TinyLetter had a big moment

Thankfully, the founders figured out a subtle shift in positioning around the time I joined that made a big difference. They kept all three core elements in place, but started pitching it as a newsletter platform rather than a paid publishing platform.

In its early days, Substack primarily catered to a certain set of internet-savvy writers and journalists, lured by the promise of monetizing a direct relationship with their readers. But as it morphs from a niche publishing concern into a heavyweight start-up mentioned in the same breath as Twitter and Facebook, its user base is proliferating accor... See more

The internet unlocks distribution. Traditionally, gatekeepers dictated who had influence: record labels, newspaper editors, studio executives. Now anyone can build an online community. You can share videos to YouTube, writing to Substack, music to Soundcloud