Pirate Wires

Investor Due Diligence Report

by Pirate Wires

substackBusiness

Technology, politics, culture

View full profile →Download PDF

Key Metrics

Subscribers

174.5K

173K free · 7.4K paid

High confidence

Weekly Growth

+1.5%

Revenue Analysis

Pricing

$20/mo

$120/yr annual option

Est. Monthly Revenue

$87K

7.4K paid subs

$74K/mo – $100K/mo(±15%)

Engagement

Avg Comments/Post

12.5

Avg Likes/Post

73.3

Engagement Rate

0.05%

(comments + likes) / subscribers

Quality & Publishing

Audience Quality Score

69Fair

0100

Publishing Pace

Previously ~3x per week

3.3 posts/week

Publishing Consistency

74/100

Consistent (~2.6d avg)

Competitive Landscape (Business)

Newsletter	Subscribers	Weekly Growth	Price	Platform
Lenny's Newsletter	1.2M	N/A	$20/mo	substack
The Pragmatic Engineer	1.1M	N/A	$15/mo	substack
Scott's Newsletter	258K	N/A	$12/mo	substack
Product Growth	236K	+1.8%	$15/mo	substack

Revenue Trajectory

Estimated monthly revenue over time

Month	Subscribers	Est. Revenue	Change
Feb 2026	152.5K	$75,827.7	—
Mar 2026	173.5K	$86,275.8	+13.8%

Risk Assessment

Key risk factors for due diligence

High

Platform Dependency

Hosted on substack subdomain

Low

Publishing Consistency

Regular publishing schedule

Medium

Key Person

Single-author publication — key-person dependency

Low

Revenue Model

Active paid subscription tier

Monetization Readiness

Monetization status

Subscriber threshold

174.5K subscribers — above the 2K category median for first paid tier

Has paid tier

Active paid subscription offering

Peer monetization

100% of 42 similar-size peers in Business have paid tiers

Pricing position

$20/mo vs $7/mo category median (1519 newsletters)

Pricing History

Date	Monthly	Annual
Jan 2026	$20	$120

Data Quality

Report Data QualityFull - All metrics available

Subscriber Confidencehigh

Disclaimer: This report is generated automatically based on publicly available data and proprietary estimation models. Estimated subscriber counts are derived from engagement patterns and should be verified through direct disclosure. Revenue estimates are based on known pricing and estimated paid subscriber counts. This report is for informational purposes only and should not be the sole basis for investment decisions.

Component	Score	Weight
Engagement Rate	44/100	30%
Paid Subscriber Ratio	100/100	25%