This Week in Startups E1016: Substack CEO & Co-Founder Chris Best empowers writers via his email newsletter platform, shares insights on driving change in the attention economy, raising $15M from a16z, providing value to retain talent & more
Jan 7, 2020
Chris Best, Co-founder and CEO of Substack, shares his journey of empowering writers through his email newsletter platform. He discusses the pitfalls of ad-driven algorithms by major tech giants and Substack's role in remedying these issues. Best dives into securing a $15M investment from a16z while having only three employees, exploring the shift in the attention economy toward quality subscriptions. He also highlights the challenges of managing content and the potential for collaboration among writers, all while questioning the future landscape of content creation.
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Kik Messenger
- Chris Best, CEO of Substack, co-founded Kik, a messaging service.
- Kik was later sold and now contains ads, which Best finds unfortunate.
Context Matters
- Online communication context significantly impacts interactions.
- Direct channels, unlike social media, offer more control and better relationships.
Direct Channel
- Email newsletters provide a direct channel to the audience, unlike social media.
- This is crucial in today's mobile-first world, where content discoverability is limited.