Deep Tech Now | Would people notice if your newsletter disappeared tomorrow?
Would people notice if your newsletter disappeared tomorrow?
Deep Tech Momentum (DTM) hosts a deep tech flagship summit that sits at the core of the organisation's activity. For a long time, the newsletter sat on the side, mostly used for investor announcements or to promote upcoming events. In other words, to talk about DTM.
It lacked a clear cadence and a repeatable structure. It was an email sent using a template, not a publication (yet).
In the summer of 2024, we realised we needed to rethink this.
Email is still one of the most effective ways to communicate with your audience. With the right address, good deliverability, and a strong subject line, there's a high chance your message will be seen. The same cannot be said for social media: you may have 100,000 followers, but every post depends on the algorithm, and competes in a much more crowded environment.
Our email list was one of our most valuable assets. But having access is not the same as delivering value. If we wanted people to pay attention, we had to give them a reason to.
So we made a deliberate shift: from promotion-driven emails to a content-driven newsletter. The goal was to engage the community year-round with something that could help them think, decide, or act better in their work.
Because in reality, you cannot expect sustained attention if you only show up with promotional content.
That was the starting point. The work came next. These are five of my top learnings from spearheading a newsletter with 45,000+ readers.
1. Hire people who let you move fast
One of the most important decisions was bringing in an experienced writer with a strong grasp of technical domains: defence, robotics, computing.
Together with experienced freelance writers (e.g. from TechCrunch and Business Insider), we built the structure and defined the segments. She wrote the bulk of the content, while I focused on editing, shaping the editorial line, and ensuring it stayed aligned with what Deep Tech Momentum represents.
If you want to move fast without compromising quality, you need people who already know how to operate at that level.
2. Email subject lines are a craft
We consistently maintained ~60% open rates, well above industry benchmarks. At a high level, the strongest subject lines did a few things well:
• They were useful right away. A reader could tell immediately what they were getting: a list, an interview, a useful angle. 20 Minutes of Mentorship With Brad Feld and Europe's Top 5 Energy Resilience Startups are good examples.
• They had a point of view. More than naming a subject, they hinted at tension, attitude, or a thesis. Claws Are Out: The Agentic AI Risk and The Future of Defence is Orbital both feel like they're saying something, not just labelling something.
• They sounded memorable without trying too hard. Cheaper Chips: Scaling the Thinking Machine works partly because of the repeated "ch" sound; Beep-boop: The Robots are Here uses onomatopoeia to create a playful effect.
• They borrowed trust from familiar names. A name like Brad Feld lowers the reader's guard.
• They created tension without overdoing it. The best ones suggest stakes or urgency, but stop short of sounding inflated or clickbait-y.
3. Your personal opinion matters
One thing I underestimated was how much a single voice matters.
AI has made it easy to source, synthesise, and distribute good information quickly. A well-curated newsletter is useful, but it is also increasingly replicable. What is not replicable is a perspective that is actually yours.
We introduced an opinion piece from our CEO at the top of every edition. Not a summary of what happened, but a view on where things are going, what matters, and what the community should pay attention to.
It became a loved section. People replied. People disagreed. It was the only part that could not have come from anyone else, which is precisely why it worked so well.
4. The Ecosystem Gift
Each edition included one concrete benefit: a mentorship session with a VC, a book, or another relevant opportunity. One per week, with the winner announced in the following edition. We called it the ecosystem gift.
What stood out was not just participation, but the quality of engagement. People replied more. Conversations extended beyond the newsletter. Making an introduction between a founder and a VC, or sending a book, created real interaction.
It made the relationship tangible.
5. Relevance outperforms reach
Deep Tech Momentum operates across multiple technical domains: space, defence, computing, robotics, energy, and advanced materials. Initially, a single, sector-agnostic newsletter seemed logical, but it introduced a measurable problem: dilution. A robotics founder does not need a generalist overview; they need depth and precision specific to their domain.
We hypothesised that vertical-specific newsletters would outperform the generalist edition. We launched two vertical-specific editions alongside the main newsletter and tracked open rates and engagement systematically over time.
The results confirmed our hypothesis. Readers who perceived the content as written for them, at their technical depth and in their domain language, showed measurably different behaviour. Open rates increased, and engagement became more sustained.
The pressure test
Joe Pulizzi, one of the founding thinkers behind content marketing, frames it simply:
If your content disappeared tomorrow, would anyone care?
We worked towards passing this test.
Would people care if our newsletter disappeared tomorrow? They would care.
Why?
• Because the editorial voice is ours alone: the CEO's perspective is not a summary you could get anywhere else.
• Because every edition delivers something tangible: mentorship with investors, book giveaways, and real introductions that move things forward.
• Because we listen to the data. When readers told us (through their behaviour) that they wanted depth in their vertical, we built newsletters specifically for them.
• Because we stopped talking about ourselves and started talking to our audience. We became useful first, promotional second.