Hey, I’m Chenell Basilio👋
I reverse engineer how newsletters grow so you can see what worked.
I share the strategies behind the fastest-growing and most profitable newsletters — then I explain how they actually did it.
I spend 40+ hours putting each deep dive together.
If you run a newsletter (or want to), I’ll help you grow faster by showing you what’s working right now, and how to apply it to your own list.
It all started with a random tweet…
Back in 2022, I came across a guy named Mario Gabriele. He was running a paid newsletter, by himself, and made $300,000….in his very first year. 🤯
I had to know how he did it.
That one moment sent me spiraling down the rabbit hole of newsletter growth. I was obsessively digging into tactics, testing things myself, and tracking patterns across industries.
I listened to every podcast he was on, read all the interviews he’d done, went through his past tweets, you name it – spending over 60 hours researching that one story.
I thought other people might want to read it, so I grabbed the growthinreverse.com domain, published it there, and started a newsletter. That first issue went out to just 4 people (one of which was my own email address), ha!
That curiosity turned into a weekly deep dive, and a newsletter called Growth In Reverse — now read by tens of thousands of newsletter operators, founders, marketers, and creators.
Why people stick around
I try not to teach generic “how to start a newsletter” advice. There are plenty of courses and blog posts for that.
Instead, I focus on what happens next — the strategies top newsletters actually use to grow, retain, and monetize their audience once they’ve started.
Here’s what Growth In Reverse covers:
- Subscriber growth loops and landing page breakdowns
- Smart onboarding tactics that keep people around and increase referrals
- Sponsorship strategies, monetization experiments, and interesting ways people are making money
- Deep dive case studies you won’t find anywhere else
If you like the idea of turning your newsletter into something bigger — a business, a brand, a movement — you’ll like it here.
Notable folks who’ve shared my work
Growth In Reverse has been featured by and shared by creators from:
- The Hustle
- Inbox Collective
- Buffer
- Creator Science
- …and dozens more
I also host a private community for newsletter operators called Growth In Reverse Pro, where we run experiments, swap insights, and help each other grow.
Let’s stay in touch
If you’re building a newsletter and want smart growth strategies in your inbox each week, subscribe below — it’s free.
You’ll also get access to the Growth Levers Library, a collection of 75+ proven growth tactics from top creators (plus a few of my own).
📬 Join tens of thousands of newsletter operators who read Growth In Reverse every week.