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Case Study: Half Baked grew to 100,000+ subscribers in 13 months on beehiiv

Half Baked Case StudySourced & dated by Case Study Desk
Key facts · TL;DR
Company
Half Baked
Industry
Media & Publishing
Challenge
Scale audience and paid conversions while keeping engagement high
Headline result
From 6 subscribers to 100,000+ in 13 months, with open rate up to 50%

Key results

100,000+
Subscribers
from 6, in 13 months
35% to 50%
Open rate
4x
Click-through rate
50%
Long-term retention

The challenge

Half Baked, a creator-led business newsletter founded by John O'Keeffe and Darragh Lucey, started with 6 friends-and-family subscribers. The team needed to scale its audience and paid conversions while sustaining engagement, after organic growth plateaued around 3,000 subscribers.

The solution

Half Baked ran on beehiiv, pairing paid acquisition (primarily Meta ads) with beehiiv's publishing and analytics tools.

“Everything about our business lives inside beehiiv.”

JO
John O'Keeffe
Co-founder, Half Baked

The results, in context

Half Baked grew from 6 subscribers to over 100,000 in 13 months, publishing 83 consecutive weekly issues. Its open rate rose from 35% to 50%, click-through rate increased 4x, and long-term retention held at 50%.

Products used

beehiiv beehiivbeehiiv Analyticsbeehiiv Paid subscriptions