setting the scene
- to become more âprofessionalâ and well-versed in the latest business news, you google âbest business news sourcesâ đ§
- taking googleâs recs, you buy subscriptions to the WSJ, FT, Barronâs, and Bloomberg
- youâre learning a lot, but these sources can get a little dry, overwhelming, and lengthy đ¤
- taking googleâs recs, you buy subscriptions to the WSJ, FT, Barronâs, and Bloomberg
- but waitâŚwhy force yourself onto these sources when you already consume business news across the web?
- i.e. Twitter, Instagram, podcasts, TikTok, YouTube, your favorite startup newsletter, bulletpitch
- the way we consume news has shifted, and this weekâs company is partnering with media creators to compete with institutional publications đ°

in a sentence
Workweek is a media company that partners with creators to produce content on specialized business sectors
- creators: teams or individuals releasing content via newsletters, TikTok, podcasts, Twitter, and more
- sectors: currently covering cannabis, healthcare, climate tech, vc, startups, franchising, marketing, leadership, and memes
bulleted version:
Workweekâs creators are like artists operating under a record label; experts produce independent business content while represented by Workweek đ
the basics
- industry: online media, publishing đ˛
- headquarters: Austin, Texas đ¤
- year founded: 2021
- company size: < 40 employees/creators đ§ł
- investors: LightShed Ventures, Elizabeth Yin, Lance Armstrong, Mario Gabriele, Packy McCormick
- amount raised: $4.44m



due diligence
what we like
-
leaning into a growing market: the creator economy* has grown to 50m creators and a value of over $100b đ¤Ż
- *creator economy: allows independent creators to earn revenue from their products
- đ boosting creativity: Workweek empowers creators to produce content and grow their brands by offering benefits, competitive wages, and resources
-
đ diversifying risk: by aggregating a diverse set of creators, brands, products, and audiences, Workweek can diversify their revenue streams and spread their footprint across the web
- sounds a bit like the vc approach of betting on a variety of companies in hopes that a few big winners will bring in the dough đ°
potential risks
- varying brands: while cross promotion is great, operating brands with separate audiences may make it difficult to build a unified brand identity
-
hiring with scale: more creators have been brought on, and Workweek has hired quicker than expected đ¤
- as they continue to grow, theyâll have to pay attention to quality and quantity
-
đŁ the giants: many institutional publications are also attempting to bring more personality to business news
- Insider Inc. acquired Morning Brew
- Bloomberg Quicktake is trying to be a ânetwork for the new generationâ



founder profiles
- Adam Ryan (prev. LightShed Ventures, TCG, The Hustle, Under Armour, Spiceworks)
- Becca Sherman (prev. MarketerHire, The Hustle)
comps
here are a few companies also working towards disrupting traditional business news publications:
why Workweek: to summarize, letâs use our favorite work week phrase- tgif
- tailored business content
- geared towards todayâs media consumer
- individuals follow creators
- future of business media