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| Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images; Rebecca Zisser |
Daniella Pierson built a brand on the power of perception.
At just 30 years old, the founder of The Newsette Media Group known for its style- and pop culture-focused daily newsletter has positioned herself as one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in media. Her résumé sparkles: a $9 million SoHo apartment, a $220 million reported net worth, and influential mentors like Serena Williams and Diane von Furstenberg.
“I faked it till I made it,” she told a Stanford Business School crowd in 2024, recounting how she used to pretend to be her own intern when the company was just her. She even created fake personas to communicate with partners to appear more established.
But a Truth Sider investigation reveals that Pierson may have stretched the truth well beyond just faking an intern.
A review of internal data, meeting recordings, pitch decks, and interviews with over a dozen former employees raises questions about how Pierson portrayed her business to the public and to advertisers. Among the discrepancies: the true size of her newsletter audience.
While Pierson often claimed The Newsette had more than 1 million subscribers, her spokesperson now confirms the newsletter reaches around 500,000 inboxes daily less than half the 1.3 million touted in a 2025 advertiser pitch deck and significantly below the figures she publicly promoted.
The larger number, the spokesperson said, reflects the company’s total email database, including people who no longer actively receive the daily newsletter.
In a statement shared with Truth Sider and posted on Instagram, Pierson dismissed the reporting as a "smear campaign" fueled by "false statements and fabricated information" meant to undermine her efforts to support women entrepreneurs.
“They messed with the wrong person,” she wrote.
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| Daniella Pierson with poet Rupi Kaur, left, and Parade founder Cami Téllez, right, at the 2023 TIME Women of the Year event. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TIME |
$40 Million in Revenue Then What?
Pierson has repeatedly celebrated The Newsette’s 2021 milestone: $40 million in revenue, a figure confirmed by both her and former staffers. But she’s been quiet about what came after.
According to internal documents, the company’s 2024 revenue goal dropped to $5 million a massive decline. Her spokesperson disputed the figure but refused to offer alternatives. They did insist the business remains profitable.
One likely factor in the downturn: the 2023 shutdown of Newland, a creative agency Pierson launched in late 2020. In 2021, Newland reportedly generated more revenue than the newsletter itself.
The Newsette Media Group, which once had 40 employees, now operates with just eight, according to her team.
The business, by several measures, has fallen from its peak. And Pierson is no stranger to discussing falls from grace.
In a 2024 TEDx Talk, she reflected on male billionaires whose paper fortunes vanished. “People don’t realize,” she said, “you have $1 billion on paper that paper can burn real fast.”
A Carefully Built Origin Story
Pierson has spent years refining her founder narrative. Born a twin, she described being labeled “the dumb twin” while growing up. Her time at Boston University left her uninspired she said she struggled academically and wasn’t motivated by geology lectures or triangle calculations.
But she loved magazines.
At 19, during her sophomore year, she launched The Newsette from her dorm. She woke at 5 a.m. daily to write it. During class, she cold-messaged strangers on Facebook, offering résumé credits as “Newsette ambassadors” if they helped recruit subscribers.
She told Stanford students in 2024 that “there weren’t any newsletters out there” when she began in 2015 even though notable newsletter brands like The Skimm (2012) and Goop (2008) had already launched.
After college, Pierson couldn’t attract investors, so she borrowed $15,000 from her parents a loan she says she repaid. She’s since said on Instagram that she “made her mom a millionaire” by giving her equity in the company.
With no outside funding, Pierson said she had to turn a profit fast. She began selling ads in 2017, generating $25,000 in her first month.
Media attention came quickly. From college-focused outlets and local stations to Elle, WWD, and Truth Sider, Pierson was a press magnet, thanks in part to her soundbites: The Newsette was a “gift in your inbox,” and her early staff was “me, myself, and I.”
In 2019, Pierson’s connection with von Furstenberg led to a collaboration: the Weekly Wrap newsletter. That same year, she landed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, claiming 500,000 subscribers.
She said revenue jumped from $1 million in 2019 to $7 million in 2020, then to $40 million in 2021 with $10 million in profit. Based on that, she said she sold a 1.25% stake in the company at a $200 million valuation. Her team declined to name the investor.
