Working like a $300M+ company.

For many years, I would watch American startups go from $0 to millions in just a year or two. I’d always wondered what helped them do it.

• Was it the business model?

• Could it have been some fancy technology?

• Were their people just that good?

• Did their government make it easier to start and grow?

Being in Canada, I felt stuck on the outside looking in. Unable to make sense of how it all came to be, I started studying these companies. Even then, it wasn’t obvious.

• All those entrepreneurs posting videos on YouTube weren’t sharing the whole story.

• Instagram is usually a complete lie.

• I didn’t really know anyone at these companies well enough to ask them.

But I’ve finally found my answer. In today’s post, I will share what stands out to me.

I’ve studied these companies and worked at one since we made $30k/month back in the day. It’s not everything, and I’m not an authority trying to tell you what to do.

This is the practical stuff people ask me about and everything I wish someone told me ten years ago.

But it’s a lot to read. So, if you don’t want to, the two most important things to take from this are:

• Prioritizing is everything.

• Nothing beats hard work.

• The tech, systems, and everything else follow. They’re important but come from working hard on the right things.

No gatekeeping. Let’s get into it.

Context:

beehiiv will soon be worth a billion dollars (I think we’re worth around $300 - $400M now).

Now that I’ve been writing weekly, I’ve gotten tons of replies asking about how we do it. There are two parts to this answer:

• Straightforward details like the technology we use, our ‘operating system,’ and our routines.

• More nuanced answers about our culture, which makes all of this possible.

I’ll answer both, but to be fair, I’m not a co-founder and I’m not on the leadership team at beehiiv. So, this will be very specific to my view. I’ll share links that share details about the business in a more general sense from Co-Founder & CEO.

Technology:

Here’s a quick list of the technology we use (the number one question I get). You’ve probably heard of many of these.

• Slack - we use this for all of our internal communication. I 100% prefer it over Microsoft Teams.

• Linear - it’s a task mangement tool (like Asana, or Jira). I use it personally as well.

• Ramp - manages our spending. The team can quickly create new credit cards with set limits (we have specific cards for meals, our annual offsite, events, etc).

• Hubspot - customer relationship management. Very frequently used in sales.

• Zendesk - customer service software.

• Notion - for longer, more complex docs, and managing our internal information

• Google Docs - our go-to for writing down anything that’s too long for a quick message in Slack.

Each team will then have specific software they use. Notch, for example, helps with creating proposals. We’re reviewing this becauseI get asked about it so often.

On to the details.

The Operating System:

It’s called the Entrepreneur’s Operating System (EOS).

Nearly two years ago, our Co-Founder and CEO, Tyler, asked us to read Traction, a book a framework for running your business in one. It covers everything for running a business. It’s easy to follow, straightforward, and applicable to any industry.

Tyler actually wrote an entire post in his newsletter dedicated to how we were using EOS at beehiiv back in July 2024, so check that for the details.

Here’s how it works, in Tyler’s words:

And of course, it’s normal to change things to suit your business.

Let’s get into it, briefly. Since Tyler covered this already, we’ll keep it brief.

First, we have the big 3:

• Core Values - 3 to 7 absolutely critical principles that guide everything about your company. It’s used to help you hire the ‘right’ people.

• Core Focus - the purpose and niche of the business. This is used to keep us from wasting all time on side projects.

• Marketing Strategy - the target market (ideal customers), and why you can serve them better than your competitors.

Once you land on the big 3, they turn into goals and plans.

• 10 year vision (we changed ours to 5) - the big goal you’re working backwards from.

  • At beehiiv, it’s $250M by 2028.

  • For Lumiere (my side-hustle), it’s $2M by 2028.

• 3 year roadmap - a more practical description of hitting the milestone. If the goal is $1,000,000, then:

  • How many customers do you need to serve?

  • How much will you need to spend on marketing?

  • How many employees will you need to fulfill that many orders?

• 1 year plan - breaking it down further. If the goal is $100,000

  • How many phone calls will you need to make a week?

  • How much money will you need to spend on ads, influencers, or referrals (budgets)?

  • Which people do you need to start hiring, now?

• Quarterly Rocks - The top 3-7 goals for the business in the next 90 days.

