A few days ago, I just passed the 1,000 paid subscribers, 5,500 total email list, and $60K annualized revenue milestones for @SnowballFrance, my @SubstackInc newsletter about personal finance ().

Here's a quick thread about how it all started.

January 2019
I publish my YOLO report 2019 (I'm a quantified self freak) & add for the 1st time a part about my personal finance: https://medium.com/yo-lo/the-yolo-report-2019-5221f7cfaada#915b
Signal: dozens of people asking me questions about investing after reading it
Thought: there might be sthg to do

January 2020
This signal makes me think that there might be a gap in the market regarding personal finance education in France. I look for a medium to share my passion
Signal: @BenjaminPrune introduces me to @SubstackInc (tks Ben)
Thought: need to validate this signal

Late January 2020
I decide to publish a Linkedin post to share this newsletter idea (my Substack has not been created yet) in order to use it as a waiting list
Signal: more than 1,000 likes and 1,000 comments
Thought: the early signal is validated, the demand exists

February 2020
I launch Snowball on Substack and publish a new post on Linkedin + I tell people who liked the previous post that the subscriptions are open
I (almost) instantly get about 500 subscribers (free at this time)
Thought: I have no idea what I'm doing

March 2020
I write the very first edition of Snowball
Signal: amazing feedback from the early subscribers
Thought: I still don't know what I'm doing, but it feels good. Start to think about monetization