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How Mostly Metrics Grew
Finance newsletter and podcast for CFOs and startup operators
How did Mostly Metrics grow?
Summary of the sourced claims below
Mostly Metrics grew primarily through consistent newsletter growth, gaining about 1,000 net new subscribers per month and reaching over 62,000 subscribers with a mix of paid and free. The founder actively engaged on social media platforms like Twitter by commenting on relevant posts and linking back to his content, which helped acquire the first 1,000 free subscribers. Growth was also driven by guest posts for well-known brands, which improved SEO and association with larger companies. Word of mouth played a significant role, with readers sharing content through email forwards and sharing loops involving venture capitalists, analysts, and CFOs.
Channels
26 channels · grouped by how Mostly Metrics grows
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Organic social media
· 6 mentions · 6 sources“Then took he to Twitter to comment on every post that even mentioned the phrase CAC. His criteria were that it had at least 20 likes, was posted in the last week, and it made sense for him to post his content below it. ... He told Simon Owens that he did this every night for about 4 months and th...”
highShow 5 more quotes
“PS - while the Marathon Continues, some cool stuff that’s happened in the last ~3 years, all a direct result of writing online.”
high“To grow his readership during those early days, CJ became relentless. He hopped into conversations across Indie Hackers, Reddit (where he was consistently kicked out), social platforms, and anywhere he thought his audience would be.”
high“What they liked was the way that I talked about metrics and the way that I explained financial concepts in plain English, and made it fun along the way with memes and GIFs.”
high“I just listen to other podcasts. I read other newsletters. Biggest hack has been starting a podcast because I can invite people on who are smarter than myself.”
medium“please tag me on social media and let me know (Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack Notes) or reply to one of the newsletter emails. ... And tag CJ Gustafson too. I want to get more guests on like this, so if they see that there are actually engaged folks out there paying attention, that will be much ea...”
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Word of mouth
· 4 mentions · 4 sources“What I found is it's still like a word of mouth game, and with email, it's already built in that like word of mouth is just forwarding something. So the number one metric I look for is number of times something was shared, because it'll tell you how many times it was forwarded.”
highShow 3 more quotes
“CJ described a virtuous cycle of sharing loops by his readers, each contributing to subscriber growth.... Venture capitalists and investors share CJ’s posts with their portfolio companies ... Analysts and operators will forward his writing to their bosses ... CFO’s and leaders will pass CJ’s post...”
medium“Has this ever gotten to a point where you feel like the subscribers have almost become a little bit of a, like it's picked up momentum on its own in essence. It's like a snowball that's kind of rolling down a hill.”
medium“He gets network effects from these high level C-Suite execs sharing out his interview ... More listeners could mean more sponsorship dollars as his audience grows”
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Podcasting
· 4 mentions · 4 sources“The biggest hack has been starting a podcast because I can invite people on who are smarter than myself and they'll say something completely compelling. I'll use that as the headline. ... And then other times I'll take full quotes from the podcast. And it's a nice flywheel too, Jared, because I c...”
highShow 3 more quotes
“The podcast listenership tripled year on year.”
high“CJ’s podcast episodes drop on Monday and Thursday ... he listens to an episode while he walks. The goal? Come up with one idea for a post. ... now he can link back to those past articles he’s written or podcast episodes he’s published. And each piece becomes a promo for his other content, while a...”
medium“While I was in the CFO role, I continued growing Mostly Metrics and eventually expanded into podcasts.”
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Weekly newsletter
· 3 mentions · 3 sources“The newsletter growth remained consistent at about 1,000 net new subs per month (it’s hard to grow at a faster rate once you hit a certain size).”
highShow 2 more quotes
“Mostly Metrics just surpassed 50,000 subscribers...all a direct result of writing online.”
high“only about 30% of his newsletter readers were actually CFOs. The other 70% included aspiring CFOs, CEOs (15% of his audience), investors, and other business professionals who wanted to understand finance better.”
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Newsletter
· 3 mentions · 3 sources“So at 62,000 subscribers today, a mix of paid and free, and I publish three times a week.”
highShow 2 more quotes
“Mostly Metrics just surpassed 50,000 subscribers.”
high“Perfectionism vs. Throughput in Newsletter Writing”
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Guest posting
· 3 mentions · 3 sources“So he asked if he could write a guest post for a company called Brex. To his surprise, they said yes... By offering to write a guest post, CJ was making their lives so much easier... At first, he was just trying to grow the newsletter, so he did these for free as guest posts. Over time, he got a ...”
highShow 2 more quotes
“he had actually found me because I'd done a guest post for their marketing department at one point. And so like, it's a nice flywheel too, because then you can reach out to the next company ... and say, listen, I've been working with Brex. They're a great brand. They've gotten customers from me.”
high“Or another thing we can talk about too, if you want, is guest posting for companies. ... I offered to write stuff for their websites and blogs for free. ... So the next thing you know, you go to like Brex's website or Mercury's website ... and I'm on there. ... I benefit from the SEO.”
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Email List Growth
· 3 mentions · 3 sources“By giving me your yahoo or hotmail, you’ve joined +75,000 finance brainiacs who enjoy reading about net dollar retention and CAC payback periods on weekends.”
highShow 2 more quotes
“In just 4 years, he’s grown his newsletter to over 59,000 readers. ... And he makes about $500,000 a year from that newsletter.”
medium“And since then, it's just been like a steady, linear growth of between 1,500 and 2,000 new subscribers every month.”
