Creator Spotlight: How two college students are successfully connecting Investors with the hottest new startups

About the creators

Sam and Brett are 21 and 22 year old college students who founded a newsletter called bulletpitch. The idea came about in their college dining hall when they came to realize that they both shared a passion for startups. They started their newsletter at the beginning of 2022 with the idea that there’s a gap in business media of early-stage startup coverage.

They sought out to highlight startups disrupting entire industries who may not get the press a unicorn would receive. They have the goal of bringing a Gen Z voice to the startup world, making it easy for an investor, student, founder, or anyone curious about the future of business to learn about startups shaping the next generation.

About bulletpitch

Describe your newsletter using a slogan

BP and SS: Discover startups shaping the next generation

What sparked the idea for bulletpitch?

BP and SS: We came to this realization that companies like TechCrunch have articles about starts ups but there seemed to be a gap in the market about how start ups are reported on. So companies like TechCrunch would typically only report on these companies when something significant happens. Like a founder raised more money, or it's a repeat founder of a new company etc. So we began building a thesis on where we can build something that is unique and provides value in a market we felt wasn't being reported on. Thesis 1: What about the startups doing really cool things but maybe they're not doing something super newsworthy right now and they're just building the company with their heads down?

Thesis 2: Who will read this? People in venture capital specifically investors are trying to find these cool new startups. They essentially have to talk to as many founders as possible and do a ton of homework on the companies. So the overarching idea was if we built this newsletter where we reported on these startups that ideally VC's, angel investors and anyone interested in startups can look at and extract quick value and be able to quickly identify if that startup is even interesting to them. Thesis 3: We're Gen Z, and there's a push to keep all things concise and short. Can we do this in a "TLDR way"? That's where we got the idea for bullet points. Can we cover what a start up does in a 30 second read, keeping it super concise and detailed? And so we tried and it's been a wonderful 9 months so far.

Do you guys consider yourselves to be a middle man between investor and startup?

BP and SS: Totally, when we first sent out our first bulletpitch we sent it to a few of our friends and just told them to let us know what they thought and we got some great feedback. But as we've began to ramp up, it's becoming super clear that we're 100% a connector.

What are your goals for the newsletter?

BP and SS: Our goal is to continue to grow an engaged audience and expand into alternative forms of content. Additionally just being able to connect more startups with investors and being a good resource for other students.

Where do you find the startups you guys write about?

BP and SS: Something that's unique about us is that we're actually rarely using the internet to find new startups. We realized early on that founders are typically friends with other founders and are typically more than happy to make introductions.

What are your two favorite posts? BP and SS: Tablz, a new way to reserve a table at a restaurant, and Routine, a comprehensive productivity platform to connect tasks, notes, contacts, and calendar. Editors Note: They also did a write up on beehiiv that we absolutely love which can be found here!

What makes bulletpitch unique?

BP and SS: I think what we do a great job with is writing in a way that is super digestible for even a 5 year old, along with being a medium that is so concise for the readers. We break it down based on: 1. What the company does and what problem they're solving? 2. What the company is in 1 sentence3. Followed by a fun analogy to keep the readers engaged and offer a better understanding. I think we've gotten really good at relatability and making the venture and start up space feel accessible. We also provide a monthly update on the startup to show their progress whereas other newsletters that cover startups typically just give you the initial story then it's done.

Other beehiiv newsletters or creators that inspire you guys? BP and SS:

Homescreen: They do a wonderful job with overall aesthetic

Camber: I love how the design of the newsletter matches so well with the beta app, from color scheme to font. And the images look fire.

The Blueprint: They've done a great job utilizing the content tags so I can easily sort through articles on their website.Milk Road: Their referral program is brilliantWhere is the majority of your growth coming from?

BP and SS: Getting our startups to re-share and help us promote when we write about them and a lot of word of mouth from our investors. Growth milestones that you guys are particularly proud of? BP and SS:

1. Our 3rd published newsletter, we reviewed a company called The. Com, which led to our first big cross promotion.

2. A few weeks later, the founder of a company called Camber reached out to us and were just super honored to get a write up which was also just really cool.

3. When we hit our first thousand, we were both together at an event, Brett showed me his phone and we had hit a thousand and we were both just so excited about it.

4. More recently, Entrepreneur Magazine did an article which was huge for us.

What have you found to be most impactful in scaling the newsletter?BP and SS: Cross promotion on Linkedin and Twitter with the founders and their companies. Every week we have the chance to plug into a new audience.

Who are your readers?

BP and SS: Majority are investors, we see a lot of .vc's and some angel investors as well. Also a good amount of students specifically graduates and undergraduates that are interested in business. Lately, we're also seeing recent graduates who are interested in tech and looking for a job at a startup. The shark tank reader who are primarily focused on finding the next cool app to download.

Why beehiiv?

Most used beehiiv feature?

BP and SS: We love sending polls as a way to gauge subscriber interest on the companies we cover in the newsletter. Additionally, using segmentation, we’ve been able to identify inactive subscribers and test out ways to communicate with them. What motivated the move to beehiiv?BP and SS: Three C’s: we wanted customizability (fonts, colors), creative features (referral program, polls), and community (Tyler and the team as well as other writers on the platform have been wonderful resources). We were drawn to how quickly beehiiv was innovating and how we’d be able to grow our newsletter with the platform

Advice for other writers. BP and SS:

1. Perfect it as much as you can but just hit send

2. Don't sweat the tiny details, you can't get feedback without getting it in front of an audience

3. Consistency is the only way to grow a loyal audience

4. Keep it simple, personality over perfection

Want More?

Be sure to follow bulletpitch on LinkedIn here, on Twitter here, and subscribe to their newsletter here!