How I built a 1M+ subscriber newsletter and top 10 tech podcast | Lenny Rachitsky
In a Nutshell
Lenny Rachitsky built a 1.2M-subscriber newsletter and top-10 tech podcast by following personal "pulls," sharing practitioner wisdom through guest posts, and embracing a high-output treadmill despite stresses like fraud and family health scares. Key to success: Venn diagram of enjoying it, being good at it, and audience love; tools like meditation, psychedelics, and optimism courses manage baseline happiness. Wife Michelle Rial reveals her viral charts process—simplify ideas from lived experiences under optimal conditions (single-shot coffee, deadlines)—and promotes her upcoming children's book *Charts for Babies*, launching April 7th.
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Sat on a rock on a substance during a bachelor party trip to Joshua Tree while starting the newsletter. Experienced deep breathing and phrase "I have wisdom to share" repeating for 3 hours with visualization of sitting Buddha. Gave confidence to share wisdom.
What do you want to say to our mothers right now? Do you want to take this back?
Started newsletter in 2019, now has 1.2 million subscribers.
Best stuff comes from actual experience. Source of best advice is from practitioners. Most posts now are guest posts sharing best things learned in careers.
If you hadn't started that newsletter? On the struggle bus of startup life, probably. And then probably after that failed, I would have joined some company as a PM.
Can't imagine doing something more fulfilling and interesting. Visual of Indiana Jones boulder chasing constantly, like a treadmill.
Guest is wife Michelle Rial interviewing Lenny. Shares never-shared-before things, including hardest moments. Day of release is Michelle's birthday; she's publishing third book, children's book Charts for Babies. Pre-order it.
OpenAI, Cursor, Perplexity, Vercel, Plaid, hundreds of winning companies powered by WorkOS. For enterprise software, integrates SSO, SCIM, audit logs. Turns deal blockers into drop-in APIs for B2B SaaS. Stripe for enterprise features. workos.com.
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