Morning Brew

Executive Chairman

Alex Lieberman, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew, gives you an insider’s look into building businesses. Alex explores the founder’s journey, from the painful challenges of 0-to-1 to the powerful frameworks that help you scale to millions in revenue as well as the emotional rollercoaster that is present throughout.

Host of Founder's Journal

Morning Brew is a new media company bringing you informative and digestible business news. We educate 2,200,000 readers on the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, daily.

Let us occupy a little space in your inbox every morning.

MicroAcquire

Investor

Bark Social

SoleSavy

Something Navy

The PepTalk Co.

Advisor

April Labs

Building technology to automate home rentals

Morgan Stanley

Traded number of agency mortgage products: conventional pass-throughs, specified pools and agency CMBS

Licenses: Series 7 and Series 63

Agency MBS Trader

Summer Analyst in Securitized Products and Municipal Bond Trading

FID Sales and Trading: Summer Analyst

Consider Magazine

A point/counter-point publication

www.consideronline.org

Executive Creative Director

I was thrown into a time machine this morning & it was fucking awesome. 

It started with a perfectly average commute to Morning Brew HQ. 

I got on the PATH from NJ (best state in america) &  secured prime train car real estate. 

Cracked open a book and started reading. 

About 5 minutes into the ride, I look over to the guy sitting next to me. 

Mainly because he was encroaching on the unspoken boundary between seats. But also because I'm always fascinated how people pass the time. 

And what do you know, this 30-something is slowly scrolling through Morning Brew as he blasts Coldplay (no judgement) in the background. 

It feels insignificant, but that moment catapulted me back to 2016. 

I was in my first, full-time job at Morgan Stanley, working 12hrs at the trading desk & finishing my day with 4hrs on the Brew until I fell asleep with my laptop on my lap. 

At this point we had 10,000 subscribers, no business model, and our most passionate reader was my grandma (h/t Nana). 

There was a moment—just like this morning's PATH ride—that changed everything. 

I was standing on the NQR as I commuted from my 5-bedroom apt on 26th & 3rd to my office in Times Square. 

The subway was packed & I stood in front of seated riders, watching as they busied themselves. 

One was playing Candy Crush. 
Another was texting a NOVEL to a friend. 

But then I looked down at the guy in front of me & there was a moment of magic. 

He was scrolling through....Morning Brew. 

My heart skipped a beat. It was the first time ever that I saw a stranger using our product. 

I can't quite describe the feeling, but here's what I can say. 

That moment quite literally changed my perception of what Morning Brew could be and the impact we could have. 

So to relive that moment 7 years later was not only special...

It reaffirmed the joy of solving hard problems & watching your customers live better lives because of what you've built.

Nothing quite like it.

Alex Lieberman

Contractor-to-full-time should be the default way that companies hire.

Employee gets to see if they’ll enjoy the work and the people. 

Company decreases odds of mishiring, saving a shit ton of time & $.

Building a business is really fucking hard.

It’s a constant test of separating your emotions from your actions.

It’s a constant reminder there’s so little you can control, but what you can control is all you should focus on. 

It’s a constant tug-and-pull between ambition and focus. 

It’s a constant search for the true source or your issues vs. the byproduct of your issues. 

It’s a constant psychological whiplash between “holy shit we’re taking over the world” to “holy shit we’re fucked.”

It’s a constant reminder of how little you know which is both empowering and anxiety-provoking.

I want to start a daily newsletter dedicated to the beauty of humanity.

It’s all around us, but hard to see right now.

The format is tbd, but what I’m thinking:

1 piece of beauty: a vid, pic, story displaying humans doing something beautiful for other humans

And 1 piece of brilliance: a vid, pic, story displaying an incredible human accomplishment 

The goal of the newsletter is simple: leave you with greater belief in humanity than before you read it

What do you think?

I love this definition of product-market fit.

1. Ask your customers this question: “How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?”
2. Give them 3 options: very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, not disappointed
3. >40% very disappointed = PMF / <40% = go deeper


People are so grateful when you reject them. 

There's nothing worse than applying for a role, making it far in the process, and then never hearing back. 

It obv sucks to not get hired. 
But it sucks even more to not know where you stand. 

I'm not perfect, but I try my best to give people closure when I'm hiring. 

Can my board screw me like they screwed Sam?

This is the question living rent-free in every VC-backed founders' head right now. 

I found an all-time guest to answer this question.

