Startup Spotlight #68: Below The Fold

The Acciyo chrome plugin helps everyday readers catch up on the reported highlights of stories they care about, along with background context they may have missed.

Jan 04, 2021

Author’s Note: Happy New Year to all my F2F Subscribers. I hope you all have a great 2021 ahead of yourselves. F2F is back on its regular schedule after a hectic end to 2020. I will be publishing on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as promised from here on out. To ensure this, I’ve made the following change:

I have currently suspended the F2F Jobs Board for the time being. The jobs board requires more thought and rework on my end before I can offer it as another additional feature of the newsletter. My first priority with this newsletter is to make sure that I can deliver the Startup Spotlight articles 3x a week. Over the next two quarters, I will be revising and rebuilding the Jobs Board from the ground up, so that when it does come back, I can offer it as a permanent edition of the Startup Spotlights. If you have any questions, please email me at astoryforsoda@gmail.com.

On another note, my buddy Leo Luo is also working on a Substack called Consumer Startups. He writes about the founding stories behind the most successful early-stage B2C startups and how the best B2C investors, like David Tisch, evaluate early-stage startups. Make sure to check it out if you are interested in social apps, brands, marketplaces, and all things consumers.

Latest F2F Case Study - Case Study: PromoRepublic's Product-Market Fit Comes From Focusing On Serving A Niche Set Of Customers

I got the chance to speak with Anum Hussain, co-founder and CEO of Below the Fold, about what she’s working on at her startup, and any advice she has for emerging entrepreneurs.

Ever feel like you’re reading the same headlines everywhere you look? Below the Fold is a semi-weekly newsletter featuring important stories that don’t make it to the frontpage news.

Startup Spotlight: Below The Fold

Below The Fold cofounders (from left to right): Anum Hussain and Vivian Diep.

Problem: There are thousands of unique news stories published daily, but only about five headlines that get our attention. Why? Because in an effort for views, news sources compete for eyeballs on the same trending topics.

Market: There are 68.45M American adult newsreaders.

Solution: We started Below the Fold to help flip readers to “page 2” of their news feeds, and highlight important stories you’d otherwise miss.

Team: Below the Fold was started by myself and co-founder Vivian Diep as an offshoot of our media tech startup, Acciyo. Our Head of Content is veteran news producer Ellen Minkin.

Recent Success:

Hussain: We've been proud of our rapid growth out the gate. Within less than a year, we’ve grown to over 6,000 subscribers with features in Inc Magazine, HubSpot, and more. Our readers give us an NPS of 89 and asked us to send more than one email a week - so we’re now a semi-weekly newsletter! We recently started featuring stories on IGTV, which has been getting a great social response as another way to help people expand what they know about the world through these hidden stories. We're hoping to end 2020 with 10,000 subscribers - feel free to be one of them. ;)

Recent Struggle:

Hussain: We struggled initially at determining the right tone and voice of our newsletter, and has continued to be a battle. Many successful newsletters take on a voice almost too casual for what we wanted to accomplish as a news newsletter. Remaining credible while remaining interesting, especially for sensitive topics, is a tricky balance. Half our team has editorial and newsroom experience, which we hope helps but want to ensure that doesn't make us sound like reporters versus newsletter creators. It's all a balance!

Founder Advice:

Hussain: Lean into what you know about your business and audience over any other opinion. We’ve struggled to raise extensive capital for our initial Acciyo product. Thus, we leaned into Below the Fold as a way to own our future rather than relying on outside investment. There are many paths to success, so focus on which is best for you!

Three Cool Founders You Should Know About:

Hussain: Here are three founders you should check out next!

Olamide Olowe, Founder of Topicals: Topicals is transforming the way you feel about skin through target solutions for skin conditions starting with eczema and hyperpigmentation.
Fatima Dicko, Founder of Jetpack: Jetpack is a venture-backed, seed-stage technology company that envisions a world where people have access to the products they need in minutes.
Aagya Mathur, Founder of Aavia: Aavia is improving healthcare, and the health and wellness of individuals, starting with the first-ever smart case + app that learns and improves birth control pill-taking habits.

Who should I profile next? Leave your suggestion in the comments:

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