia and ideas that I had. She told me her side of things, and we just kind of were like, let's start something new."

From that conversation, Chalant was born — a social platform for music and pop culture communities that went way beyond a single newsletter.

Doyle chose beehiiv for building Taypedia for three main reasons that matter to anyone starting out.

First, the team.

Second, the economics made sense. "Being able to start for free and having access to the suite of features I did was really helpful. Plus, getting access to the ad network for a decent price — it was so much value compared to the alternatives." She could test her idea without upfront costs, then monetize when ready.

Third, beehiiv felt built for business, not just content. While Mailchimp "seemed very antiquated," beehiiv had everything she'd need to scale.

When Doyle and June started building Chalant, beehiiv became the infrastructure for everything. They created a separate Chalant publication for the waitlist while using Taypedia's audience as their first alpha testers.

"We went to my Taypedia list and were like, “'Hey, the founder of Taypedia is getting ready to launch this new thing. We want to get it into your hands first as loyal readers,’” Doyle said. 

This launch email had several purposes: they built up a waitlist of more than 300 people eager to learn more, and they found people who wanted to invest in building it.

Because she had spent so much time and effort building a curated, thoughtful community, they were eager to follow her next move. 

Another really smart move is that Doyle used this small group as beta testers for the app. 

The results were immediate. Taypedia became "a steady source of user acquisition" as they moved through testing and launch. beehiiv handled both the product development pipeline and the editorial brand that fans trusted.

Key growth metrics:

As Krista and her co-founder shaped Chalant, beehiiv became the backbone for running both sides of their business. Each newsletter serves a specific purpose.

"We think of Taypedia as part of Chalant's IP," Krista explained. "Swifties are our biggest user base right now, so we want to be intentional with how we engage with them and serve them as an audience."

Taypedia stays content-focused with minimal product promotion. It's the editorial hub that keeps fans loyal and engaged. Meanwhile, the Chalant newsletter handles all the startup mechanics: user onboarding, feature announcements, and converting subscribers into app users.

"With Chalant, we use it for user enablement, for product features and stuff like that, but then also user engagement to feed the rest of our audiences with content they might be interested in."

Both newsletters run through beehiiv's editor, but they operate as completely different engines:

This dual approach shows how beehiiv can scale with your needs, whether you're building an engaged community or running the marketing operations of a growing startup. Krista didn't have to switch platforms or manage multiple tools as her vision expanded from newsletter to company.

Doyle says there are two principles that made Taypedia work — and carried over into building Chalant.

When readers trust you as a person, they're more likely to follow you into new projects. Doyle’s Taypedia audience didn't just subscribe to Swift content; they trusted her judgment enough to alpha test a completely different product.

Consistency isn't just about publishing schedules. It's about showing up for your community in the same way, every time. That reliability becomes the foundation for everything else you want to build.

Krista's bigger insight is about the current social media landscape. "People are looking for that home. The broader social landscape is so broken and so different than what it used to be. People are starting to branch out into these smaller, more niche communities where they can actually be social again."

This is why beehiiv works so well for building businesses. 

A newsletter isn't just a weekly email update. It's one of the most direct ways to find your people, speak to them regularly, and build something bigger than content.

That's what Krista's story makes clear. She didn't build Taypedia as just a fan project; she created a direct line to a community that trusted her voice. When she was ready to launch something new, that trust became her biggest asset.

I've seen this pattern with other creators too, like Catskill Crew and Generalist World. They start with a newsletter about something they're genuinely obsessed with, build real relationships with readers, then use that foundation to launch products, services, or entire companies.

beehiiv makes this possible because it's built for growth. You get the tools to publish consistently, track what's working, and convert readers into customers, all in one platform. It can be so much more than just email software. It's the infrastructure for turning an idea into a business.

If you have a niche you care about, something you could talk about for hours, that should be your starting point as a creator. A newsletter is the fastest way to turn that passion into something real.

For Krista, it was Swifties. For you, it might be something completely different. But the playbook is the same: find a community that needs better content, serve them consistently on beehiiv, and see where it leads.

The question isn't whether you can build a business from a newsletter. Doyle proved that's possible. The question is: what's the thing you can't stop talking about? And what would happen if you built around it?

Try beehiiv’s free trial today to find out.