Adweek is out with its Digital Hot List 2010. One article in the special edition features five “key execs under 30 who are setting the pace.”
Of the five trailblazers listed, I’m most interested in Ben Lerer, Co-founder of Thrillist. Actually, I’m interested in his business model, which relies heavily on the email platform.
Thrillist was born as a new-school digital publishing venture that used the decidedly old-school approach of an e-mail newsletter. The thinking was that e-mail is ubiquitous, and a subscriber is much more valuable than a random passerby on the Web.
There was a handy model for success: DailyCandy, which had blazed the trail with a successful e-mail-driven curated guide for urban woman. “If someone welcomes us into their inbox, it’s a meaningful connection,” Lerer says.
Thrillist is on course to generate $10 million in revenue in 2010, according to the report, which is not bad for an email newsletter to dudes.
Let’s watch Lerer discuss his firm on camera…
