In venture capital (VC), everything happens in the inbox. Deals, intros, limited partner (LP) updates — it’s where relationships are built and bets get made, so it’s no surprise that newsletters are becoming one of the most powerful tools in a VC’s arsenal.

What’s driving this growth? 

I asked Laurie Owen, founder of Refinery Media and the Refining VC newsletter and one of the go-to operators helping VCs turn content into capital. 

Owen’s answer: “Attention is the new oil. If you’re not showing up in the inbox, you’re missing the easiest way to stay top of mind with founders, LPs, and everyone in between.”

This piece is a deep dive into that idea — from the rise of personal VC newsletters to firm-wide content strategies. 

Whether you’re building a fund, scouting deals, or trying to stay relevant in a noisy ecosystem, newsletters are the new front door, and beehiiv makes it easier than ever to get started. 

In many ways, VC newsletters aren’t a new idea. 

Andreessen Horowitz has famously used its blog and newsletter as a megaphone since the early 2010s, publishing thought leadership that defined trends like “Why Software is Eating the World.” 

First Round Capital’s Review was another early standout — pairing editorial depth with community-building at scale.

I have seen a distinct rise in both quantity and quality of VC newsletters in the past few years, and it makes sense that many, including large publications like Confluence Weekly, are building on beehiiv. 

Owen, the founder of Refinery Media, helped me understand this rise. As a content agency for VC funds, he helps clients with their beehiiv newsletters and runs his own newsletter on the platform.   

According to Owen, newsletters are a natural extension of the way VCs do business. “You're in your inbox all day. Deals happen in the inbox. Co-investments happen in the inbox. Any relationships are inbox-driven,” he says. “A newsletter is such a natural touch point to reach investors — it’s a layup.”

One of the most valuable assets that any firm or investor has is their network. “It’s the lifeblood of the fund,” Owen explains. That includes people who have come to their events, people who they've met and added into like their customer relationship management (CRM), people that have filled in the forms on the website, etc. 

The problem is that many VC funds aren’t using their CRM to its full potential, and a simple ‘subscribe to our newsletter’ widget on the company page simply doesn’t cut it anymore. 

Not all VC newsletters are created equal. Just as every fund has a unique thesis and approach to sourcing, each newsletter serves a distinct purpose — and audience.

However, after speaking to experts like Owens and learning from standout brands like The Hustle Fund, I’ve found four types of staple newsletters.

These newsletters are often the most traditional — and still among the most underutilized. Too many funds still treat LP communication as a compliance exercise, Owens tells me. 

This is where a well-crafted, narrative-driven update can be powerful. 

Take Silicon Roundabout Ventures, for example, which invests in Deep Tech. The team shares redacted versions of its LP updates publicly — creating transparency, building credibility, and signaling confidence in their portfolio’s progress.

Portfolio newsletters are where great platform teams shine. Think of these as the connective tissue between your firm and your companies — a way to ensure that every founder, regardless of how often you meet, feels supported and informed.

Hustle Fund nails this with their newsletter strategy. It reinforces their brand of tactical, founder-first VC and ensures that no portfolio founder ever feels left behind.

These are the most flexible and often the most influential. A single partner can shape how the market perceives a fund — or launch one from scratch — simply by sharing consistent insights.

Erica Wenger’s viral essay “Elephants, Not Unicorns” helped define her thesis on storytelling-led founders and distribution-first growth, and she still sends that essay to LPs before every meeting.

Others, like Harry Stebbings or Tom Tunguz, have built media flywheels that fuel multiple funds and ventures, and solo general practitioners (GPs) like Clay Norris of Confluence have raised capital directly off the back of their newsletters.

These newsletters are often the most visible and the ones that blur the line between content and media. They’re less about internal updates and more about being known for a category, a market, or a point of view (POV).

Refining VC by Laurie Owens, for example, explores the intersection of content, brand, and capital — and attracts other funds who want to work with him. 

VC Demystified by Nicole DeTomasso breaks down how to get into venture, reaching thousands of early-career professionals, and Athletes & Assets turns its newsletter into a dealflow engine, matching startup founders with athlete investors.

So why should a VC start a newsletter? 

Based on my conversations with operators and fund managers across the ecosystem, there are four core motivations — each with its own format, tone, and outcome.

Writing consistently can act like a ‘bat signal,’ writes Packy McCormick, founder of Not Boring, attracting founders aligned with a fund’s thesis. 

“Writing about the things I’m most excited about… means seeing more companies, and it also means I’m prepared when I do,” McCormick notes. 

McCormick’s newsletter, focusing on web3, fintech, and future of work, generates strong inbound deal flow, allowing his small fund to compete for high-quality investments despite limited allocations.

Not Boring has become one of the best top-of-funnel engines in venture.

Distribution is a powerful signal for LPs. Rex Woodbury’s Digital Native newsletter grew to 50,000+ subscribers through bi-weekly, data-driven content, paving the way for raising Daybreak Ventures.

“Digital Native has been important for helping my companies unlock distribution in the past,” Woodbury writes.

“This community of 50,000+ is a key source of early customers and early hires; it’s helped many of my companies find their first brands, their first engineers, their first pilot users. I expect media and content to continue to be core to the DNA of Daybreak, today with Digital Native and down the road with new channels we’ll launch,” continues Woodbury.

Similarly, Clay Norris’s Confluence leveraged daily VC industry updates on beehiiv to build a media business, culminating in a fund launch in late 2024. 

These examples show how newsletters can demonstrate a VC’s reach and influence, making them more attractive to LPs.

Harry Stebbings, founder of 20VC, agrees, quoting a tweet from Jack Butcher, “If you can build distribution, then you can build whatever you want.” 

