He’s building a $50M-a-year newsletter empire. And doing it all with a team of just 20.

Today’s guest is Matt Paulson, founder of MarketBeat — a financial publishing powerhouse reaching tens of millions of investors every month across email, SMS, YouTube, and one of the largest finance websites in the U.S.

In this episode, we cover:

🔥 How Matt built MarketBeat from scratch without funding or a safety net

🔥 The traffic and acquisition strategy that fuels tens of millions of monthly visitors

🔥 How a lean, 20-person team runs a $50M/year business

🔥 The ecosystem behind email, SMS, paid traffic, and browser notifications

🔥 Matt’s vision for growth over the next 30 years — and why slow, steady wins

If you want to learn how one operator built a media machine that prints eight figures with just 20 employees, this episode is for you.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro: How Matt Paulson built a $50M/year email business

01:55 – Growing up without money and learning to hustle early

04:40 – Early online businesses and the path to MarketBeat

06:55 – The mistake of relying on Google for traffic

07:36 – Why email became the core asset

09:47 – Scaling beyond one list: email, SMS, and diversification

11:18 – Expanding into YouTube and cross-channel growth

15:13 – Tracking LTV, CAC, and paid growth decisions

17:53 – Spending $1M+/month on paid media

19:20 – How MarketBeat monetizes at scale

26:06 – Running a $50M company with just 20 people

29:51 – The biggest risks: channel dependence and deliverability

33:54 – Why chasing trends kills businesses

35:34 – Matt’s long-term vision and calm company mindset

36:47 – Work-life balance and designing the life you want

46:50 – Final thoughts & where to follow Matt