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AI paid The Rundown AI $3 million in 2024 revenue, from a newsletter explaining AI
AI PAID ME · RECEIPTCHECKED OCT 15, 2026
- Paid to
- Rowan Cheung, founder of The Rundown AI (Vancouver, Canada)
- For
- An AI newsletter and media company, plus paid AI workshops through The Rundown University
- Tools used
- beehiiv
- Type
- Company revenue
Amount, exactly as the source states it
“booked $3 million in 2024 revenue”
- Forbes: “The bootstrapped startup booked $3 million in 2024 revenue and projects $7 million in 2025.”
- Revenue comes “from a diverse stream of subscriptions, AI workshops and deep-pocketed advertisers including Google, Salesforce and Amazon.”
- The Rundown University offers courses “for $1,000 a year.”
Forbes reported these figures in its 30 Under 30 profile, but the profile doesn't say Forbes reviewed financial documents. So we label it self-reported.
Who he is
Rowan Cheung dropped out of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Forbes says he sat through hours of lectures but “retained nothing,” so he taught himself coding, design, and marketing on YouTube. When the AI boom hit, he saw a chance to explain AI to people who, like him, prefer learning outside a classroom.
What he does
In 2023 he founded The Rundown AI, a Vancouver-based media company. Its core product is a newsletter that explains AI news simply. In his words: “Our goal was to take all this complex information and simplify it for the everyday person in five minutes.”
Forbes reports that The Rundown now has 2 million newsletter subscribers and 1.5 million social media followers. It has also expanded into online education through The Rundown University, which offers AI courses for $1,000 a year.
How AI fits in
AI is the topic, not the writer. The business makes money by explaining AI well, through:
- Advertisers (Forbes names Google, Salesforce, and Amazon)
- Subscriptions
- AI workshops and courses
How it grew
According to a 2024 case study by beehiiv, the newsletter platform it uses, The Rundown went “from 0 to 300,000 subscribers in just 4 months.” One big growth channel was the beehiiv Ad Network, which lets a newsletter pay to be recommended in other newsletters. Cheung told beehiiv that readers from newsletter ads were “extremely high-quality” compared with Meta or X ads, and that his open rate was “like 42%.”
Worth knowing
- This is company revenue, not personal income, and Forbes doesn’t say whether it checked documents.
- The $7 million was a projection for 2025, not a result.
- The growth story comes from a vendor. beehiiv wrote the case study about its own customer, so read it as marketing. Also, full disclosure: we use beehiiv for our own newsletter, AI Paid Me Weekly, and we’re in beehiiv’s partner program, so we earn a commission if you sign up through our beehiiv links. That didn’t change this story’s numbers or its label. See our affiliate disclosure.
- He moved early. The Rundown launched in 2023, right as interest in AI exploded. Starting today means more competition.
- He paid for growth. Ads in other newsletters cost money. He told beehiiv he planned to move about half of his marketing budget from Meta to beehiiv ads.
Try it yourself: step by step
Start a small, focused newsletter on a free plan and publish consistently before thinking about money.
What you'll need
- A narrow audience you understand (for example, "AI for homeschool parents")
- A one-line promise for readers (what they'll get, and how often)
- beehiiv's Free plan (up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited email sends)
- Three issue ideas written down before you launch
- About 2–4 hours a week (our estimate)
-
Step 1: Define your reader and your promise
Write one sentence, like: "Every Friday, three AI tools I tested for homeschool families, in five minutes." Cheung's version was simplifying AI news "for the everyday person in five minutes."
-
Step 2: Write three issues before you launch
Use AI to brainstorm and outline if you like. Test every tool yourself and check every fact. Your readers are trusting you, not the AI.
-
Step 3: Set up a free beehiiv publication
The Free plan includes up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited email sends, a newsletter website, email templates, and landing pages.
-
Step 4: Publish a "start here" post
Post a short page on your newsletter site that says who you are, what readers will get, and when. Ask readers to reply with one question. Replies tell you what to write next. Automated welcome emails need a paid plan (automations start on Lite).
-
Step 5: Invite your first 20 readers personally
Message friends, your homeschool group, and communities where sharing is allowed. Personal invites beat broadcasts at the start.
-
Step 6: Publish on a fixed day for 12 weeks
Consistency builds trust. Check opens and clicks after each issue (the Free plan keeps 30 days of analytics) and keep what readers click.
-
Step 7: Swap recommendations
beehiiv's Recommendation Network is on the Free plan. Find a newsletter of similar size and recommend each other.
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Step 8: Add income later, and know the costs
The Ad Network, paid recommendations, and paid subscriptions need beehiiv's Lite plan. Lite costs $59/month billed monthly, or $49/month billed annually, for up to 1,000 subscribers. beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid subscriptions, and Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Beginner pitfalls
- Publishing AI-written "news" without checking it
- Buying email lists. Only email people who signed up.
- Being too broad. "AI news" is crowded.
- Paying for an upgrade before you have readers
- Skipping weeks. A missed issue breaks the habit for readers.
Realistic expectations
Expect slow growth at first. The Rundown launched in 2023, early in the AI boom, and grew with paid acquisition. beehiiv's case study says it went from 0 to 300,000 subscribers in 4 months. Disclosure: we use beehiiv for AI Paid Me Weekly, and we earn a commission if you sign up through our beehiiv links, at no extra cost to you.
Prices and plan details come from each tool's own pricing page or help docs, checked Oct 15, 2026. They change often, so re-check before you pay. Time estimates are our rough guesses for a beginner. Sources: beehiiv pricing; Stripe pricing.
Tools mentioned
Links marked affiliate are affiliate links: we earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. It doesn't affect which stories we cover or how we verify them. Other links go straight to each tool's homepage. Affiliate disclosure.
Source and verification
Rowan Cheung, Founder, The Rundown (Forbes 30 Under 30 profile), Forbes, Jan 1, 2026.
- Why Rundown Says beehiiv Ad Network Is the Best, beehiiv (vendor case study, May 8, 2024): a vendor's marketing piece about its own customer, used here only for how he grew
Self-reported: The numbers come from the person themselves. No documents were checked by the outlet. How we verify.
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