for the FOUNDERS: Building a Newsletter Engine & Community
How Tell 'em Mo turned a scattered subscriber list into a clean, segmented engine that keeps a Bristol founder community connected.
The client
for the FOUNDERS is a Bristol-based membership community for entrepreneurs, change-makers and creatives who want to grow through real, in-person connection. Founded by award-winning event producer Samantha Hamlin, the brand is deliberately not a co-working space, not a traditional networking group, and not an online-only community.
It's a gathering place for values-led, inclusive, and home to a high proportion of founders building their own journeys of success. The membership runs across three tiers: a free Community tier, a Core tier, and an Inner Circle tier that pairs members with hand-picked experts and mentors.
The brief
As the community grew past 200 members, for the FOUNDERS needed a reliable way to stay in touch. Subscribers were spread across the Squarespace website and individual event sign-ups, with no single source of truth and no easy way to speak to each membership tier.
Tell 'em Mo was brought in to set up and run a proper newsletter operation, bringing project management, structure and consistency to a brand that was busy building everything else. The core ask:
Clean up the data: collate and filter subscribers from Squarespace and events into one centralised master mailing list on KIT.
Segment the audience: build audiences based on membership level, so Community, Core and Inner Circle members get the right message.
Produce the newsletters: draft, design and schedule a monthly community newsletter alongside dedicated content for paying members, on a dependable monthly rhythm.
The challenges
A growing community is a good problem to have, but it surfaced a few practical hurdles:
Fragmented data. Subscribers lived in multiple places with duplicates and inconsistencies, making it hard to know who was being reached.
No segmentation. Without audiences mapped to membership tiers, free members and paying members would receive the same generic email, diluting the value of paid membership.
Consistency vs. capacity. The team had the energy and the stories, but not the time to reliably ship newsletters every month while running events and growing the membership.
A distinctive voice to protect. The brand tone is bold, warm and human, with specific rules. Every send had to sound like the brand.
The solutions
Tell 'em Mo approached this as a project to be managed, not just a task to be done, leading on planning, workflow, and the production process so the client could focus on the community.
1. One clean master list: We migrated and de-duplicated subscribers from Squarespace and event sign-ups into a single, clean master mailing list on KIT, finally giving the brand one reliable source of truth.
2. Audiences mapped to membership: We built segmented audiences for Community, Core and Inner Circle members, so each tier could be addressed with content tailored to where they are in their journey, and so paid membership feels distinctly more valuable.
3. A repeatable monthly newsletter system: We established a clear production rhythm covering drafting, formatting, feedback and testing before every launch:
A community newsletter: short-form and warm, spotlighting events, member features, Bristol launches and founders' top tips. Scheduled fortnightly on a Friday.
A core & inner circle newsletter: expert-focused content built around expertise, partnerships, member events and spotlights. Scheduled for the last Friday of the month.
Each edition was written to the brand's voice rules: plain, powerful language, spoken directly to the reader, and always led by community, with member spotlights and expert tips of the week giving the content a recurring, recognisable shape.
The results
Source of truth
One source of truth. A single clean master list on KIT replaced fragmented data across platforms.
Right message
The right message to the right members. Segmented audiences mean Community, Core and Inner Circle members each receive content built for them.
Monthly rhythm
A dependable monthly rhythm. Newsletters now ship on a predictable schedule, keeping a 200-plus founder community engaged between events.
Content structure
A defined content structure and tone keep every send sounding unmistakably like for the FOUNDERS.
Time back
Time back for the team. With production handled end to end, the client can focus on what they do best, building the community.
With the foundations in place, the brand moved from scattered, ad-hoc emails to a consistent, professional newsletter presence.
Between October 2025 and January 2026, the newsletters delivered standout engagement with 50%+ average open rate, 10%+ click-through rate, and 566 subscribers (and growing!).