A creator-led startup newsletter transformed from an idea thread into a high-performance business by leveraging paid growth, reader relationships, and beehiiv’s publishing stack.
How It Started
John O’Keeffe and Darragh Lucey started Half Baked with no list and no media background. Their first edition went to just six inboxes, mostly friends and family.
“We just wanted to inspire builders,” explained Lucey.
The creators’ approach was clear: skip the startup news summaries and focus on business ideas people could act on. That framing hit a nerve in the indie founder world.
Early Traction: 1,000 Subscribers From YouTube
Lucey’s existing YouTube audience helped the creators build their first list. They grew to 1,000 subscribers by combining content testing with active feedback loops.
“We sent the first few issues to friends, then tweaked everything based on their reactions,” explained O’Keeffe.
Early lessons on headline testing, idea clarity, and delivery timing shaped their future strategy, but real scale came next.
Scaling Up: Meta Ads and Omnis Unlock Paid Growth
At 3,000 subscribers, organic growth plateaued. Both founders were still working full time. They needed leverage.
“Meta ads were our best-performing growth channel,” admitted Lucey. “Ninety-nine percent of our top 1,000 paid subscribers came from Meta.”
The missing piece was funding. That came in the form of a prepaid, year-long sponsorship deal.
That loop took the newsletter from 10,000 to 100,000 subscribers in just over a year.
Audience Engagement: Metrics That Matter
Consistency drove retention. Half Baked has been sending emails for 83 consecutive weeks. That discipline fueled audience trust and strong email performance.
Recently, Lucey and O’Keeffe launched a full site redesign using beehiiv’s new website builder.
“Having an integrated builder means we don’t need to juggle extra tools or developers. It just works,” O’Keefe commented.
Key Engagement Metrics:
Open rate increased from 35 to 50 percent after the launch of Half Baked 2.0.
Click-through rate increased 4x.
50 percent of readers stay subscribed long term.
Churn rate remains well below industry average.
Reader replies per email continue to increase month over month.
“We track not just opens and clicks, but responses. That’s how we know our content resonates,” explained O’Keeffe.
Daily Office Hours: Reader Loyalty in Action
Every weekday, O’Keefe hosts live 15-minute calls with readers. Some ask for feedback. Others pitch startup ideas.
“One reader turned an idea from our Monday issue into a product by Thursday,” the creator shared.
These touchpoints fuel retention and build word-of-mouth. They also help readers launch newsletters of their own.
Why They Chose beehiiv
O’Keeffe and Lucey switched to beehiiv early after hearing Sean from Milk Road recommend it on the My First Million podcast.
“The free trial got us in. The product kept us,” admitted Lucey.
The founders cited platform simplicity, speed, and purpose-built tooling as the biggest differentiators.
Lucey continued, “The fact that beehiiv was built for newsletters was a big deal for us. Everything about our business lives inside beehiiv.”
Favorite beehiiv Features
The Editor
“It’s intuitive, clean, and never breaks. Publishing is fast.”
- John O’Keeffe
O’Keeffe spends nearly all his time in the editor and credits it as one of the key reasons he and Lucey have been able to maintain a daily publishing streak without friction.
3D Analytics
“The subscriber dashboard shows who converts, who sticks, and what’s working.”
- Darragh Lucey
Lucey leans heavily on beehiiv’s subscriber analytics to track performance, identify high lifetime value (LTV) cohorts, and inform content and growth strategy.
The Website Builder
When it came time to upgrade their web presence, the team used beehiiv’s new website builder, and they didn’t hold back on the praise.
“It’s a complete game changer. Compared to what the builder was before, this one’s just on another level,” explained O’Keeffe. “It’s fully integrated, super functional, and makes it way easier to get what you want without needing to hire developers or stitch tools together.”
O’Keeffe and Lucey even hired a designer from the beehiiv Slack community and launched the full redesign in a matter of weeks. Today, they run weekly A/B tests and monitor conversion rates, all from inside beehiiv.
O’Keeffe continued, “It’s just one less thing to worry about—and now it’s one of our growth levers.”
Their Advice for New Creators
Pick a high-leverage niche.
According to Lucey, “Your topic matters more than your execution.”
Build for the long haul.
“We committed to five years from day one. That shaped how we approached everything,” Lucey added.
Be consistent.
Publishing every day made Half Baked a habit, not a one-off.
Double down on what works.
Lucey and O’Keeffe paused referral programs when Meta outperformed. They learned where their high-LTV readers came from and invested accordingly.
Final Thoughts
Half Baked grew to 100,000 subscribers by treating their newsletter like a startup. They tested relentlessly, invested in performance channels, and leaned into what worked.
All of it was built on beehiiv.
From six inboxes to 100,000 subscribers in 13 months, Half Baked proves that newsletters can be more than a side project. They can be a launchpad for business, community, and creative freedom.
And according to O’Keeffe and Lucey, this is still just the beginning.
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