Inside The Reeder: Q1 Growth, Lessons, and What’s Next

Devin Reed

Together with Goldcast ​ Tired of Chasing Leads That Aren’t Ready to Buy? ​ I’ve built content strategies at two $1B+ companies. But I refused to play the same game everyone else was: Wait for intent. Hope they bite. Repeat. ​ ​The best time to earn trust is before your buyer hits the funnel. ​ ​So when Goldcast asked me to kick off Mindshare 2025 Virtual Summit, I said yes immediately. ​ Because this is the playbook I believe in. ​ And now I get to open the event alongside CMO Kelly Cheng to show you how top SaaS marketers win before the buying journey begins. ​ Here’s what you’ll walk away with: Strategies for building trust before intent signals appear Real-world frameworks for turning one event into 30+ assets How to build your video strategy (live and pre-recorded) to stay top-of-mind ​ This is how B2B brands build pipeline in 2025 (myself included). 👉 Register here – it’s going down April 9.​ ​ Register for Mindshare Marketing

Welcome to The Reeder’s Q1 Board Memo

Most Founders and CMOs write board updates for investors.

I decided to write mine for you.

Why?

• Running this business has reminded me how valuable it is to uncover what’s working and what’s not.
• Working closely with CEOs leveled up my business thinking—something most marketers never get access to.
• Being able to connect content to business impact changed my career—and my income.

So I’m packaging it up and sending it straight to your inbox.

This is a new series I’m calling The Board Memo.

If you’re reading this, you’re on the board.

You’ve backed this business with your attention, trust—and sometimes your wallet.

So here’s your quarterly update.

Inside you’ll find:

→ Revenue & pipeline

→ Wins, L’s, and what’s next

→ Lessons you can apply to your own content, business, and career

No fluff. No filler. Just what’s worth knowing.

Ready? Let’s ride. 🌊

Q1 By The Numbers

Let's start with business metrics.

Annual Bookings: $X51,500 (49% to annual target)

We’re ahead of pace—49% booked and just 24% through the year.
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Quarterly Bookings: $X36,500 (93% to Q1 target)

A hair under goal, but we’re already at 86% of Q2’s target.

Less stress on sales = more focus on delivery, ops, and marketing.
​

Pipeline: $180,000

Pipeline is strong going into Q2.

We’re to keep the marketing and sales engine on to overcome the potential SaaS "summer slowdown."
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Customer Satisfaction: 100%

Every client gave positive feedback (!)

~85% renewed or expanded—so we need fewer net new clients than planned.

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Marketing Metrics

I haven’t set formal marketing growth goals yet.

The focus this year is sales and pipeline.

But here’s where we’re at:

✉️ Newsletter: 13,286 subscribers

• Q1 growth: Flat (removed ~8% of unengaged list)
• Q2 goal: 14,614 [+10%]

💻 LinkedIn: 91,011 followers

• Q1 growth: 3%
• Q2 goal: 93,741 [+3%]

🎙️ Reed Between The Lines (podcast + video)

• Successfully launched Season 2
• Season-over-season growth in listeners and subscribers
• ​Heike’s episode hit #3 in all-time in views
• Positive feedback on sales calls: “I follow you and your show.”

Also, fun one:

Our CFO, Shali, not-so-quietly passed 15K followers on LinkedIn. 🔥

Big Wins

Q1 was a blur—but the kind you love to look back on.

The biggest win? We proved this business model works.

→ Booked more revenue in Q1 than any quarter before
​→ Built the strongest pipeline we’ve ever had
​→ Grew The Reeder with intention, not chaos

All while staying profitable, focused, and sane.

A few moments that stood out:

• Launched the LinkedIn Video Checklist – that became the first "Reeder research" thought leadership and drove 500+ downloads.
• Closed a consulting client in 2 days – one call close 48 hours after publishing this LinkedIn post. Great validation that we can convert attention to pipeline on LinkedIn.
• Scaled the full-service CEO LinkedIn offer from 3 → 6 clients – which meant building more process and more team.
• Signed 3 new brand deals – Notion, HubSpot, and Goldcast. (If you told me that two years ago, I would’ve called BS!)
• Monday.com signed on for our first LinkedIn for B2B Leaders cohort – this was a huge success and the first step to team-based LinkedIn training.

I’m proud of this quarter not just for the wins, but because we kept it lean, kept it real, and didn’t chase growth at the cost of joy.

Biggest Learnings

Some lessons you read in books.

Some you only learn by doing.

Here’s what I learned in Q1, and changes we're making in Q2:

-It’s time for a real sales process.

Not complex. Just clear.

I’m adding a scoping step with the client’s decision-maker and internal champion—so everyone’s aligned before we start.

-The better the offer, the faster the yes.

Every minute spent clarifying my offer saved an hour in sales or delivery.

-Process scales confidence.

I used to build everything custom. Now I’m building systems—because growth without confidence is just chaos.

One Ask

If you got value from this memo—

Forward it to someone else building their own thing.

Have a question or thought?

Reply and I’ll respond.

Holler at you later,
​Devin​

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Let's work together

There are three ways I can help you grow:

1. Content Strategy Design
   ​Get a proven top-of-funnel content program that makes a meaningful impact on your business.
   ​
2. Marketing Consulting
   ​Get dedicated meeting and async hours to improve your marketing strategy and deliverables.
   ​
3. Creator Deals & Influencer Marketing
   ​Sponsor The Reeder and turn my audience of 100,000 into your next wave of customers.

Wanna chat? 👉🏻 Schedule time here​

"The Reeder has been transformational to our content strategy. I recommend Devin to anyone who wants to stop wasting time and resources and change their content game for the better."
-April Crichlow, CMO, Centrical.

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