Entrepreneur: Zain and Awais Kahn

Business: Superhuman

Tilt: Advances in the world of AI to help productivity and career development

Scene: Website, Twitter (473K), LinkedIn (695K), Instagram (23.6K)

Snack Bites: 

  • Brothers Zain and Awais Kahn first published the Superhuman newsletter once a week. Less than six months later, they moved to five days a week.
  • The newsletter Superhuman gained 135K subscribers in the first three months and hit 350K in the next month three months.
  • Ad space in the newsletter consistently sells out, bringing in six-figure monthly revenue.
  • Eight humans and six AI platforms operate Superhuman.

Why We Stan: The Kahn brothers found a content tilt that resonated with the audience and acted quickly. They also knew gaining a subscribed audience through newsletters was the best way to build their business.

The Story of Zain and Awais Kahn

When Open AI launched ChatGPT last year, it launched a wave of discussion about the role of artificial intelligence in content creation. Some were hopeful, many were skeptical, and more were concerned. But everyone wanted to know more. That’s where Zain Kahn came in.

Zain and his brother Awais launched Superhuman in early 2023. Their goal for the newsletter is to provide their readers with detailed knowledge of the latest developments in AI. Each issue provides interesting updates and advice on how their audience can make use of AI to make their jobs easier and advance their careers. Of course, the newsletter practices what it teaches by using AI to operate at maximum efficiency.

Superhuman started with Zain writing by himself and putting out a new issue every week. Now, they send a newsletter Monday through Friday. Zain and Awais lead a team of eight human workers (six full-time and two part-time). On the AI side, Superhuman has employed Bardeen, Gamma, Flair, and Midjourney, though ChatGPT remains the MVP. 

@HeyKahn (Zain) and Awais launched an #AI newsletter that now involves eight humans and five AI platforms. #ContentEntrepreneur #CreatorEconomy #Stan Click To Tweet

The artificial intelligence platforms create the art for each issue, write email subject lines, come up with different angles for a story, proofread, and save the Superhuman team from hours of extra research each week by summarizing research papers. Each issue even features an AI tutorial developed by AI.

All that assistance has helped the newsletter to grow rapidly. In the first three months, it hit 135K subscribers; a few months later, it hit over 300K subscribers.

The impact of those newsletter subscribers has proven far more valuable than social media followers, Zain explains to Business Insider. 

“When I launched a course last December,” Zain adds, “I saw more conversions from my 5K newsletter subscribers than I did from my 500K online followers.”

Superhuman's creator @HeyKahn tells #Insider he saw more conversions from 5K newsletter subscribers than he did from 500K online followers. #CreatorEconomy #Stan Click To Tweet

With a newsletter, subscribers actively choose to receive the content rather than remain passive observers. Newsletters also allow you to contact your audience directly, provide multiple ways to monetize, and avoid the downsides of being subject to the whims of social media platforms. 

Superhuman has been a financial success as well. Its ad spots are consistently sold out, and it brings in six figures a month in revenue. It’s going so well that Zain left his job at an ed-tech startup in April to have more time to grow the newsletter. He has yet to take in any money from Superhuman, however, instead opting to reinvest it all in the newsletter’s expansion.

About the author

Leo Bonacci writes, proofreads, and edits for The Tilt. A student of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, he’s a fan of classical mythology as well as the English language. Leo’s interest in storytelling extends to his great enjoyment of movies and film, from low-budget schlockfests to cinematic masterpieces.