Substack

Substack has turned subscription publishing into a viable career path for thousands of independent creators. The platform handles newsletters, podcasts, video, community chat, and paid subscriptions under one roof, replacing the patchwork of tools most creators cobble together. Their business model is structurally different from ad-driven platforms: Substack takes a 10% cut of paid subscriptions and earns nothing from free content, which means the company's incentives align directly with creator success rather than attention capture.

The team is small relative to the platform's reach, and that shapes how people work. Engineers ship across web, iOS (Swift/SwiftUI), and Android (Kotlin/Jetpack Compose) with high autonomy and minimal process. The Community team brainstorms new products directly with CEO Chris Best, and prototypes become shipped features quickly. Everyone at the company, CEO included, rotates through customer support to stay close to creators and subscribers. The co-founder trio includes a "Chief Writing Officer," Hamish McKenzie, a former journalist and Tesla lead writer, which says something about how seriously Substack takes the craft behind its product.