# How Substack Won Over the Internet | First Time Founders with Ed Elson Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGFnfAEBV5U Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/FGFnfAEBV5U Generated: 2026-02-01T13:32:31.087+00:00 --- ## Quick Overview Substack won over the internet by creating a new economic engine for culture, focusing on aligning the platform's success with the creators' success through a subscription-based model, which addresses the profound collapse of trust in mass media and the need for independent voices. **Key Points:** - Trust in mass media is at a record low, with only about a third of Americans meaningfully trusting major outlets to report news fully and fairly. - Substack's core innovation is building a new economic engine for culture, pivoting from the failing ad-supported social media model to direct reader subscriptions. - The initial success was demonstrated when the very first customer, Bill Bishop, saw six figures roll in within hours of launching his paid newsletter on Substack's early version. - Substack aims to be the intellectual and cultural capital of the internet, a 'city in the astral plane' where creators can own their space and have creative freedom. - CEO Chris Best notes that the platform's rules, specifically the economic incentives (taking 10% fee) and allowing audience export via email, yoke the platform to serving creators' actual value. - Substack introduced 'Notes' and video to address creator growth challenges, realizing that successful creators still needed a way to grow audiences without relying solely on external platforms like Twitter, which have conflicting incentives. - The platform offers an alternative to media consumed as a 'drug' (like TikTok's focus on immediate feeling), positioning itself as media that helps users 'learn what to want' and participate meaningfully in culture. **Context:** The interview features Ed Nelson speaking with Chris Best, CEO and co-founder of Substack, about the platform's rise amid a crisis of confidence in traditional mass media and layoffs across the journalism industry. Best frames this shift as a technologically driven revolution where the internet smashed old business models, leading to a period of cultural churn that Substack seeks to resolve by empowering independent creators. ## Detailed Analysis Chris Best explains that Substack emerged from his frustration with the internet's media economy, specifically the lack of a viable business model for writers who believed in their work, contrasting the declining legacy media and the attention-economy trap of social media. He posits that Substack's core is its economic bargain: enabling creators to build direct relationships and monetize them through subscriptions, which fundamentally aligns the platform's success with the writers' success, unlike ad-supported models. This is evidenced by the immediate success of their first customer, Bill Bishop, and Substack's growth continuing robustly past the COVID-19 stimulus bump. Best clarifies that while Substack incorporates social features like 'Notes' (micro-blogging) and video, it is not trying to out-compete platforms like TikTok in pure addictive engagement; rather, it offers a necessary alternative where the goal of media is not just momentary feeling but learning what one values. He describes Substack as a 'city in the astral plane' where intellectual and cultural elites increasingly establish their presence, characterized by diversity, ownership of audience (via email export), and an economic structure where the platform only profits when creators profit, ensuring the rules of the game promote quality over mere attention aggregation. ### Context of Media Collapse - Trust in mass media is at a record low, with only a third trusting major outlets fully and fairly - This instability pushes audiences toward trusted voices and creators toward independent businesses. ### Substack's Founding Philosophy - Best started Substack while writing an essay outlining frustrations with the media economy, believing people would pay for trusted voices directly - The initial curiosity that people would pay for online content is now felt viscerally by the public. ### The Economic Engine - Substack's core is building a new economic engine for culture, moving beyond blogging without a business model to paid newsletters - Substack takes 10% of creator revenue, forcing alignment where the platform succeeds only if creators succeed by producing valuable content. ### Early Validation and Growth - The first customer, Bill Bishop, saw six figures in revenue within hours of launching, validating the paid subscription concept - COVID-19 accelerated existing trends by shifting economic activity online, but Substack's underlying premise about attention scarcity remains the driver. ### Evolution Beyond Writing - Substack integrated 'Notes' and video to help creators grow audiences, acknowledging that creators previously relied on external platforms like Twitter, which have misaligned incentives - This integration seeks a balance, avoiding the 'eat your vegetables' blandness while steering clear of the attention-drug 'hellscape' of pure engagement feeds. ### The Platform's Culture - Best describes Substack as an 'index fund of culture' and aspires for it to be the intellectual and cultural capital of the internet - The rules of the game—the economic incentives—are what create a more civil and valuable space, contrasting with ad-based platforms that optimize for time spent regardless of value.