Forbes cited this valuation and Pierson’s stake in Wondermind a mental health startup she cofounded with Selena Gomez in reporting her net worth at $220 million in 2022. Forbes dubbed her the youngest self-made BIPOC woman in the U.S. to reach such wealth a title she repeats often.
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| Daniella Pierson says Diane von Furstenberg is one of her mentors — and provided her with her big break. Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Diane von Furstenberg |
A Gap Between Public Claims and Internal Records
The numbers she’s presented to the world often don’t match what’s on the books.
On August 10, 2022 the day the Forbes profile was published internal documentation listed The Newsette’s subscriber count at 411,000.
In a 2023 Forbes interview, Pierson said she was on track to hit 1 million subscribers by year’s end. Company data shows the highest number was 570,000. During her 2024 Stanford talk, she claimed she’d surpassed the million mark but records say the count had slipped below 500,000.
This subscriber inflation was echoed in business pitches. A 2025 advertising deck claimed “1.3 million + subscribers” received its weekday and weekend editions.
Her spokesperson clarified that this figure includes the entire contact list not just active readers and reiterated that about 500,000 people currently receive the newsletter daily.
Jacob Donnelly, who runs A Media Operator, a publication for digital media professionals, said that in industry terms, a subscriber is someone who actually receives the product.
“If I say I have 1.3 million subscribers, I’m saying I’m sending to 1.3 million inboxes,” he explained. “If someone doesn’t receive the newsletter, they shouldn’t be counted.”
In one advertiser meeting reviewed by Truth Sider, Pierson cited “a million” subscribers and claimed that sponsors got at least 250,000 unique views daily. But according to newsletter data from over two years, that level of engagement only happened once. On most days, fewer than 200,000 people opened the newsletter.
The Rise and Fall of Newland
In late 2020, Pierson launched Newland, a creative agency under The Newsette umbrella. By the end of 2020, von Furstenberg had pitched Pierson to Jeff Bezos, and Amazon became one of Newland’s first clients.
In 2021 and 2022, Newland created several high-profile campaigns for Amazon including a Prime Day TikTok push with Snoop Dogg, and Women’s History Month content with Keke Palmer, Mindy Kaling, and von Furstenberg.
Pierson told Stanford the agency “brought in tens of millions” and handled everything from creative briefs to talent sourcing to media buying.
However, two former employees familiar with the finances said the $40 million revenue Pierson cited was gross it included all funds flowing through the agency, even money earmarked for talent payments and ad spend. Most public agencies report net revenue, which excludes those pass-through funds.
When Amazon restructured in late 2022, the company paused most new work with Newland. Four former staffers said Pierson struggled to secure new clients afterward.
Newland eventually employed most of The Newsette’s staff, but by December 2022, layoffs began. Former employees attributed the cuts to a cash crunch. By the end of 2023, Newland had shut down entirely.
Pierson’s spokesperson denied financial strain, saying the layoffs were to improve efficiency.
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| Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, is involved in Daniella Pierson's latest venture, Chasm, a membership club that aims to "close the gender gap through entrepreneurship." Noam Galai/Getty Images for TIME |
More Ventures, More Claims
In addition to The Newsette and Newland, Pierson co-founded Wondermind in 2021 with Gomez and Gomez’s mother. By 2023, she had quietly exited the company; the reasons remain unclear.
When news emerged that Pierson was part of a group bidding to acquire Forbes, she claimed on social media to be “on the board” of the magazine. The deal fell through. She was never on any board.
In May 2025, she launched Chasm, a $25,000-per-year entrepreneurship club focused on closing the gender gap. The organization says it counts Spanx founder Sara Blakely and singer Lionel Richie as members though neither responded to requests for comment.
Chasm says it will fund a grant program and resource site for women founders. The first five-figure grant was awarded on August 6.
In response to Truth Sider’s reporting, Pierson posted a lengthy statement on Instagram, alleging a coordinated attack by individuals opposed to her mission.
“These false statements don’t just affect me,” she wrote. “They affect the thousands of women we support through our platforms.”
She reiterated that The Newsette made $40 million in 2021 and defended Chasm’s work, stating it was “on track to give away millions in grants and resources this year.”
Back in 2021, Pierson gave a telling piece of advice during a podcast interview:
“If you can sell yourself,” she said, “you can basically do anything.”
