Looking into 2026 🔮

At the beginning of this year, I set some goals for this publication. My goals included writing 12 case studies, improving their distribution, getting more traffic, and starting a YouTube channel. This is a recap of how that went and what’s coming in 2026!

Some numbers from 2025:

• Wrote and published 10 case studies.

• Increased overall publication traffic by 390% to over 6K visitors.

• Increased traffic in target regions by over 500%.

• Subscribers grew to over 1500, open rates steadied around 45%, while the average unsubscribe rate is around 0.2% per newsletter.

• Experimented with short videos on TikTok. Please follow!

• Published our first long-form video essay on YouTube. Please subscribe and share with friends!

I generally don’t wait until the following year to “change things”. By July, it was clear that Growth Case Studies was behind some of these goals, so I had to stretch myself by putting in more effort in distribution, including hiring an assistant and blocking entire days to write, edit, publish, and distribute. I also spent much of H2 studying videos across platforms (short and long form) and figuring out how best to distribute these essays via video. I can confidently say that I much prefer longer formats to shorter formats, but I will continue to experiment in 2026 with different styles.

This year’s top case studies:

1. Why is Duolingo so Crazy?

2. WhatsApp is Meta’s Next Huge Platform Swing.

3. Figma Growth Case Study: From $100K to IPO.

4. Why LinkedIn Has No Competitors. 

5. Slack Vs Microsoft Teams and the battle for the Centre of Work.

Enough about 2025. What’s coming in 2026?

• A much better homepage.

• More experiments for Growth Case Studies - expect some cool new stuff.

• More videos coming to the YouTube channel - please subscribe.

• More case studies. Writing doesn’t get easier, but it is always thrilling. I’m considering boxing myself into a fortnightly cadence to publish more thoughts.

• Some new case study formats.

• Something really special for the summer.

Before I sign off for the year, I must give a big shoutout to a group of people.

Firstly, my local libraries - I wish you would open for much longer, but I will take what I can get until we figure that out. Thank you to the billionaires who donated them, and to governments who made learning important. I have found that situating myself for writing really helps me focus. If anyone’s interested, I've been using the same Deep Work playlist for years.

My second shoutout is to the mocha at Gregg’s and the americano at Waitrose - they keep me going!

My third shoutout is to the volunteers who researched and gathered resources for the final case study of 2025. Thank you to Folasade Sobayo, Mojoyinoluwa Agbonde, and Toluwani Daniel for researching the YouVersion Bible Case Study.

My fourth shoutout is to everyone on the internet who writes about technology and business. Thank you for all that you do

My final shoutout is to YOU - everyone who reads Growth Case Studies and shares with their friends. You literally keep me going, so please keep reading this newsletter, sending feedback and sharing with your friends and colleagues!

I hope you’ve had a great holiday and have an awesome 2026 🥂.