Yesterday beehiiv shipped its first major product launch since I left.

I spent the whole event getting texts and DMs asking if I was going to show up. I did at the 5:49 mark, for about one second.

That was enough to make me want to write this.

I started using beehiiv in late 2021, a couple weeks after it came out of beta. I helped build the GTM motion for the next four years and personally closed $4M in sales. There were weeks I ended with no voice, because of how many calls were stacked on my calendar.

In those four years, I built the competitor list at least a dozen times.

I became an expert on dozens of platforms in the space. In a lot of cases I knew those products better than the people who worked there. And roughly every time I rebuilt the list, it got longer.

At first it was obvious who we went head-to-head with:

Mailchimp. Substack. Kit.

Then it grew: Sailthru, SendGrid, Braze, Iterable, ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact.

Then WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Framer.

Then Klaviyo, Kajabi, Marketo.

Then Circle, Stan, Gumroad.

And on, and on.

After years of mapping beehiiv into the "competitive landscape," something became obvious: beehiiv wasn't in the landscape anymore. It was its own thing entirely.

You can't compare beehiiv to the other builders, because beehiiv isn't in the same category as any of them.

It's like comparing a restaurant to a stove because they both make food. Or comparing an iPhone to a calculator because they both do math.

A stove is a component. A restaurant is the system that contains it.

Every "beehiiv vs. Platform X" headline makes the same mistake. Tt measures beehiiv against one of the features it already absorbed.

Yesterday's event was beehiiv upgrading its kitchen with one more tool.

In my 1:1 consulting, I still recommend beehiiv. I still build entire beehiiv businesses for clients. Two reasons:

I stopped trying to slot beehiiv next to other platforms a long time ago. It never works. beehiiv is its own thing, and it makes sense for tens of thousands of people.

If it's not for you, that's fine. Some people hate Facebook, too. It still has over 3 billion monthly active users.

If you've been thinking about starting a beehiiv account, use my link. I’m still a partner even if I’m not there full time anymore. beehiiv.com/?via=4e8157

Reply to this email if you have questions. I've probably built more beehiiv accounts than 99.99% of people on the planet. Maybe 100%. Hard to say.

You can take the man out of beehiiv, but you can't take beehiiv out of the man.

Until next time,
Daniel

P.S. — If you want me to actually build the thing for you instead of figuring it out yourself, that's what my consulting calls are for: danielberk.com/products/consulting-call. Bring the idea, I'll bring the four years of scar tissue.