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Guest posts
· 3 mentions · 3 sources“So it makes me look good to be associated with a big brand. And then I benefit from the SEO. And then when it comes to, this is the guest posting you were teasing earlier, right?...So at that point I probably had 5,000 subscribers or something. So it's like, okay, he has some people that will vou...”
highShow 2 more quotes
“CJ works with brands and gets paid to write guest posts for their site. The first time he got paid for this was a deal he did with Brex.”
medium“I worked with some great brands at first. And I offered to write stuff for their websites and blogs for free ... So the next thing you know, you go to like Brex's website or Mercury's website ... I'm on there. So it makes me look good to be associated with a big brand. And then I benefit from the...”
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SEO
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“He had a list of 15 finance-related terms (e.g., “net dollar retention”) that he wanted to absolutely own. By responding to comments and questions, and linking back to his writing, he gradually built an SEO flywheel that steadily drove traffic to his newsletter.”
highShow 1 more quote
“And then I benefit from the SEO.”
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Online Community
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“I was working at a fast-growing software company. I was also trying to start my own company on the side on nights and weekends with my wife who was in the tourism industry. So I've always had like an entrepreneurial streak to me, ... And I started to get nervous. People are paid for the playbook ...”
mediumShow 1 more quote
“Because then I have things to talk about. That is fascinating. That's your data report. That's the acronym you mentioned for data reports. Exactly. I also wrote down dinners. You mentioned dinners. Yeah. I'm hosting, I'm hosting 20 CFOs for dinner tomorrow night in New York City. ... And so that'...”
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LinkedIn
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“LinkedIn, but that's been more so recently. I don't think I did much on LinkedIn for the first couple of years, especially because I still had the CFO gig at the time...”
highShow 1 more quote
“LinkedIn, but that's been more so recently. I don't think I did much on LinkedIn for the first couple of years, especially because I still had the CFO gig at the time.”
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Brand collaborations and giveaways
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“CJ gets sponsors for his newsletter like a typical operator would, but often he also packages those up with guest posts. As in, the sponsors get extra content they can publish on their own site. CJ gets a backlink, more distribution, and gets paid for it. Don’t worry, I dig into this more in a bi...”
mediumShow 1 more quote
“Although he has quite a large number of paying subscribers, you might be surprised to learn that 90% of his revenue comes from his sponsorships and brand partners.”
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Memes
· 1 mention“When Memes Outperform Deep Work”
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Webinars
· 1 mention“CJ will package his newsletter sponsorships with other things like: Live webinars with the companies customers”
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Referral Program
· 1 mention“recommendations definitely helped with this and sub stack that feature, which we can talk about too, my approach to that.”
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Lead magnets
· 1 mention“But what they liked was the way that I talked about metrics and the way that I explained financial concepts in plain English, and made it fun along the way with memes and GIFs.”
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Hacker News
· 1 mention“These were my main takeaways from this episode, but you can watch the entire interview on YouTube, or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.”
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Partnerships
· 1 mention“🔄 5. Recommendations Swaps. How can you partner with bigger creators in the space? This is how CJ was able to kickstart the recommendations flywheel.”
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Content marketing
· 1 mention“he started writing – mostly for himself. Eventually, he realized others enjoyed it, too. And slowly, the newsletter took shape. Which is crazy, considering less than 3 years later, CJ Gustafson now has over 66,000 subscribers to his newsletter.”
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Personal Branding
· 1 mention“He just kept leaning into his personality quirks, and said, 'I think people started to say it’s almost like I’m hanging out with CJ.' ... It actually becomes his competitive moat because he’s not just spewing facts and figures all day; there is much more to it than that.”
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Integrations
· 1 mention“He also threw in that he would link back to their site and repost it on his site too (if you’re reading through the lines, that means he doesn’t have to recreate content for his own site that week either).”
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Original research reports
· 1 mention“Reports and Research as Growth Engines”
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Personal network
· 1 mention“Plus, I met more than 200 CFOs at the dinners I hosted this year. My network was never this strong as a sitting CFO.”
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LinkedIn Content
· 1 mention“LinkedIn Algorithms vs. Content Quality”
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Affiliate program
· 1 mention“Kit, Beehiiv, and Substack all allow you to recommendation other creators after someone signs up for your newsletter...CJ is no different. But the way he’s approached finding people to swap with is really interesting. He essentially networked his way into getting recommended by bigger creators.”
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Reddit
· 1 mention“He hopped into conversations across Indie Hackers, Reddit (where he was consistently kicked out), social platforms, and anywhere he thought his audience would be.”
high
How 3,117 businesses grow
Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each —
Mostly Metrics’s highlighted.
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Referral/Word-of-mouth66% ◀
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Social media64% ◀
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Search/SEO58% ◀
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Email48% ◀
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Community37% ◀
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Content/Inbound35% ◀
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Partnerships33% ◀
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Events25% ◀
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Paid ads24%
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Outbound/Sales19%
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Press/PR18%
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Marketplaces/App stores12%
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Podcasting4% ◀
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Building in public3%
