Curate Los Angeles with: Tyler Denk

[How long have you been in Los Angeles?]

I have been in Los Angeles for about fourteen months. 

[What is your background?] 

I grew up in Baltimore and was very active in sports, anything sports related is where I spent most of my time. I have always been a hyper-competitive person and I played within a bunch of leagues when I was in middle school and high school, but I was not very much of a tech person.

I was more interested in playing backyard football, and with basketball, I played my entire life as a point guard, and shooting guard until high school: then I realized I was 5’8” and that I was not going to make it [laughs] much further than that of high school basketball. In high school, I also played JV [junior varsity] and varsity lacrosse, and when I was younger, baseball and soccer. I played a little bit of everything. 

I have a little brother, Spencer, who is three years younger than me. He and I are also competitive with one another, from playing card games to betting on sports, even in college and with our friends. 

During my sophomore year of high school, I took AP [advanced placement] physics and I found it fascinating. Physics was challenging and had difficult problems with complexities of how the world works. Everybody in my high school hated physics as they thought it was the hardest class ever. But for some sick reason, I got enjoyment out of it.

My teacher in high school was an absolute legend in physics, and I was in his AP-class and thoroughly enjoyed it. And he [high school physics teacher] was the one that told me that I was good at physics, and that I should really do engineering: he was great at pushing people. He said a lot of his top students went to Maryland’s Engineering Program, so I fell into my engineering interests through physics and my high school teacher. Prior to physics, I did not know what engineering was. 

When I was at Maryland, I got involved with the entrepreneurship program on campus, and launched a startup called VentureStorm with two other guys.

The premise of VentureStorm was connecting entrepreneurs and startups to local software developers. Initially, we connected others on college campuses to take advantage of business schools and those computer science programs that worked close together. We then pivoted to more local students and then it ultimately became a scale game.

VentureStorm did not work out, nor did it sell for a billion dollars, but it was an incredible experience of understanding how entrepreneurship and startups work, and how to build something from scratch. VentureStorm also allowed me and my two co-founders to learn how to code, to start building something with technical skills.

At its peak, VentureStorm had 10,000 users before we shut it down: this was my first entry into startups. 

After I graduated from Maryland, I really did not know what I was going to do as we shut VentureStorm down, but I ended up joining Morning Brew as the second employee. 

For those that do not know Morning Brew: it started out as a daily business newsletter but now has a portfolio of newsletters. Initially, the main newsletter was published Monday thru Friday but now, Morning Brew is published Monday thru Sunday. The newsletter covers business topics in a conversational tone. 

At Morning Brew, I joined as the only engineer which evolved into a growth role. In this growth role, I built out the referral program, the email templates, the website and built a content management system [CMS] that focused on email. We also built an ad platform that allows both the sales teams and their newsletters to monetize. 

When I joined Morning Brew, it had 100,000 subscribers. It then grew to over 3.5 million subscribers right before I left, and right before Morning Brew was acquired by Business Insider. In my three and a half years at Morning Brew, I created technology that allowed for us to do what we are doing now at Beehiiv. 

[What are your hobbies?]

Since moving to Los Angeles, I try to go surfing once a week at Manhattan Beach. I have also gotten into yoga, tennis and cycling on Peleton. I try to be outside as much as I can and I have also been hiking lately. 

Because I work a lot, it is important for me to plan a trip once every two months, but I know that I can also work remotely. Working remotely has allowed me to be in different places but still contribute. 

[What are you reading and watching?] 

Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dailo. And going back to my nerd days of physics, there are four books that I have yet to read on relativity and time by Carlos Rovelli. 

I do not necessarily watch too much TV, but I am trying to learn Spanish and so I watch Spanish TV shows. 

[What is a phrase that you try to live by?] 

I believe that this is more of a mindset that I have adopted, but it is knowing that I am not going to be the smartest person in the room. But I know that I can control my effort and work ethic. Knowing this, I refuse to let anyone work harder than me. 

[Where do you work and what is your title?]

I co-founded Beehiiv with two other guys, Ben and Jake. Beehiiv is an email and newsletter product suite. 

At Beehiiv, I serve as the CEO and my day-to-day changes dramatically, but I am pretty much locked in my room for sixteen hours a day, working on a variety of things. 

The inspiration for Beehiiv came from my days working at Morning Brew. I found that there was an appetite for newsletters and for others wanting the ability to do what we were doing by plugging into a system. We had other publications and writers become interested in Morning Brew’s platform and this became my ‘ah-ha’ moment to co-found Beehiiv. 

Beehiiv launched in November of 2021. 

[Where is your favorite morning hangout spot in Los Angeles?] 

The Equinox on Sepulveda. 

[Where is your favorite evening hangout spot in Los Angeles?]

The SoHo House in West Hollywood. 

[How would you describe Los Angeles?] 

It is a very expensive place with interesting pockets. You have the Westside, and then you have Venice, a surfer’s environment, and just everything that Venice has to offer down there. And of course you have up into the Hills [Hollywood Hills], with all the different scenes and bars there. You also have the Valley, Malibu, and hiking, it is very diverse. 

[How would Los Angeles describe Tyler Denk?] 

Sporadic. 

My friends and I haven’t really developed a habit, we are all new to the area. One day we will go out to West Hollywood, and the next day we will go to Manhattan Beach. There is so much to explore in Los Angeles.