The Hustle had the audience. About a million free subscribers were already reading. The goal was simple: launch a paid newsletter called Trends and convert a small slice of that list into recurring revenue.
The problem was the tech. Their CMS, payment system, and email tools were all custom, and none of them worked well together. Editors struggled to publish, checkout was brittle, and the platform was not built to grow. That is where Refact came in to remove the bottleneck and get the product live.
“There was our custom CMS and then there was our payment platform. Neither one were working very well together. And so even individually, they’re very challenging to manage.”
Scott Nixon, Trends
Deadline Impossible: “We Have to Launch in 2 Weeks!”
Trends was betting that even a 1% conversion from the free list could create meaningful revenue. But the MVP was unstable. Bugs and errors kept stacking up, and the subscription flow was the most urgent risk.
The CMS was hard for editors to use, and it did not integrate cleanly with payments. With a lean in-house engineering team and a fast-approaching launch, Trends started looking for a partner who could ship, not just plan.
They spoke with five different agencies. A pattern showed up fast: most proposals added more custom layers. That meant more time, more moving parts, and a launch date pushed out by months. Trends did not have months. They had one month at best.
Refact took a different approach. We focused on what had to work on day one: publishing, subscriptions, and clean data. Then we committed to delivering in two weeks.
“I didn’t believe [Refact] when they first said we were going to be able to ship it in two weeks, but they did!”
Scott Nixon, Trends
Before writing code, we aligned on the real goals. Short-term, Trends needed a platform that could launch fast and handle paid subscriptions without breaking. Long-term, they needed a setup that could improve conversion rates and support constant experimentation. (If you are weighing monetization options, these paywall models for publishers are a good starting point.)
A Simple, Scalable Publishing Platform
We redesigned and rebuilt Trends’ publishing platform with a “simple first” mindset. Instead of stacking more custom systems, we rebuilt on WordPress for speed, editorial usability, and long-term flexibility.
We tailored and customized WordPress into a publishing and subscription platform that matched what Trends needed: an editor-friendly CMS that could integrate cleanly with payments and their email service provider.
With tight feedback loops from stakeholders, the site and subscription platform were live in two weeks.
Migration and a Native Payment Setup
Launch was only part of the work. We also needed to migrate content off the old custom publishing platform. Then we had to migrate and reconcile subscription data from the third-party payment provider so the team could trust their numbers.
“We lost a lot of information when [users] would go to check out. We weren’t able to pass on a lot of data and information that helped us understand where did this customer come from?”
Scott Nixon, Trends
On the new WordPress platform, we used native WooCommerce for subscriptions and payments. That reduced data loss at checkout and made it easier to track subscriber sources, which mattered for marketing spend and long-term growth.
Campaign Landing Pages and A/B Testing
Trends promoted the launch across many marketing channels and wanted a dedicated funnel for each one. That meant unique landing pages, consistent tracking, and a way to run A/B tests without engineering help every time.
At one point, they were working with more than 100 YouTube influencers, plus other channels. Building pages by hand was not realistic. We created landing page templates that the team could duplicate and customize quickly, which supported fast iteration and better conversion learning.
We also helped with a student discount campaign. Trends needed a way to confirm that the people using the promo were actually students. We set up a workflow that matched subscriber emails against coupons so the discount stayed limited to the right audience.
For teams making similar platform decisions, it helps to see how other publishers evaluate tradeoffs. This guide on how to choose a CMS for publishers breaks down what to look for when editorial speed and revenue are on the line.
Adding a Product Manager
As the platform stabilized, the work shifted from “get it launched” to “keep improving it.” We spotted a gap: Trends needed more product leadership to prioritize experiments, coordinate stakeholders, and keep shipping improvements.
We added an experienced product manager to the engagement. That kept decisions moving and helped connect business goals to what the team built next.
Acquisition and What This Proved
Less than two years later, HubSpot acquired Trends. We do not credit one system for an acquisition, but the story is clear: when publishing, payments, and data work together, a paid newsletter can grow faster and with fewer operational headaches.
If you are building a subscription product, paywalled content, or a publishing platform that needs to scale, we do this work every day. See how we support teams in web development for publishers, then talk with Refact about your launch timeline and stack.