What's up everyone, this is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and CEO of Morning Brew.

Welcome back to Founders Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you the business builder,

the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business,

a team, or a new product. And speaking of new product, today I'm going to talk you through

the evolution of Morning Brew's paid product. It is an eight-week program that is designed to

accelerate the modern business leaders career. I am so excited for it, and it is slated to launch

in the second quarter. The whole journey of building a startup within a startup has been

fascinating, and I now want to share that journey with you. Specifically, I want you to be

acutely aware of how adopting a mindset of adaptability has been crucial in setting the product

up for success, no matter what comes in our way. Because no matter how much you plan and think

ahead, shit always happens. Challenges arise, delays occur, new information forces you to course

correct, and Morning Brew's paid product is no exception to the rule. Let's hop into this thing.

It all started on March 15th, 2020. That was the day that we decided to test remote work.

Little did we know that would be the beginning of our new normal, where that test day became

the first permanent day of working remote, and we literally have all been remote since March 15th.

And within a few weeks of that day, the entire advertising market would be in a downward spiral.

I will never forget it. It was 9pm, and I got a slack message from I believe our head of revenue

that our partner, who was advertising the next day in Morning Brew, had pulled their entire

advertisement. Just like that, $50,000 was out the window. And it really sucked, obviously it's

kind of a shit ton of money, but it wasn't the end of the world. What did feel like the end of

the world were the next 10 advertisers after this first one who followed suit and pulled their

sponsorships with Morning Brew over the following two weeks. That is when the feeling of oh shit set

...