Case study

How Ben Tossell Built Makerpad Solo — Then Ben's Bites

Two solo wins in five years: a bootstrap exit and a six-figure AI newsletter.

Ben Tossell built Makerpad solo to an exit (acquired by Zapier), then launched Ben's Bites as a solo AI newsletter operator.

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Free to startNo credit card requiredUpdated Apr 2026
Revenue
Undisclosed Makerpad exit to Zapier (2021). Ben's Bites reported past $1M in annual newsletter revenue at peak in 2023-2024.
Employees
Makerpad: Ben solo + rotating contractors. Ben's Bites: Ben solo with occasional help at the writer tier, entirely AI-augmented by 2024.
Industry
No-code education → AI newsletter
Founder
Ben Tossell (@bentossell)

Timeline

2018-2019
Ben launches Makerpad — a community and education platform for no-code builders, positioning before Bubble, Webflow, and no-code-native movement went mainstream.
2019-2020
Makerpad grows through courses, directory, and a strong community. Becomes the reference point for no-code education. Ben runs it primarily solo.
2021
Zapier acquires Makerpad. Undisclosed deal size but widely reported as a strategic acquisition reinforcing Zapier's no-code positioning.
2022
Ben leaves post-acquisition transition. Starts experimenting with AI-focused newsletter. Ben's Bites launches as a daily email summarizing the most important AI news, tools, and prompts.
2023
Ben's Bites scales to 100K+ subscribers within 12 months driven by the AI category explosion. Revenue from sponsored placements and classified ads crosses six figures.
2024
Subscriber base reaches 500K+. Ben runs daily publishing with heavy AI assistance — curation, summarization, and distribution automated; editorial voice remains Ben's.
2025-2026
Adds Ben's Bites Pro (premium tier), classifieds marketplace, and courses. Revenue mix diversifies. Continues solo operation.

Key insights

  • 01Two distinct bets, both solo. Makerpad was a community + education play; Ben's Bites is a media play. Same operator, different patterns.
  • 02Timing matters as much as quality. Makerpad caught the no-code wave pre-mainstream; Ben's Bites caught the AI wave in week 1 of ChatGPT. Both times Ben was early in the channel.
  • 03Daily publishing is the moat. In a space with hundreds of AI newsletters, Ben's Bites won on cadence and curation discipline, not on exclusive sources.
  • 04Exit to strategic acquirer is often the cleanest outcome for community-led businesses. Zapier absorbed Makerpad's positioning faster than Zapier could build it organically.
  • 05Newsletter economics favor solo operators with heavy AI. Sponsorship revenue, classified marketplaces, and premium tiers all scale without proportional headcount.
  • 06Build in public compounds. Ben's transparent sharing of metrics, experiments, and failures across both projects built the network that funded the next launch.
  • 07Second-time solo founders are a pattern. Ben's trajectory (one exit, one post-exit creator business) is the same arc as Arvid Kahl, Daniel Vassallo, Ryan Hoover, and others.

Stack used

Ghost for the original Makerpad siteCircle / Slack for community tierGumroad and Teachable for course deliveryBeehiiv for Ben's Bites (reportedly moved off Substack for better monetization)Sparkloop / Passion.io for newsletter referralsStripe for all payment processingTypefully for X / LinkedIn schedulingNotion for editorial calendar and content backlog

What this means for you

  • →Ride the wave when you see it. Ben launched Ben's Bites within weeks of ChatGPT going viral. The 6-month window is when first-mover advantage actually exists.
  • →A newsletter is a business, not a side project. At $1M+ ARR with high margin, Ben's Bites is more profitable than most seed-stage startups.
  • →Sell the exit when the strategic is hungry. Zapier wanted no-code legitimacy; Makerpad was the cleanest acquisition target. Don't wait for a better offer when the strategic need is now.
  • →Cadence over quality in curation. Daily slightly-okay beats weekly excellent for newsletter growth. Ship every day or give up the channel.
  • →AI newsletter economics are brutal without leverage. Manual curation at 500K subscribers is a 3-person team. AI-augmented, it's one operator.
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Clear answers about wallet credit, usage, subscriptions, and how Tycoon charges for work.

How does Ben run a daily 500K-subscriber newsletter solo?

Heavy AI assistance across the curation stack: RSS and social scanning to surface AI news, LLM-assisted summarization to first-draft the daily email, Ben's editorial judgment on what actually makes the final cut and the voice. Ads and classifieds are handled by a sales CRM + one part-time contractor. Distribution (Beehiiv) handles delivery and segmentation automatically.

What was the Makerpad exit size?

Undisclosed publicly. Zapier acquisitions in that era were typically in the $3-$15M range for strategic fits. Ben has referred to it as life-changing money without sharing specifics. Importantly, the exit funded 2-3 years of full-time experimentation that led to Ben's Bites.

Can someone replicate Ben's Bites today?

The AI newsletter space is saturated as of 2026 — a direct clone won't work. But the template (daily curated email in a fast-moving category with heavy AI assistance and a strong editorial voice) transfers to any narrowing category: climate tech news, web3 developer updates, a specific vertical's AI applications, etc. Pick a narrower niche; the mechanics still work.

How does Ben monetize the newsletter?

Three layers: (1) sponsored placements in the daily email (primary revenue), (2) classifieds marketplace for AI tools and jobs, (3) premium tier with deeper analysis and community access. Diversification across the three is what makes the business resilient to any one sponsor or algorithm change.

What does Ben say about AI team tools like Tycoon?

Ben has publicly advocated for AI-leveraged solo operations across both his newsletter and his podcast. His operating pattern — curation, summarization, distribution, community management — is exactly what a platform like Tycoon is built to run. The pattern he pioneered in 2022-2024 becomes the default operating model for solo media businesses in 2026.

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