How I Grew A Media Network To 250k+ Readers With Zero Ad Spend
Who are you and what business did you start?
Hi, I’m Arnault, I’m a French entrepreneur, and during almost 4 years I ran Brainstorm Media, a network of newsletters and Instagram accounts about business, the economy and tech.
Initially, I just wanted to write online. I love to write, to read, to learn new stuff, and to understand how businesses grow. So I launched a newsletter on entrepreneurship, inspired by Starter Story (yes, really). Long story short, I reached 1,000 subscribers by spamming all my friends, colleagues and my LinkedIn network. Then a brand paid me 100€ for a sponsored article. At the same time, case studies on Morning Brew and Milk Road were popping everywhere online. I realised that newsletters could be a real business and nobody was doing it in France, so I went all in !
I quit my job, I launched a second newsletter on personal finance, then a third on crypto. In France, selling sponsorship for newsletters was hard so, I started to buy small media on Instagram, it was easier to sell content on this format.
At the top I had 5 brands and made €20,000/month, mostly with sponsorships with big French brands like Peugeot, and in 2025 Brainstorm Media was acquired.
How do you come up with the idea for brainstormmedia.org?
Before Brainstorm Media, I was working at a startup, but also launching side businesses, like helping content creators to monetize their audience. I helped them find sponsors and sell product to their community. And I realized that newsletters were the most powerful channel to build trust and to sell things.
Then I started to build my own newsletter. Newsletters are the perfect channel for an introvert who love to write. And also the only channel were your community belongs to you and not to an algorithm.
I decided to go all in when I got paid for my first sponsorship. But the real aha moment was when I saw how much US newsletters were making for one sponsored post. At this time, in France, newsletters were not a business. Nobody was making money with them. Almost nobody was on Substack. In the US, I was following Morning Brew, The Hustle, Milk Road. I wanted to do the same on the French market.
The model was proven, and the French market was empty.
How did you build the initial version of brainstormmedia.org?
Brainstorm Media's first product was a French newsletter on entrepreneurship, inspired by Starter Story, which Arnault wrote himself and published on Substack. He then built a personal finance newsletter and a crypto newsletter the same way, and later bought small Instagram accounts about business, tech, and finance to add to the network. The sources don't name any other tools or tech stack, don't give a timeline for the first edition, and describe no prototype or testing process, so those details aren't available here.
How did you launch brainstormmedia.org and get initial traction?
For the first newsletter, I just spammed everyone I knew. Colleagues, friends, and my LinkedIn network. I think that I sent 50 messages per day for month on Linkedin, I got striked several times.
It took me 3 months to make my first 100€. One of my subscribers replied to one of my emails and asked for a sponsored article. After that, I made a list of every brand sponsoring business and finance creators and other newsletters like mine. I contacted all of them on Linkedin and email. Again, I confess, I spammed them.
A lesson I learn is : nobody is going to save you and your business, if you need an answer, email, linkedin message, twitter, call. If they close the door, come back through the window.
What was the growth strategy for brainstormmedia.org and how did you scale?
For the second newsletter, I promoted it in the first newsletter. But the real growth came from 2 things :
- Substack recommendations feature.
When a writer recommends you, their new subscribers see your newsletter when they sign up. So I contacted every French Substack writer. I recommend you, you recommend me. It literally made my company. I got tens of thousands of subscribers from this feature alone, for free.
- Affiliate deals with Instagram influencers.
I had no budget to pay them, so I proposed a deal: they share a lead magnet in their stories, and I give them a part of my sponsorship money. They had the audience but didn’t monetize it well (it is not as easy as you may think to make money every month for an influencer with 100k followers). For them it was easy money. For me, it was new subscribers with zero upfront cost.
Then, I started to scale my audience by buying small media. I understood that Instagram was easier to sell to sponsors than newsletters, and also the best machine to feed the newsletters. So I started to buy small business, tech and finance media and grow them.
Why did it work ? Because I never paid for attention upfront. I always found people who already had an audience, and I gave them a good reason to share it with me.
My advice: if you have no budget, don’t start with ads. Look at who already talks to your future readers, and find a deal where both of you win.
What were the biggest lessons learned from building brainstormmedia.org?
If I have to say one thing, it’s this: start building, go out there. When I started to write online, I had no master plan, I just wanted to share my analysis and see what happens. And it made me meet a lot of people: readers, writers, creators and most of the good things in my business came from these meetings. Luck comes to you when you are in the game, not when you wait at home.
Typically, I had a lot of luck on timing : when I arrived on Substack, almost nobody in France was using the platform, and the recommendation feature just launched.
My biggest mistake was to depend only on sponsorships, and never launch my own product. If I could do it again, I would create a product, or I would make a deal with an entrepreneur to build it with me. Even if you make content, you need something to sell, and you need to be proud of what you sell.
Before, I launched businesses by copying American startups, without any real advantage. With newsletters it was different, because I already knew how to monetize an audience and I was passionate. What is your advantage in your market ?
I also read a lot, every day, books, newsletters, case studies. Honestly, most of my best ideas come from what I read.
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More about brainstormmedia.org:
Who is the owner of brainstormmedia.org?
Arnault Cruiziat is the founder of brainstormmedia.org.
When did Arnault Cruiziat start brainstormmedia.org?
2022
How much money has Arnault Cruiziat made from brainstormmedia.org?
Arnault Cruiziat started the business in 2022, and currently makes an average of $240K/year.
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