Brett Adcock has raised $1 billion & built 4 boards, while building Figure, Archer, and Vettery. 

On this episode of Founder's Journal, Brett talks about the 4 pillars every founder needs to think about: 

1) Board Seats
2) Shareholder Voting
3) Preferred Rights
4) Stock Grants

Take a listen to the full epi below 👇 

What’s ONE book that you’d gift to any entrepreneur?

Reply below👇

First-time CEO: I must own hiring, strategy, and culture to be successful in my role.

Second-time CEO: I own what gives me energy & delegate everything else.

thx for the format Dan Siroker :)

First time founder: speaks 90%, listens 10%
- Goal of conversations is to feel smart & impress so you feel valued. 

Second-time founder: speaks 10%, listens 90%
- Goal of conversations is to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. 

The rise of the Full-Stack Creator.

Thousands of knowledge workers will become multi-sku creators in the next 12 months. 

Their product menu will be some combo of the following:

Rented Audience:
- Text: X, LinkedIn, Blog
- Multimedia: IG, TikTok, YouTube

Owned Audience:
- Email, Podcast, Community

Monetized Audience:
- Consulting/Coaching
- Courses (async, sync)
- Digital Products (ebooks, tools, templates) 
- Community (digital, IRL, education, programming)
- Digital businesses (niche agency, vertical SaaS, job marketplace)
- Physical businesses (audience-centric commerce, merch, physical retail)

Cofounder @ Morning Brew / Host @ Founder's Journal

New high: cocktail named after your company

Funny thing about beehiiv. 

It's my best angel investment, and it's the one I diligenced the least.

I watched Tyler Denk 🐝 operate like a founder for 3 years at Morning Brew & I'd bet on him no matter what he builds.

Looking for founders to pitch their startups on 60 Second Startup!!

What is it: social series where you pitch me your startup in 60 seconds & I rate the pitch

What's in it for founders: top performers rake in 500k-1mm views & lead to crazy opps (investor convos, sales spike, partnerships)

What i'm looking for: 
- Founders with a vibe
- Unique/cool product
- Crazy/interesting story
- Open to pitching in NYC

Apply below 👇 

Many early-stage CEOs are bad late-stage CEOs.

Many early-stage COOs are great late-stage CEOs.

Don't create a long-form interview podcast right now. 

That's the advice i'm giving most content creators. 

Not because there isn't room for more, but because the room is crowded as hell, which means your content needs to be a 12/10 to stand a chance. 

And btw, I'm taking my own advice. 

My entrepreneurship pod, Founder's Journal, is <30 minutes & focuses on 2 under-the-radar formats: 

1) Off-the-dome monologues that feel like my personal diary

2) Celeb shots, where I interview guests about ONE specific challenge/question entrepreneurs face

Tldr: Format innovation is a huge opportunity for up-and-coming creators.

My bud Michael Girdley has built a massive holdco.

12 businesses, $100m.

And he has a framework for finding businesses ideas I had never heard of.

It's called Effectuation & it has 5 core principles:

1) Bird-in-hand: business ideas start with your means—what you know, who you know, who you are

2) Affordable Loss: estimated downside > expected return

3) Crazy Quilt: obsess over partnerships vs. competitors

4) Lemonade: treat inevitable surprises as gifts vs. annoyances

5) Pilot-in-the-plane: focus on what you can control, stop trying to predict

Listen to our 24-minute Founder's Journal epi to help you find your next big business idea 👇 

2 timeless reminders from the OpenAI saga:

1) Transparency is a superpower

When you’re transparent, you own the narrative. When you’re not, everyone else creates their own narrative. 

OpenAI’s board let everyone else determine the story.

2) Trust & reputation creates unbelievable leverage 

Hundreds of ❤️’s from employees.

Dozens of anecdotes from founders about Sam Altman. 

The technology business is still the people business and your leverage is determined about how many people will take your side.

My exec personal branding biz storyarb is hiring!

We're looking for more great PT writers (4-20hrs/wk) to add to our killer editorial bench.

What we're looking for:
- Know how to write great hooks
- Know how to make sentences dance
- Know how to write content with specificity (using clients' stories/opinions/experiences)
- Know how to match a client's desired voice

Info about the role:
- Paired with 1-5 clients
- Up to $60,000/yr in PT income
- Combo of short & long posts on X & Linkedin
- Responsibilities include post drafting, post-feedback refining, and some post-research

Link to the app below 👇

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