Behind the Curtain: What 17,000+ Subscribers Taught Us and What’s Next

Following Greg Isenberg‘s ACP framework (audience -> community -> product) for my brand – here’s a Q1 recap and what comes next:

1. Email list growth

The good: scaled Growth Shuttle Insider past 17,000 subscribers
The bad: open rates are going down and seeing more paid acquisition emails with too many numbers and characters

The percentage of recognizable emails is still high so that’s good (individuals from Fortune 500 companies, people I see reacting on social or partners or event familiars).

But this needs a shift.

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2. Other 1st party touch points

Starting with the Slack community (temporarily open until the end of March, comment/DM for a link).

Most conversation are not suitable for social + I run my own cadence (weekly Q&As on Monday).

Plus, I can connect founders and experts straight in there.

And best of all, my paid advisory clients are there.

Podcast isn’t first party though promoted via email + I’m playing with a Skool group on top of Slack (work in progress depending on 3 below.)

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3. Price bump for Strategic Growth Circle

Launching at $297/mo on Thanksgiving and even announcing 50% discounts for the week there brought over 20 founders, but it’s still a time-consuming venture that’s also hard to manage.

I’ve said that before: it’s NOT a profitable one for me, but a shared cost engagement journey I keep accountability on while helping founders set the right processes in place.

As DevriX keeps growing and my fractional contracts ($1,800/mo – $10K/mo) are going up, sustaining a low plan becomes… unsustainable.

All grandfathered founders/solopreneurs and those who join in March will stay on this price in 2025.

The price from April: $497/mo.

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5. Separate email newsletters

The best part about my core list is that I can pour in the full macro picture I see.

The worst part is – it’s long and multifaceted, and most people don’t bother about half the topics.

While it’s not just a numbers game, what 7-figure founders need isn’t what 8-figure VPs need isn’t what investors need or what M&A or PE people see in.

I need more data feeds that are curated and tailored.

(Working on these through acquisitions, hiring, and automations.)

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6. Better acquisition funnels

A bottleneck that’s slowing us down is a set of proper funnels among 100+ lead magnets and several draft email courses we have.

As the space keeps shifting, old playbooks get outdated FAST.

And executives are sick and tired of PDF downloads, don’t have hours for long-form YouTubes or webinars, and want a strategic partner without the cheesy bullet snacks on social.

We’re testing a few different forms here as we have some leeway before we come closer to Q4 and the heavy shopping season.

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As the DevriX client roaster is growing, I see more agency clients peaking in too. It’s a great show of trust, though I hope I’m not disappointing!

What is the ultimate no-brainer executive magnet we should write, build, or design?