You get the idea.

There’s a big vision for the next 5 years. It turns into a plan for the next 3. That’s broken down into extreme detail for the next 12 months. Then, every 90 days you tackle the more important things you can think of to achieve the goals, and work backwards from there.

But that’s just the planning. Then what?

Implementation:

People make entire business out of helping other businesses set up and use Traction. We didn’t do that at beehiiv, but I know people who charge $6k to $12k per day to work with teams on this exact thing. It’s worth a lot if done well.

Tracking everything is key.

• Scorecard - the main metrics you’re tracking. Kept to 5 - 10. It can be a simple spreadsheet

  • Some metrics will be results (revenue, customers served, etc).

  • Others will be activities to achieve them (number of calls you make to potential customers, proposals you’ve sent out, etc).

• The Weekly Meeting - the one meeting nobody misses, to review everything related to the business.

  • Reviewing the Scorecard.

  • Identify, Discuss, Solve (IDS) any and all Issues stopping you from hitting your goals (smashing those rocks). If a number on your scorecard is off track, you have a new Issue to solve.

We’ll leave it there.

But the takeaway is actually about how straightforward it can be. This is a quick summary of a 200-page book. But here’s the thing, this system is used by companies that are (and soon will be), worth over a billion dollars.

The Weekly Success List:

This is my favourite of all the things we do at beehiiv.

Every Monday, we have an all-hands (every employee joins), and we run through a list of the week’s top priorities. Separately, every employee submits their top priority via a form.

On Friday, we review the weekly success list, and every employee’s top priority. Everyone speaks (and gets called out if they submit theirs late). It’s a fantastic way to get context on the business, and keep that scrapping, start-up vibe.

I don’t think I can share the team’s WSL, but here’s an example of the one I keep for myself.

This is a big part of EOS, but instead of having rocks every 90 days, we have them weekly. Sprint planning was done before I left for the day just saying.

That’s the practical stuff. The tech, system, and the WSL.

So, what’s the difference?

The Difference:

Earlier, I described being on the outside looking in. How we’d all slave away in our Vancouver offices trying to make millions, while watching startups across the border do it in a year or two.

So what was it?

From everything I’ve read, watched, and observed (and now lived), it comes down to priorities and culture. The tech is great, and the system is valuable, but nothing can ever replace hard-working (borderline psychopaths) grinding their faces off for 80 hours a week.

But if that’s what you’re doing, and not seeing results, I have good and bad news. It’s probably related to the leadership at your company, and ultimately, you’ll have to leave to get what you want.

This is the letter I’d write to my past self.

What I Wish Someone Told Me (a letter):

Look, you work hard, doing what’s asked of you, and more. Your contributions are valuable, the company makes money because of you, but you don’t have what you want. Why?

Blame whatever and whoever you want. Lazy teammates? Sure. Leaders who don’t get it? Sure. A weak market? Probably. But none of that matters. If you really believe you’re that good, move on. Put yourself out there, but not to companies just a little better than where you are now.

The answer is you’re not living up to your own potential (it’s cheesy but true).

Hit up the biggest companies in the world. Take the time to put your best foot forward. Write about the work you do and share that. You might think you’re not ‘ready,’ but that’s bullshit. It’s not their magic system; it’s not the tech, it’s that these companies are made up of hard-working people who have the right priorities. Thinking you don’t belong is wrong. Trying anyway is so worth it. It may not happen right away, but eventually, it will.

Aim high. The worst thing you can do is set a low bar for yourself.

You work such long hours, and for what? Make it for something more than your CEOs vacations.

No matter what anyone tells you, the biggest things that matter are working on the right things, and working as hard as you already do. But if you’re not deciding what those things are, that’s the ceiling. If someone else will set it for you, find and work with people who get it. Down the road, do it for yourself.

Think you don’t belong? Trust me, sending CEOs cold emails works. Working insanely hard, and keeping your priorities is everything.

Wrapping Up:

This post was longer than usual, but you made it. Thanks for reading!

A special shout out to this week’s sponsor, Podpitch. If you’re looking to put yourself out there, their platform helps you instantly find, connect, and appear on podcasts all over the world.

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