Mailbrew

Fabrizio Rinaldi and Francesco had already tasted success as a maker-developer duo. They'd built Boxy, a Gmail client for Mac that became hugely successful, and when they joined a fast-growing Milan tech startup together, their work reached millions of users—one of Fabrizio's designs was even installed on iPhones in Apple Stores worldwide. But in 2018, they decided to quit that "nice tech job" to go all-in on their own projects. "Quitting a nice tech job in the business center of Milan was the scariest choice of my life," Fabrizio recalls. The decision was cushioned by revenues from their side-project Boxy Suite, which generated ~$40,000 USD in its first 3 months.

In 2019, while traveling as digital nomads, they launched Unreadit, a newsletters network curating the best Reddit content. It gained traction and generated unpredictable sponsorship revenue ($0 to $1,000 monthly), but more importantly, it sparked an insight: users should be able to create their own newsletters. This became Mailbrew. Starting with a simple tool to mix subreddits and RSS feeds, they evolved it over 6 months of private beta into something much more ambitious—a way to truly unplug from feeds and get curated content daily or weekly. They used their own custom React UI Kit with reusable, JSON-configured components, allowing them to iterate quickly on design and branding. The biggest technical challenge was building a newsletter template system, backend generation engine, and live preview editor. The private beta was critical: it revealed the product was "very rough around the edges" initially and helped them understand their true value proposition through user surveys and onboarding analysis.

Mailbrew's first paying customer was Pat Walls, someone they'd long admired for his projects and work ethic. This early validation—someone paying for a limited, early-stage product—gave them confidence they were onto something real. During beta, they hand-picked early users from links on Unreadit, emails to their list, and tweets, even conducting Zoom calls to gather feedback and refine positioning. As they expanded to 100-200 random users at a time, they tracked metrics and gathered bulk feedback. By launch day on March 3, 2020, they had hundreds of engaged beta users and a deeply validated product.

The launch was explosive: 2,000+ signups on day one and a front-page Hacker News ranking. Product Hunt also drove traffic, though Fabrizio notes it wasn't as critical as it once was. The decision to offer a free trial without requiring a credit card lowered friction dramatically. Within weeks, they had 40 paying customers with a high proportion on yearly plans and even lifetime licenses ($250). They'd simplified their pricing from a convoluted 4-plan structure to a straightforward free tier + $10/month Pro plan, and it worked—one user converted instantly upon seeing the new pricing. However, Fabrizio is candid about their biggest weakness: "growth and marketing." Despite multiple successful launches, they often rested on their laurels and missed low-hanging fruit like SEO and content marketing. They're now investing more deliberately in customer acquisition and high-touch support to understand real user needs rather than adding features for their own sake.

Mailbrew is their main focus, treated as a serious startup rather than another side project. They're investing nearly all their time in it and tracking the right metrics. As of the interview (May 2020), Mailbrew was generating $2,000/month in MRR with 40+ customers. Fabrizio credits the long private beta, deliberate launch preparation, and endorsement from figures like DHH (who tweeted glowing praise) for building momentum. They're focused on sustainable growth through better marketing and deeper customer understanding rather than chasing quick wins.