That forward-looking element reflects the fact that, although it started as a newsletter operation, 1440 has in recent years expanded into a variety of new editorial touchpoints.
In October 2024, it launched a web product called Topics, which now encompasses roughly 600 subject-specific pages.
Its YouTube channel, which launched roughly a year ago, now has 150,000 subscribers, and its podcast has surpassed 500,000 downloads. A forthcoming product, described internally as an “Instagram for curious people,” will debut in the coming months.
The company is also on the verge of another major milestone. Its flagship newsletter, the Daily Digest, is approaching 5 million free subscribers and plans to surpass the number this summer. It topped 4 million subscribers in October 2024.
“We still think our total addressable market is 100 million Americans who are curious and love learning,” Huelskamp said. “We want to build that profitably and long-term without making the same mistakes that other media companies make.”
In addition to growing its media distribution, 1440 is taking steps to raise its brand awareness. At Cannes Lions this year, 1440 is partnering with Beet.TV, and the publisher has a brand campaign in development with Giant Spoon targeting that will air this fall.
The $101 million valuation also reflects one side of what is typically, in deal making, a two-sided conversation. Ultimately, something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
When pricing companies for sale, buyers also look at historical numbers and factor in strategic rationale, such as whether an acquisition prevents a competitor from getting an asset, or whether there are costs to strip out. None of that applies here.
Still, the number is accurate enough to be useful, per Berstein.
“If you’re looking at EBITDA multiples,” he said, “you might not get to $100 million. But you won’t be wildly off it either.”
What’s in a valuation?
So why determine a price for a company that is not for sale? In media, where a decade of fast scaling and platform dependence ended in collapse, a $101 million valuation is proof that restrained growth can compound into the value its venture-backed peers chased and lost.
Indeed, the past few years have not been kind to digital publishers that once carried far higher valuations. BuzzFeed collapsed, Vice went bankrupt, and Vox Media recently broke itself in two. The venture-backed model of raising aggressively, scaling quickly, and hoping platforms deliver traffic has been largely discredited.
1440 did none of that. It bootstrapped, kept its team small, and applied the rigor of consumer acquisition strategies to a single editorial product. The publisher spends just under $1 million per month on user acquisition and adds between 200,000 and 300,000 new subscribers monthly, with about half sticking around, according to Huelskamp. Roughly a third of its subscribers find it organically.
