📈 Year in Review
Desi-derata
This email goes out to 1,379 South Asian legal professionals.
How Pani Cooler Grew This Year
We started the year with 699 subscribers and ended with 1379 subscribers - a 97% growth in subscribers. As you can see, the path is slow and steady.
Subscriber count can easily turn into a vanity metric. Engagement matters more. The last email generated the highest open rate for the year, a whopping 64.2% open rate and a 12.7% click rate.
With firewalls and Apple's recent privacy update, these numbers can be distorted. But nevertheless, these are strong signals of the value of this newsletter.
Another important metric is the number of jobs. We have a monster lineup this issue with 37 jobs, up from 19 in January - a 94% increase in jobs. We netted 7 more roles for this issue. And we've moved into alt legal and compliance roles in addition to in-house, public interest, and law firm roles.
So to summarize the metrics:
- we doubled how many legal professionals get this email
- we doubled the number of jobs they have access to from it
- and engagement is as high as ever.
But there are metrics that are even more important: how many South Asian lawyers are getting hired and promoted. In 2022, I'll be turning attention to measuring this better and creating feedback loops to make this platform more effective.
What Pani Cooler Has Done For Me
Pani Cooler has generated an incredible amount of value for me. My network has massively increased in value, and I feel I have earned the attention and respect of one of the most valuable groups in this nation: South Asian lawyers.
In all three branches of government, in the top roles at companies and law firms, South Asian lawyers are ascending and dominating. Pani Cooler is fueling that growth, and I benefit.
This year I made tens of thousands of dollars from this free newsletter from four sources:
- clients for my legal practice
- ads from strategic partners
- sales of my guide on legal networking
- referrals for digital contracting at Ironclad
Net worth is a derivative of the network. Pani Cooler creates value for me because it creates value for its readers. In 2022, I'll continue to focus on network effects and getting more South Asian lawyers hired.
In order to keep this operation running and growing in value, I've optimized it in four key ways:
- free → builds engagement and reach
- biweekly → stays fresh but doesn't overwhelm readers or myself
- jobs/referrals → keeps it simple and readable
- direct contacts for jobs/referrals → creates network effect
The Indie Guide To Building Your Legal Network
Part of the mission of Pani Cooler is to help South Asian lawyers make the most of the powerful network of any legal professionals. I attribute any success I've had with my career to the relationships I've developed and grown. And I wrote the principles I used in The Indie Guide to Building Your Legal Network.
Here's what Amisha Patel had to say about The Indie Guide: "Your writing is clear and concise, and I like how you weave in personal anecdotes and stories from others. You also outline a very clear action plan. Even as someone not in the law school setting, I found this extremely valuable in thinking about ways to reinforce many of the lessons that needed reinforcing on how to present well in strengthening and nurturing my network."
Pick up your copy here.
The Jobs
[Subscribers Only]