2013
After John Gruber praised Stratechery on Daring Fireball, Ben Thompson's Twitter followers rose from about 500 to 1,500 within 12 hours.
“I had 500 Twitter followers when he posted that and within 12 hours I had 1500 Twitter followers”
Topic
Ben Thompson
14 facts from 3 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2013
Microsoft strategy head Charlie Songhurst offered to hire Ben Thompson at a higher level after the Gruber post.
“he wanted to hire me he's like look I'll bump you up to a level 65”
2013
Ben Thompson says Automattic hired him as a growth engineer, a role he knew little about, after he left Microsoft.
“I was like hired as like a growth engineer or whatever which I didn't really know anything about”
2014
Ben Thompson says he launched the paid version of Stratechery in April 2014.
“I launched in April this is April 2014 15 2014 so next year will be 10 years Stratechery but nine years of it being my job”
2014
Stratechery reached 1,000 subscribers in November 2014, ahead of Ben Thompson's one-year goal.
“in November I actually ended up reaching a thousand which is my one year goal so I hit my one year goal much earlier than I expected”
2014
Stratechery gained 250 new subscribers within 24 hours of Ben Thompson announcing it had reached 1,000.
“in the next 24 hours I got 250 new subscribers by far the biggest step change in my subscriber growth”
2020
Ben Thompson says he has raised Stratechery's price only once, a couple of years before the interview, and mildly regrets it.
“I raised prices a couple years ago which is the only time I raised prices and I still kind of mildly regret it.”
2022
Ben Thompson says about 70% of Stratechery's audience is on annual subscriptions.
“I think my audience at this point is like 70% annual subscriptions”
2022
Ben Thompson says about half of Stratechery's subscribers listen to the podcast version instead of reading.
“Half my subscribers now listen instead of read which is amazing.”
2022
Ben Thompson asserted, as relayed by a host, that podcasts hold listeners well but are hard to grow because they are hard to share.
“podcasts are great because they're really sticky but they're terrible to grow”
2025
Nilay Patel read a 2025 remark from Mark Zuckerberg to Ben Thompson that businesses would soon tell Meta their goals and get results without making creative or targeting choices.
“you tell us what your objective is, you connect to your bank account. You don't need any creative, you don't need any targeting, you don't need any measurement.”
Undated
Ben Thompson says Dithering, his paid podcast with John Gruber, had about 10,000 subscribers from its first day before levelling off.
“I think like from day one we had like 10,000 subscribers and then it's sort of leveled”
Undated
Ben Thompson says he was inspired by Clayton Christensen's disruption theory when naming aggregation theory.
“I thought about the name obviously I was inspired by Clay Christensen disruption theory that was sort of one of the things”
Undated
Ben Thompson says he conducts interviews on the record because Stratechery sells his own analysis, not exclusive information.
“my whole take is I'm not exclusive I don't have exclusive information what I'm selling is my personal analysis”
Episodes