Adam Ryan is the co-founder and CEO of Workweek, a B2B media company built on creator-led newsletters and verified professional communities across HR, healthcare, marketing, ecommerce, and fintech.

In this episode, Adam and Jacob trace how Workweek's thinking has evolved since 2022, why its communities blew past their target to more than 200,000 verified members, and the Partner Platform Workweek built to prove newsletter ad performance by pushing verified, account-level clicks into advertisers' CRMs. They also cover why Adam cut the creator roster from 18 to six, how revenue actually breaks down across newsletters and events, the inventory ceiling holding growth back, why the company isn't profitable yet by choice, and where he wants to take the business next.

Become an AMO Pro member: https://www.amediaoperator.com

Chapters

0:00 — Intro

1:25 — The Experience Paradox and how Workweek has evolved since 2022

5:20 — Why Disney is the North Star (and the mistake Adam made copying it)

10:16 — Workweek's durable asset: first-party data and identity

14:04 — Communities blow past projections to 200K+ verified members

26:10 — Cutting the creator roster from 18 to six

33:13 — The ad business and why CPMs keep climbing

37:53 — Inside the Partner Platform: verified clicks and CRM attribution

41:53 — Why lead gen was never about intent

49:32 — Keeping data fresh, and how the communities and events work

1:05:31 — Revenue, the inventory problem, and growth levers

1:12:10 — Profitability, scale, and how big Workweek can get

1:17:23 — The biggest risks and the two closing questions