Substack

15 statements across 5 episodes · 7 bullish · 5 bearish · 5 people on the record · first statement Jun 12, 2020 by Chris Best · said 98 times in 22 episodes since 2020 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (60), Mike Mignano (8), Chris Best (5), Ryan Wiggins (3), Katherine Boyle (3), Jason Lemkin (3), Anthony Casalena (3), Logan Bartlett (2)

tap a year for its mentions
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0482020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
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2026 12 mentions in 3 episodes 4 per episode
2025 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2024 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2023 10 mentions in 2 episodes 5 per episode
2022 5 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
2021 3 mentions in 1 episode
2020 61 mentions in 7 episodes 9 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Substack, oldest first

Jun 12, 2020
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Best: Some users subscribe to 25 individual Substack newsletters
“There are people who subscribe to 25 sub-stacks.”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 19:45 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jun 12, 2020 positive
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Best: Bundle economics will become important for subscription newsletters
“I think, you know, bundle economics are very real. That's definitely a thing that will become interesting.”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 20:31 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jun 12, 2020 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Best: The shift away from traditional media will not reverse post-pandemic
“COVID has just accelerated that pre-existing trend. And that's something that's not gonna, you're not gonna turn back time on that after that happens.”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 8:17 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jun 12, 2020 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Best: Direct subscriptions yield higher quality media than engagement algorithms
“A system where people are paying directly to writers they trust is going to create better, more trustworthy content, more trustworthy relationships, more valuable culture at the end of the day than a system where people are trying to like game the engagement a…”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 16:48 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jun 12, 2020 negative
Insight
Best: Imposed content bundles destroy direct reader-writer relationships
“The trick is that you have to do it intelligently. You can't come in and impose bundles on people, because then it kills that golden goose of the direct relationship between readers and writers.”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 21:25 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jun 12, 2020 bullish
Assertion Supported
Best: Consumers pay more for single Substack writers than Netflix subscriptions
“People are willing to pay more to subscribe to one writer on Substack than they'll pay for, like, Netflix, because this sort of relationship that they've built up over time reading somebody has so much value to them.”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 17:15 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jun 12, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Best: Substack advises writers to publish their best work for free
“Our emphatic advice to writers is take your best stuff, take your most impactful stuff, and publish that for free.”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 8:58 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jun 12, 2020 negative
Opinion
Best: Society is massively underinvesting in funding independent creators
“I believe that it's sort of massively too little and that the ecosystem we have for a Funding creators, and a lot of it is valuing and funding creators, but really the net thing is funding creators in such a way that it causes great work to be done, that it ca…”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 28:49 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jun 12, 2020 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Best: Digital media will bifurcate into global juggernauts and niche publications
“No, I think that's exactly right. I mean, I think this is the thing you get when the internet creates kind of a global marketplace for things is you want to be the best in the world at something. And that either means being the best in the world by being reall…”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 11:22 20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Attention Have Been Flipped & Why Micropayments For Content Will Not Work
Jul 10, 2020 neutral
Opinion
Mather: Substack is capturing the opportunity Medium had and missed
“I think if you look at what happened with Substack, to just take a second to look at that business, and it's a wonderful product, a wonderful founding team, and they're much more competitive with, say, Medium. And we don't necessarily look at them as competito…”
Alex Mather Jul 10, 2020 ▶ 26:24 20VC: The Future of Subscription Media, Why Startups Need To Stop Blaming Facebook and Google & How Founders Should Think Through Customer Acquisition Channel Dependencies with Alex Mather, Founder & CEO @ The Athletic
Oct 1, 2020 bullish
Assertion Supported
Boyle: Substack and Patreon Let Creators Out-Earn Legacy Media Institutions
“You get amazing companies like Substack and Patreon and other creator-led companies that allow the creator to make more money than they could in these bloated institutions.”
Katherine Boyle Oct 1, 2020 ▶ 32:34 20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S
Oct 1, 2020
Opinion
Boyle: Media Is Narrowing Into Private Channels Due To Social Backlash
“And so I very much believe that we've entered a time where it's very difficult to say what you believe, and that's why these narrow communities and these, you know, whether it's a Substack newsletter or whether it's a signal channel where you can talk to a sma…”
Katherine Boyle Oct 1, 2020 ▶ 34:19 20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S
May 9, 2023 bearish
Prediction Held up
Paik: Substack faces margin compression as top creators negotiate down take rates
“And I would expect that business model to have a leaky bucket at the top or at best get margin compressed at the top. So you have the best, like the people that have the most distribution that are the best for the platform from marketing perspective, dramatica…”
Chris Paik May 9, 2023 ▶ 1:43:24 Chris Paik: How I Raised $400M; Substack's Broken Business Model; Music on TikTok vs IG | E1011 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Mignano: Lightspeed's biggest regret was passing on Substack over price
“So one company that I would have loved to invest in a long time ago, which we didn't at Lightspeed, we met them a few times and I think we could never really wrap our head around Kind of price. Also at the time where they fit in the market. Now I think with th…”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 59:14 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 6, 2026 bullish
Opinion
Mignano: No company except X has enabled self-publishers better than Substack
“And I think no company, maybe other than X, has done a better job of that than Substack.”
Mike Mignano Jul 6, 2026 ▶ 1:00:02 Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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