Morning Brew Inc. believes creators are the future of business media. We aim to build sustainable creator brands that speak to a diverse slate of audiences across digital platforms. In 2023, we began working with Phil Andrews, the mind behind the data-driven economics franchise Maxinomics. Phil had a killer TikTok presence, and wanted to level up his content strategy. Joining Morning Brew Inc. gave Phil more access to production resources, collaboration opportunities with other creators, and the opportunity to experiment with new content formats. Phil and the MBI team had experimented with some longform content in 2024, but decided 2025 was the year to go all-in on YouTube. We saw untapped potential on the platform – Maxinomics’ rich, fast-paced storytelling style was a perfect match for smart, curious audiences on the platform. Building a longform content strategy on the platform isn’t easy – through strategic planning, a thoughtful approach to production, and a deep commitment to community engagement, the Maxinomics team crafted a plan for success.
The hallmark of a Maxinomics video is Phil’s deep research into every topic he covers – he spends weeks building each story, carefully planning out every beat of a viewer’s experience. This was the first year Maxinomics invested heavily in longform content, which required the team to develop a steady production workflow we could publish consistently, resulting in better traction within YouTube’s algorithm. The video team is laser-focused on developing strong visuals for every beat of a story, crafting stellar motion graphics and ambitious field production setups, like Phil filming a video inside a Waymo driving through the streets of San Francisco.
We publish a new video every 3 weeks, and aim to set each piece up for maximum success. If a video concept isn’t visual enough, or there isn’t enough substance to carry a whole video, the ideas are left on the cutting room floor. When we begin scripting our video, we have the end result in mind: the title and thumbnail a viewer will first see when encountering the video on YouTube. Phil works closely with our design and audience development team to develop strong thumbnails that effectively tell a video’s story and draft titles that hook viewers in. With that information in mind, Phil crafts video intros that flow seamlessly with our video packaging, “confirming the click” for viewers immediately. We use YouTube’s A/B/C testing tool to determine what packaging resonates best with our audience, and use test results to inform packaging strategy on our future videos.
Phil first built his brand as a shortform video creator, and has only improved the quality of his shortform content over time. For each longform video we produce, we also create custom, thematically relevant shortform pieces, as well as shortform originals that exist exclusively as vertical video. YouTube Shorts are the perfect home for timely pieces of content that would be difficult to adapt into longform stories with our rigorous production process, like Phil’s analysis of updated H1B visa policy.
Our relationship with our most dedicated fans extends beyond video, all the way to our Community Tab. We use that space to gather feedback on potential video topics, connect directly with fans, and keep the channel active between video uploads. Engaging in this space lets us create a true community on the channel – instead of dropping a new video and ignoring our comments, we’re bringing the Maxinomics audience behind the scenes and developing content with their input in mind.
Our investment in longform resulted in explosive growth on YouTube. Maxinomics generated 15 million longform views in 2025, a 2,807% increase compared to 2024. Our YouTube Shorts views tripled in 2025, as we garnered over 33 million views. We increased Community Tab impressions by 350%, garnering over 312K impressions and improving community engagement.
The story of this channel isn’t just about its incredible reach – it’s about the way audiences have signaled their commitment to growing with Maxinomics. We started the year with roughly 56K subscribers, and closed out 2025 with more than 382K subscribers. That’s 6.8X the subscriber base we had at the start of our longform journey. The channel has continued its rapid growth in 2026, as audiences continue to invest their time in Maxinomics content.
The story of Maxinomics’ YouTube growth is only just beginning. The real test of a channel is its ability to sustain audience interest over time, and in 2026 we intend to continue delivering hit videos to our audience and deepening the 2-way relationship between Phil and his fans.