Saved by sari and
Explaining a16z's Investment in Substack
Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi started Substack in 2017, but their history dates back years before. Chris co-founded the anonymous posting app Kik during his third year at the University of Waterloo (2010). He spent the better part of eight years at the company where he met his soon-to-be co-founders. When Chris left Kik in early 201
... See moreAli Abouelatta • ✍️ Substack
The recent history of the Internet, however, warns that we shouldn’t necessarily expect the endearingly homegrown nature of these 1,000 True Fans communities to persist. When viable new economic niches emerge online, venture-backed businesses, looking to extract their cut, are typically not far behind. Services such as Patreon and Kickstarter are j... See more
Cal Newport • The Rise of the Internet’s Creative Middle Class
In 2019, the platform raised $15.3 million from one of the most well-known venture capital firms in Silicon Valley—Andreesen Horowitz (a16z). This means some very smart people are betting on the growth of the category of “paid newsletters” for writers and media creators. If this category continues to grow, and Substack is the designer of this categ
... See moreNicolas Cole • The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention
For example, the next writing platform I am paying close attention to these days is Substack. Substack is aiming to be the “social” writing platform for paid newsletters. The reason I say “social” is because, unlike true social platforms where the purpose is to browse and scroll, Substack actually operates much closer to a tool for writers rather t
... See more