Navigating the Digital Currents: The Story of Weekly Olio

Welcome to this special edition where we delve into the remarkable journey of Peeyush, the strategic mind behind the fascinating newsletter, Weekly Olio.

👋 Meet Peeyush: The Strategist and Writer Behind Weekly Olio

Peeyush is a professional with an extensive background in strategy and e-commerce, currently works at Tata Digital. His journey before Weekly Olio includes significant experience in consulting. He runs Weekly Olio with Mohit, a batchmate from undergrad.

💡 The Genesis of Weekly Olio

The inception of Weekly Olio occurred post-Covid, during a period of increased reading and content sharing among colleagues. Peeyush and Mohit recognized the potential in formalizing this sharing into a newsletter format, opting for it over a podcast due to the lesser workload and challenges in audience building.

🧭 Mission and Vision

Weekly Olio was created with the intent to disseminate interesting reads to a broader audience, initially focusing on curation, before incorporating original writing due to reader demand. The newsletter is a hub for curated content across startup space, tech, business, and finance insights, aiming to cut through the noise for its readers.

♟️ Content Strategy and Engagement

Peeyush’s approach to Weekly Olio involves a well-organized content strategy. They maintain an internal database for idea collection, ensuring a diverse mix of topics relevant to their audience. Planning begins one to two weeks ahead, allowing for thoughtful curation and issue refinement.

They often include guest posts to add unique perspectives and occasionally enlist interns for fresh ideas and workload management. This strategic planning, coupled with their use of engaging visuals and infographics, effectively resonates with their target audience.

📈 Growth and Milestones

Since its launch in November 2022, Weekly Olio has amassed about 28,000 subscribers. To achieve their first 1,000 subscribers, they primarily utilized their personal and professional networks, including leveraging LinkedIn 

For the milestone of 10,000 subscribers and beyond, they expanded their strategies to include cold emailing targeted at VCs and startup founders, guest post collaborations to amplify their reach through network effects and promoting Weekly Olio during speaking engagements to students.

Remarkably, organic growth played a significant role, reducing the need for paid advertising.

💰 Monetization

Initially without a monetization intent, Weekly Olio now considers it to cover operational costs and has begun earning through limited advertising. Their approach emphasizes content integrity, limiting ads to a maximum of one per edition. Sponsorship sales are managed through platforms like Paved , Post Apex, and Beehiiv boosts.

⚙️ Behind the Scenes – Operational Insights

Peeyush and Mohit manage most aspects of the newsletter, supported occasionally by interns and guest contributors. They utilize AI tools, like ChatGPT, for writing summaries and enhancing content engagement. The newsletter's planning and writing process is systematic, with content ideas stored in an internal database and issues prepared weeks in advance. 

📝 Founder’s Advice

Peeyush encourages aspiring newsletter creators to be disciplined view it as a continuous learning experience. As he puts it, running a consistent newsletter can give you lots of skills that can translate to other ventures.

✌️ Goodbye

Thank you for joining us in exploring the inspiring story of Peeyush and Weekly Olio – a testament to the power of strategic content and community engagement.