# Austin Rief

> Austin Rief co-founded Morning Brew in 2015 as a college sophomore after cold-emailing a classmate about a PDF newsletter. He helped grow it from a campus PDF to a 5-million-subscriber media company with $70M+ revenue before Axel Springer bought it outright. He served as CEO from 2021 to 2025, then stepped back to Executive Chairman while building Oceans Talent (an offshore staffing platform at $15M ARR) and Rief Ventures, a seed fund with 16+ investments including enterprise AI unicorn WRITER.

- **Role:** Executive Chairman at Morning Brew / Co-Owner at Oceans Talent
- **Organizations:** Morning Brew, Oceans Talent, Rief Ventures
- **From:** Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** High School Diploma, Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, BBA in Finance, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
- **Known for:** Co-founded Morning Brew and grew it from 0 to 5 million subscribers, Built Morning Brew to $70M+ annual revenue, profitable every year, Negotiated majority acquisition by Axel Springer at ~$75M valuation in 2020

## Career timeline

- **2014** — Cold-emails classmate Alex Lieberman after reading early 'Market Corner' newsletter PDF; offers to help grow it
- **2015** — Co-founds Morning Brew (launched March 15, 2015) as COO while still a sophomore at Michigan
- **2017** — Graduates Michigan; goes full-time at Morning Brew; raises $750K seed round; revenue ~$300K
- **2018** — Crosses 1 million subscribers; revenue $3.1M; named Forbes 30 Under 30 (Media)
- **2019** — 2 million subscribers; revenue $13.3M; launches Business Casual podcast
- **2020** — Insider Inc. (Axel Springer) acquires majority stake at ~$75M valuation
- **2021** — Becomes CEO following Alex Lieberman's departure
- **2022** — 4 million subscribers; ~$50M revenue; expands to 250+ employees; launches B2B verticals
- **2023** — Launches Money Scoop and Morning Brew Daily podcast; begins scaling Rief Ventures
- **2024** — 5 million subscribers; $70M+ revenue; co-invests in WRITER Series C (unicorn)
- **2025** — Steps down as CEO; becomes Executive Chairman; Axel Springer completes full acquisition of Morning Brew

## Achievements

- Co-founded Morning Brew and grew it from 0 to 5 million subscribers
- Built Morning Brew to $70M+ annual revenue, profitable every year
- Negotiated majority acquisition by Axel Springer at ~$75M valuation in 2020
- Served as CEO of Morning Brew 2021-2025, tripling revenue from ~$23M to $70M+
- Named Forbes 30 Under 30 (Media, 2018)
- Co-owner of Oceans Talent, which grew to $15M ARR in under 3 years
- Built Rief Ventures with 16+ seed investments including unicorn WRITER
- Raised only $750K in seed funding - never needed VC - while reaching profitability

## Latest updates

- **2025-02** — Stepped down as CEO of Morning Brew; became Executive Chairman. Robert Dippell named CEO, Devin Emery named President.
- **2025-02** — Axel Springer completed full acquisition of Morning Brew.
- **2025-04** — Invested in Affiniti Finance Series A (most recent known investment).
- **2025-04** — Published detailed thread on X about tariffs and economic uncertainty's impact on Oceans Talent.
- **2025-05** — Active on X discussing AI + offshore talent convergence trends.

## Links

- Website: https://austinrief.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-rief
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/austin_rief
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austinrief

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/austin-rief
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-29