We’re proud to say Morning Brew has the best team in the biz. And for most of us, our journeys from recruit to new hire started with our incredible People Ops team.
In just a few years, they’ve helped us grow from a small crew to, dare we say,
a grown-up company, hitting many milestones along the way.
But our People Ops team doesn’t do it alone. They rely on BambooHR software
to help with onboarding, employee records, performance management,
and everyone’s favorite: compensation. And with the Morning Brew team growing every week, we also use it to stay connected: BambooHR shares updates on new hires, birthdays, work anniversaries, and who’s taking PTO all on one screen, while an interactive org chart shows our “Brewtoon” avatars to help us ID who’s who.
With the Brew approaching the 300-employee mark, we think it’s the perfect opportunity to look back at some of our key milestones and celebrate how our People Ops team helped us grow to where we are today.
Here’s what it takes to build a
profitable media company from scratch.
An inside look at
Morning Brew‘s growth
“Having our culture scale with our size has been incredibly important.
Hiring people who embody your values and being very strict to this rule is 90% of scaling culture.”
—Alex Lieberman, cofounder and executive chairman
—Austin Rief,
cofounder and CEO
“HR software allowed us to focus on what mattered: ensuring our employees have the best possible experience.
And once we went remote, we had to be a lot more
The secrets to
our success
Fall 2014
Alex Lieberman, then a senior at the University of Michigan, starts sending “Market Corner,” a PDF newsletter of daily business news, to fellow students. Sophomore Austin Rief reaches out to get involved, and they spend a few months fine-tuning it.
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
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The Morning Brew newsletter debuts … and AM routines are forever changed.
March 14, 2015
Alex calls it quits after a year at Morgan Stanley to pursue Morning Brew full time.
Fall 2016
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2014
2015
2016
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2018
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2020
2021
2022
Austin joins Alex full time (thanks to a fortune cookie!), followed quickly by two more employees. The newsletter passes 100,000 subscribers.
2017
Subscription list grows tenfold and hits the 1-million mark.
2018
—Alex Lieberman,
cofounder and executive chairman
“From our vantage point in the early days, HR was recruiting and culture via team events. Of course, as time went on we realized just how important a role HR plays in a company.”
Ditch the coworking space for our very own office.
Launch first B2B newsletter, Emerging Tech Brew—with the second, Retail Brew, hot on its tail 3 months later.
March
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
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Move beyond your inbox and into your earbuds with the debut of our Business Casual podcast.
September
—Austin Rief,
cofounder and CEO
“I’d say we hired HR earlier than most companies, but reflecting upon hiring Kate, I’ve realized that it’s very difficult to ever hire too early for HR.”
Get our paperwork in order with our first HR hire.
Launch The Brewsletter,
a weekly internal memo highlighting employee milestones (now sourced
from BambooHR) and company updates.
“Having our culture scale with our size has been incredibly important. Hiring people who embody your values and being very strict to this rule is 90% of scaling culture.” —Alex
January
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Our third B2B newsletter, Marketing Brew, debuts with over 50K subscribers to its first send.
July
Insider, Inc. buys a majority stake in Morning Brew,
but we continue to operate independently, with our own
People Ops team.
October
Hire second HR employee to focus on talent acquisition.
November
Applications open for Morning Brew’s inaugural
education program.
March
Kick off the new year with 75 employees, up from 32 at the start of 2020!
January
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Morning Brew turns 5 with 2 million+ newsletter subscribers.
March
Hire first international employee (from Canada!).
2020 Highlights
Establish midyear and year-end review process.
Create and distribute Morning Brew’s first employee handbook.
Flagship newsletter hits 3 million subscribers.
July
Launch our personal finance newsletter, Money Scoop, followed 2 months later by HR Brew, our fourth
B2B newsletter.
August
Hit 200 employees.
“Makes us realize, ‘Wow, we’re a big freakin’ company.’” —Alex
January
Morning Brew newsletter tops 4 million subscribers.
April
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Alex becomes executive chairman, and Austin steps
up as CEO.
April
“You want to be able to direct new hires super quickly to things they should be in the know about, especially in their first
two weeks. We started using BambooHR
as we approached 100 employees, and it’s made onboarding so much easier. This
frees up my team’s time for other things, whether it’s doing more in the DE&I space or using metrics to be more of a voice within the biz.”
Add 100+ newbies
to the Brew Crew.
Establish a parental leave policy.
