Matteo M

1st engineer @tldrnewsletter · Building server-side tracking for newsletters · Growing a drummer newsletter in public to prove it works

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

@TTrimoreau https://t.co/pRcSlHolpG server side events newsletter creators

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

Launched a newsletter for drummers in March with 2 subscribers (me and my wife).

June: 1,000 subs, $506 revenue, ~$350 costs. Profitable.

Most don't break even until 5-10K.

How: server-side tracking so Meta optimizes on subscribers, not clicks.

Next: 2x ad spend.

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

I was seeing churn in my SaaS (AdKiit - server-side tracking for newsletters) so I decided to build a newsletter myself.

Not to reduce churn. To understand my customers.

I launched The Daily Drummer one week ago with 2 subscribers — me and my wife.

Today: 29 subscribers.

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

@alexabelonix @QuarkAssistant @genviral_ Any update on this?

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

I was advised to get rid of my lowest price tier. the truth is most founders price too low. Lower tiers often attract the wrong customers and make it harder to grow. Still learning to have the courage to charge what the product is worth.
#buildinpublic

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

Custom events about to drop in AdKiit. Why?
→ Not every subscriber is valuable
→ Ads need quality signals
→ the AdKiit rule builder lets you define what “quality” means (opens, clicks, days subscribed, open rate, etc)
More control. Better ROAS.
#buildinpublic

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

One of the biggest unlocks for @tldrnewsletter ads was going server-side (Meta CAPI).
Better tracking, smarter optimization, more growth.
I turned that exact setup into a product → https://t.co/pRcSlHoTfe #buildinpublic

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

Now that I’ve built and launched https://t.co/pRcSlHolpG and entered the sales/marketing phase my camera roll is littered with screenshots of ads. #buildinpublic

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

Getting the first customers for https://t.co/pRcSlHolpG felt like a huge win. But the high quickly faded when I realized… it wasn’t nearly enough. #buildinpublic

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

If you’re running ads for your newsletter, optimize the ads by using server side events. AdKiit does this for you. Works with @beehiiv and @kit, soon to work with @substack

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

I recently launched AdKiit, a conversion API integration for newsletter creators running ads. Relying on client side pixels alone will only get you so far.

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

Let Cursor refactor onboarding. Oops.
Found a bug before anyone else could. Spent the night rebuilding. #buildinpublic

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

@marclou Hospitality tech is just machine learning now. Airbnb saw high spend, multiple complaints, social reach, and bet on influence. And it was right!

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

In the battle of speech-to-text APIs:
🥇 Deepgram = fast + cheap
🧠 AssemblyAI = start_time / end_time (so helpful for slicing)

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

If everyone laid off by Microsoft teamed up, they could probably build the next Microsoft.

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

Is it just me or is Cursor over-engineering the smallest of tasks?

[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

@zeeg Jest gets confused when writing tests for this without the explicit return

[Andrew Tan @andrewztan]

It's been another crazy few weeks in AI 👀

- Mistral le Chat
- Pika Video Editing
- OpenAI Intelligence Age
- France’s $112B AI Investment
- Elon Musk’s $97.4B offer for OpenAI
- Apple partners with Alibaba
- OpenAI’s GPT-5 Roadmap
- Adobe Firefly

Everything you need to know ⬇️

[TLDR Newsletter @tldrnewsletter]

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[Matteo M @matteo_dm]

@indieashok Choosing the product 🤔