SaaS
Show newsletter writers which brands sponsor newsletters like theirs
Newsletter writers pay for a tool that lists brands already sponsoring similar newsletters, so they know who to pitch instead of guessing.
The hard part: keeping the sponsor list large and current enough that writers find brands they had not already thought to pitch.
Who pays
Newsletter writers who want sponsors pay a monthly fee to search the list of brands that sponsor newsletters in their topic. A free preview with a few sample sponsors can bring writers in, with the full list and sponsor details behind the paid plan. The source reports sponsorship deals for the poster's own newsletter, not revenue from selling this tool, so the monthly pricing is a suggestion.
How to build it
Collect public newsletter issues
Subscribe to newsletters across a few topics and save their public web archives. Store each issue's text, topic, and date in Supabase.
Flag issues with a sponsor
Run each issue through a decision model with a yes/no question such as 'Does this issue contain a paid sponsor section?', then have Claude pull out the brand name and link.
Group sponsors by newsletter topic
Sort each sponsored newsletter into a topic label such as finance, marketing, or AI. Count how often each brand sponsors in each topic.
Build the search page
Use Claude Code or Cursor to build a site on Vercel where a writer picks their topic and sees the brands sponsoring similar newsletters, with the most recent ones first.
Add a free preview and paid plan
Show a few sponsors for free, then unlock the full list with a Stripe subscription.
Reach writers where they gather
Post sample sponsor lists for popular topics on X and in newsletter writer communities, with a link to the free preview.
Sources on X
- jannis_insidevc · Sep 11, 2026
jannis_insidevc says they grew their newsletter to 10k subscribers and landed sponsorship deals of up to €15k per deal, which are their own figures. The poster says finding sponsors still took forever, so they built Emil AI to find brands sponsoring newsletters like theirs, with a free preview and sponsor analysis.
Ideas are curated from public posts and untested by us. Read the full note.