How Austin Hankwitz built his thriving Substack on mutual connections
The writer behind Rate of Return shares his growth story in this week’s takeover
We invited Austin Hankwitz, who writes Rate of Return on Substack, to share how relationships drove his key growth moments—from turning peers into collaborators and followers into paid subscribers.
What questions do you have for Austin? Leave them in the comments and we’ll ask Austin live at this week’s Investing Happy Hour on Twitter Spaces.
Publication at a glance
About: Rate of Return is a publication where investors find curated financial news, analysis, and commentary to attack the investing day.
Started on Substack and launch paid subscriptions: October 2021
Free subscribers: 8,100
Paid subscribers: 521
Schedule: 2-3 times per week. Every Monday, usually sometime during the week, and every Sunday.
Post types:
The Investing Week Ahead: a detailed summary of everything we believe will move the markets this week.
Week in Review: the best synopsis on the internet of what actually moved the markets and how our investment theses might have changed.
Mid-week update: this might be a stock pitch, an update on the macroeconomic picture of the economy, or maybe even relevant, worthwhile posts from social media.
Meaningful growth moments
Getting Started. I started on Substack in October of 2021. I was lucky enough to have built a substantial email base—around 2,500—from other efforts. I plugged them into Substack at launch. My small team, including Christian Blackwell, and I were firing on all cylinders from a short-form video perspective but knew we had much more to say than just a few short sentences during a 30-second video.
Substack was our material push toward not only sharing our analytical thoughts—but also building community. We were eager to host thousands of more like-minded investors in our Rate of Return Substack community.Read more: How to I import my mailing list
Sharing on TikTok. Writers try to grow their publication in all sorts of ways—Twitter threads, word of mouth, or paid advertisements, but for us, we prefer TikTok. Simply publish a well-written piece about a larger topic that could be applicable to anyone. Be sure to include timely information—maybe even something controversial (yet appropriate). Then share a 45-second video walking through the conclusion of all of the data shared with a clear call to action of reading the article and coming to your own conclusion.
Building relationships. Just before Rate of Return launched, I was featured in Bloomberg. As a result, I met the talented Katie Stockton of Fairlead Strategies. Throughout 2022, Katie and I would cross-post on each other’s Substack publications, retweet each other’s Tweets, and even publish YouTube videos of us speculating on the markets for both of our audiences to watch. In early-October, Katie was a guest on the Compound and Friends. At the end of the show, they asked, “What is one of your favorite things right now?” She answered, “Rate of Return by Austin Hankwitz.” This simple shoutout, by someone who I call a friend, drove +1,100 new free subscribers with almost 5% of them going straight to paid. Collaborate, encourage, and give recognition to people who deserve it.
Today. Building Rate of Return alongside Christian has been a blast. We’ve shared, listened, learned, and continually reiterate to ensure our readers are deriving the most value possible from our content. Every week, I host a livestream for my founding tier members. I’d argue those weekly livestreams are some of the most fun I have during the week. Surrounding yourself with people who not only want to read from your perspective but also share their own is powerful. In 2023, we’re eager to leverage more of the wonderful tools Substack provides—specifically polls and podcasting.
Read more: Setting up a founding tier
What questions do you have for Austin? Leave them in the comments and we’ll ask Austin live at this week’s Investing Happy Hour on Twitter Spaces.
Join us for Investing Happy Hour with Austin on Wednesday at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET.
How Austin Hankwitz built his thriving Substack on mutual connections
Rate of Return is the best in the business
Keep up the good work, Austin!