The transition from founder to former operator is one of the quieter rituals of the media business, though it rarely stays quiet for long.

Patrick Trousdale, who started The Daily Upside in 2019 as a financial newsletter for retail investors, is stepping back from the company he built, ceding day-to-day control to McKay Murphy, whom he named chief executive earlier this spring. Mr. Trousdale, who began his exit last summer after what he described as personal circumstances, plans to remain as an adviser while pursuing a new venture in what he called the "advisor-media space," a description he declined to elaborate upon.

"I am leaving on great terms," Mr. Trousdale said. "The business has never been stronger and it is in great hands."

The Daily Upside, which has grown from a single newsletter to a small portfolio of financial publications, is projecting revenue of $6.5 million this year — roughly $5.8 million from newsletters and the remainder from events and lead-generation products — representing growth of more than 60 percent. The company, which has about 25 employees and has not taken outside investment, says it is profitable. (A claim that, in the newsletter business, is both increasingly common and increasingly difficult to verify.)

To push further into business-to-business territory, the company has hired Katherine Divney, formerly of People Inc., as its first chief revenue officer, and Carmen Starns, late of 6AM City, as head of operations. The flagship newsletter reaches about one million readers; its Advisor Upside vertical, aimed at financial advisors, has more than 100,000 subscribers across several sub-publications.

The expansion plans include a CFO-focused newsletter this fall, a podcast for the advisor vertical, and tentative steps into video and live events — the standard portfolio-broadening moves of a newsletter company that has decided it would like to become a media company.

Mr. Murphy, who previously worked at Morning Brew and Stitcher, takes over at a moment when the lightweight, subject-specific newsletter has become one of the few reliable models for new digital publishing ventures. Whether The Daily Upside can continue its growth without its founder at the helm remains, as these things always do, to be demonstrated.

Original story published in adweek.com: "At The Daily Upside, a Founder Steps Back As Growth Quickens"