TLDR

About TLDR

TLDR is a daily tech newsletter that delivers curated summaries of the most important stories in startups, technology, and programming in a five-minute read format. Founded by Dan Ni in August 2018 as a personal side project, the newsletter started as curated summaries of tech news pulled from sources like Hacker News and Reddit . Ni, a Yale-educated entrepreneur who previously built Scraper API (a web data tool he scaled to approximately $4 million in annual recurring revenue) , designed TLDR to keep busy professionals informed with bite-sized content delivered every weekday morning.

In its first 20 months, TLDR grew from zero to 130,000 subscribers , and reached 1 million subscribers in early 2023 . As of 2025, TLDR operates as a modern media company with 10 curated newsletters serving over 8 million readers across specialized topics including AI, web development, crypto, and information security. The newsletter generates approximately $5 million per year in revenue through strategic advertising placements, remarkably run by Ni as a solo operator with no employees . TLDR has established itself as one of the leading tech newsletters by maintaining consistent quality and leveraging paid advertising as a primary growth strategy.