added by sari · updated 2y ago
Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack
- Email subscriptions don’t have network effects by themselves. Right now, there isn’t a large switching cost for a creator to leave Substack – the creator owns their email list and content. The interesting part, however, comes in when the platform provides enough value that a writer would lose subscribers by switching platforms and when subscribers ... See more
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago
- Ad networks, most notably Facebook and Google, provided solutions to advertisers’ buying problems. The main thing they provided was more data on consumers.
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago
- Substack has a business model that creates unique unit economics. Substack isn’t trying to build the next The Economist or The Athletic. It’s not branded; the consumer doesn’t need to know what Substack is. Instead, the growth will come from consumers resonating with individual creators.
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago
- Email could be the wrong entry into paid content. Audio, video or something else could be a better wedge
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago
- Journalists might want to be under a brand instead of on independent platforms
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago
- Another problem with this advertiser relationship with websites was logistics. Not only was it hard to decide which websites to buy ads on, but it was hard to coordinate. Each website often had their own ad sales team and there wasn’t enough time and resources as a buyer to deal with all these sales teams.
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago
- There may be fewer niche communities online and lower intent to pay for a subscription
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago
- Overall, building subscription businesses is a great way to incentive creators to make their best content. Paying for content is a signal that users trust and value content creators instead of relying on ads to pay for content creation.
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago
- Consumers may not be willing to pay subscriptions for writing. Or, there may not be a combined $1B/year of demand for writing subscriptions
from Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack by Adam Keesling
sari added 2y ago