Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Substack prioritizes most valuable audiences over maximum audience size

Sachin Monga · Building Substack | Sachin Monga (Substack, Facebook) · Oct 30, 2022 · at 38:06

Sachin Monga, Head of Product at Substack, discusses Substack's strategy for positioning itself alongside top-of-funnel platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

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“If you have an audience anywhere, a sub stack's never going to be the place where you have the biggest audience probably, but it's certainly should be the place where your most valuable audience comes home to where they get your best work.”

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