Instead of writing for deal flow or LPs directly, some funds write to document their thinking and differentiate themselves in the market. These are the partners who treat content like a public ledger — a place to refine and share conviction over time.

This approach is particularly powerful for emerging managers or solo GPs. 

Writing essays, sharing investment memos, or highlighting niche insights allows others to connect with you — founders who resonate will want to reach out, and LPs can see how you think long before the pitch deck arrives.

Erica Wenger explains that this is her primary goal of writing a newsletter:  to draw in founders and investors who prioritize distribution, storytelling, and community over purely technical products.

For Wenger, writing is about documenting philosophy and aligning with the right people before the call even happens.

“So much of this business is having the right ideas at the right time. I wanted to be able to prove that — to show that I was calling this ‘elephant’ thing before it became mainstream,” Wenger explains.

“I send my blog to every LP and founder before we meet. If it resonates, great. If not — then we’re probably not the right fit.”

Newsletters create “ambient trust,” keeping VCs relevant in a crowded ecosystem. A personal newsletter, as highlighted by ADMNT, can be particularly effective. 

One VC, pseudonymized as “John,” sends a simple newsletter with family updates, reading recommendations, and brief reflections. This lightweight approach reminds recipients of his presence without overwhelming them, increasing the likelihood of deal referrals. 

For solo GPs or VCs with active social media followings (e.g., Wenger’s 60,000 followers), newsletters anchor deeper engagement, inviting others into their world.

Drawing from Owens, Wenger, and other industry leaders, here’s a practical guide to launching a successful VC newsletter:

Before you touch an email template or outline your first issue, get clear on why you’re writing.

Ask yourself these questions:

Pro tip: You can have more than one purpose, but you can’t write to everyone at once. Pick a primary goal and let that drive your voice, frequency, and format.

The best VC newsletters make you think: “I know exactly what this person believes in — and who they back.”

Examples:

If your thesis is evolving, write your way into it, as McCormick did with his newsletter. 

While Substack is user-friendly, beehiiv offers advanced features for VC.

If you care about long-term branding, community, monetization, and scale — beehiiv gives you a ton more control:

As Owens explains, it can serve almost as a second CRM. “beehiiv has a great ability to tag subscribers like a CRM.”

The automations have also been really valuable for Owens’s clients. With FOV Ventures, for example, they use landing pages for the two different demo days a year, and from there that helps them segment and automate future comms to these groups. 

The ease of using advanced growth features is why so many investor-led publications — from solo operators to funds like Hustle Fund and Park Rangers Capital — are using beehiiv as their home base.

I generally find that the best newsletters find their niche somewhere on the spectrum of long-form editorial, which can be less frequent; and fast-paced trend-leading updates, which are, naturally, more frequent.

Both can be incredibly influential. 

Here are some common formats that work:

Wenger, for example, explicitly wanted to choose quality over quantity when it came to the Park Rangers Capital newsletter. 

“I don’t view it as a newsletter I have to send weekly… I want people to pay close attention when I do share something,” Wenger remarks. Her posts, published every 4–12 weeks, stand out in crowded inboxes.

Once you’ve written something worth reading — don’t bury it.

beehiiv helps you easily grow through tools like referrals, growth analytics, automations and more. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to investor newsletters, but that’s what is so exciting to me about the moment we’re in right now. You can truly take your own unique spin on building something. 

Here are five standout examples of VCs and operators building on beehiiv:

Park Rangers Capital is a smart, sparingly-published newsletter focused on thesis-driven thought leadership.

Wenger uses her platform to share sharp, sometimes contrarian takes on what types of founders and companies she’s backing — often emphasizing storytelling, community, and distribution.

True to her thesis, Wenger is building an avid following across social platforms and funneling this attention into a subscriber base. 

Confluence VC Weekly is a daily, pulse-on-the-industry newsletter for VCs and operators.

What started as a niche Slack community turned into a widely-read media business, with Norris using beehiiv to scale distribution and eventually launch a fund.

Norris’s newsletter offers deal memos, trend breakdowns, job boards, and funding updates — giving readers a high-signal snapshot of the early-stage ecosystem.

Athletes & Assets is a platform founded by Noah Lack that lists rising early stage companies offering investment and equity earning opportunities for athletes. 

The platform works with athletes, family offices, agents, and investment funds to provide them the best deal flow possible before they become too competitive. 

Athletes & Assets is a great example of niche community building and a non-traditional use of beehiiv in venture.

VC Demystified, founded by Nicole DeTomasso, is a tactical, career-focused newsletter for early-stage VCs and those looking to break in.

DeTomasso shares lessons from her own experience navigating the industry, including insights on platform roles, recruiting, and fund operations.

The newsletter is personal and generous, making it a go-to resource for younger VCs and aspiring operators.

FOV Ventures runs a newsletter called Viewpoints to explore the next era of computing. It’s a great example of how to run thought leadership as a fund as well as how to give portfolio updates, such as “Why We Invested in Spogen.ai.”

Viewpoints shares macro trend deep dives and founder interviews — all with the goal of attracting founders in this space.

Newsletters offer VCs a rare edge: permission to show up consistently in the inboxes of LPs, founders, and future collaborators.

Whether you’re a solo GP or a multi-partner fund, you should think of your newsletter as a compounding asset (not a marketing task to simply check off the list!). 

Your newsletter builds a narrative. It signals conviction. It establishes you as a thought leader in your space. 

If you want to build on beehiiv, the possibilities are endless. 

With beehiiv, you can create an industry-leading publication that attracts both founders and investment, and the built in tools — from custom branding to the Boosts program — make it easier than ever to grow.

Get started today with beehiiv for free.