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Chris Best

Co-Founder and CEO, Substack · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveengineer@cjgbest ↗LinkedIn ↗substack.com ↗

Chris Best is the co-founder and CEO of Substack, an online platform providing publishing and subscription monetization tools for independent writers, podcasters, and creators. Before starting Substack in 2017, he co-founded the mobile messaging application Kik Messenger and served as its Chief Technology Officer.

13statements → 6claims → 1claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 2.46/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 6said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 predictions · 2 assertions · 1 opinion · 5 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Chris argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

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

How they sound: speaking style how? →

252 words/min while actually speaking · 0.4 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Chris Best: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 28 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 4,751 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Chris Best is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 3/10
pushed back at the host 1/10
setup questions received 85%

Everything Chris Best said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

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
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
Insight
Best: Micropayments fail because decision fatigue outweighs small transaction amounts
“I think that micropayments, as we sort of traditionally think of them as like, I'm going to quickly decide whether I want to spend 20 cents unlocking this thing, just don't work on sort of a fundamental product level. I think when you decide to pay for somethi…”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 12:35 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
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
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
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
Insight
Best: Platforms dictate user behavior by controlling what actions get rewarded
“You can't really change human nature. You can't Change what people want, or how they think about the things that you're building for them, but despite not being able to change that, you can change the behavior that gets rewarded, the behavior that ends up flou…”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 3:31 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
Insight
Best: Engagement algorithms cannot solve clickbait through additional moderation rules
“If your underlying algorithm is maximizing for engagement, you're not going to be able to, like, turn up the, like, don't make bad content dial in the algorithm and have, like, a permanent fix for that.”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 15:56 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
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
Insight
Best: The core problem for modern media consumers is establishing trust
“Nobody has the problem in That I don't have enough stuff to read, or I can't find a piece that's written about a topic that I care about, or I can't find this information. The problem that people have is, can I trust this?”
Chris Best Jun 12, 2020 ▶ 9:47 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
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
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
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

The other half of the tape: Chris Best's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 6 times in 3 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 6

Every mention by year

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Substack Founder Chris Best on The Future of Public Journalism, Why The Economics Of Jun 12, 2020 20m
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