2021 Highlights
How far we’ve come
Arizona: 2
California: 18
Colorado: 5
Connecticut: 7
Florida: 3
Georgia: 5
Illinois: 5
Louisiana: 1
Massachusetts: 8
Maryland: 6
Michigan: 3
Minnesota: 1
Missouri: 2
Montana: 2
North Carolina: 3
New Jersey: 3
New York: 121
Oregon: 1
Pennsylvania: 9
Rhode Island: 1
South Carolina: 2
South Dakota: 1
Tennessee: 2
Texas: 3
Virginia: 8
Wisconsin: 1
Washington DC: 5
Ontario, Canada: 1
9 newsletters (and counting!)
262 employees representing 26 states; Washington, DC; and Canada
3 education programs with 700+ alumni
3 podcasts
A daily game and weekly news quiz
1 store with the best merch in media
—Frank Scialabba,
associate art director, hired April 2019
We’ve grown a lot. And quickly. But while the numbers have changed, our company culture hasn’t. “It’s all about having the very best people,” Austin says. “As long as we keep the quality of talent at Morning Brew super high, people will be motivated and excited to work together.”
Whether we’re in the office or WFH, the focus is always on making Morning Brew the best possible place for our employees to thrive. “We’ve been able to successfully adapt to a remote-empathetic company by having an amazing employee-onboarding experience and prioritizing initiatives and events that bring people together IRL and virtually,” Alex says.
PS: If our growth story gives you major FOMO, we’re hiring!
It’s time to help your small or medium business scale. BambooHR’s all-in-one HR software can help you make your biz a great place to work by setting you free to focus on what really matters: your people.
Learn more
Times have changed
intentional in our onboarding. It’s really important we handle it properly. ”
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MORNING BREW
CREATIVE STUDIO
“HR software allowed us to focus on what mattered: ensuring our employees have the best possible experience. And once we went remote, we had to be a lot more intentional in our onboarding. It’s really important we handle it properly.”
“We do a thorough job of interviewing people who match our core values—and it starts with how they communicate during our initial outreach. It’s resulted in a great group of employees who are passionate about
the brand and enjoy showing up for work!”
—Lily Mittman,
senior director of talent acquisition,
hired November 2020
—Kate Noel,
VP, head of People Operations,
hired January 2020
Get our paperwork in order with our first HR hire.
Launch The Brewsletter, a weekly internal memo highlighting employee milestones (now sourced from BambooHR) and company updates.
“I shared that my wife and I were expecting about 6 months after I started, and there were a lot of HR details to figure out.
Now there’s a wonderful culture of ~30 supportive parents with kids of all ages
who help each other.”
—Blake Solomon,
director of branded content,
hired December 2019
—Nhryico Thomas,
people ops coordinator, hired January 2022
—Neal Freyman,
managing editor, hired June 2017
“There’s certainly a lot more process, forward-thinking, and organization than in the early days, when there were only 4
of us. But the great part about Morning Brew is that the general vibe of the company has stayed the same, even as we’ve brought on a lot more people.”
“Having our culture scale with our size has been incredibly important. Hiring people who embody your values and being very strict to this rule is 90% of scaling culture.”
“As the team started to scale, there were so many things we just didn’t know: all the legality around HR, how to run efficient hiring processes, and onboarding and off-boarding. We felt like we were ‘winging it’ on too many things, were very overwhelmed doing HR part time, and knew we needed to be buttoned up.”
“The biggest shift I’ve seen is the evolution from an intimate work setting to a massively spread-out force filled with the best talent. We’ve grown so much in
terms of inclusivity, well-being, personal growth,
and company values.”
“We send onboarding packets to collect employee documents and request intros for our weekly ‘New Hire Spotlight’ emails. BambooHR simplifies this because we can request several materials with a click of a button.”
Add 100+ newbies to the Brew Crew.
Establish a parental leave policy.
2021 Highlights
From 2 to 250+:
—Alex
—Alex
—Austin
—Frank Scialabba,
associate art director, hired April 2019
“The biggest shift I’ve seen is the evolution from an intimate work setting
to a massively spread-out force filled with the best talent. We’ve grown so much in terms of inclusivity,
well-being, personal growth, and company values.”
“I’d say we hired HR earlier than most companies, but reflecting upon hiring Kate, I’ve realized that it’s very difficult to ever hire too
early for HR.”
—Alex
—Alex
—Alex
From 2 to 250+:
an inside look at Morning Brew‘s growth
Illustrations by Victoria Sieczka