Substack started by making paid publishing easier. It used those independent publications to build a shared media network with its own app, recommendations and social products.
A creator can publish a website and email newsletter without paying Substack upfront. The company earns money when readers buy subscriptions, taking a standard 10 percent of web transactions before Stripe's fees. Creators own their original work and can export the subscriber list, while Substack supplies the publishing system, billing and access to its reader network.[1][13]
The network has become the company's defining asset. Substack says it carries five million paid publication subscriptions, more than half of new subscriptions originate inside its network and more than 30 percent of paid subscriptions come from that network. Notes, Chat, podcasts and video now sit beside the email product.[2]
The first Substack was a China newsletter
Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi had worked at messaging app Kik. Hamish McKenzie came from journalism and communications at Tesla. They founded Substack in 2017 around a straightforward publishing problem: an independent writer often needed separate software for a website, email, payments and subscriber administration.[7]
Bill Bishop's China newsletter, Sinocism, became the first publication on the platform. Bishop already had a free audience when he enabled paid subscriptions on 15 October 2017. Other early writers, including Kelly Dwyer and Daniel Lavery, also brought established readership. Substack gained credible publications before it had a discovery system of its own.[8][9]
The company joined Y Combinator's winter 2018 batch and raised early financing through two SAFE agreements. Andreessen Horowitz led its first large priced round in 2019 and a $65 million Series B in 2021. Venture capital gave Substack the resources to recruit writers and turn a collection of newsletters into a network.[10][11][12]
A revenue share removed the cost of starting
Substack's 10 percent model made the software free before a publication earned money. A new writer could test an idea without paying for a content-management system, mailing provider or subscription stack. Substack's revenue then grew alongside the paid publication.
On a standard $10 monthly web subscription paid with a US card, Substack takes $1. Stripe's published card and recurring-billing charges take another $0.66, leaving about $8.34 before tax, refunds and other costs. Apple creates a different route for subscriptions purchased inside its app, where the creator can raise the iOS price or absorb the additional charge.[1][15]
The fee becomes a larger absolute cost as a publication grows. In return, Substack provides hosting, billing, subscription management, multimedia publishing and distribution inside its network. A mature publisher therefore weighs the continuing revenue share against the readers and operating simplicity the platform provides.
Substack paid to seed its early network
Substack recruited selected writers through guarantees, fellowships and a programme called Substack Pro. The company guaranteed a first-year payment and kept 85 percent of subscription revenue during that year. Afterward, the publication moved to the standard split. Recognisable writers brought audiences and demonstrated that independent paid publishing could support professional work.[16][17]
The programme was expensive. Substack's audited 2021 accounts recorded $11.9 million across its gross revenue lines and $16.7 million of writer-partnership expenses treated as a reduction of revenue. The company posted a $22.9 million net loss that year. Those accounts capture the cost of recruiting supply before recommendations and the app had matured into a distribution system.[3][18]
Substack also acquired small teams with experience in community, social products and subscription marketing. People & Company, Letter, Cocoon and Yem joined between 2021 and 2022. These were product and talent acquisitions rather than purchases of large publishing catalogues.[26][27][25][24]
Email publications became a shared media product
The Reader app launched in March 2022 and gave Substack a consumer destination. Recommendations followed one month later, allowing publications to direct subscribers toward one another. Chat added conversation around individual publications, while Notes created a short-form feed across the wider network in April 2023.[14][19][20][21]
Podcasts and video expanded the service beyond newsletters. Substack opened live video to all publishers in January 2025 and added a scrolling video feed two months later. A reader can now subscribe to a publication, receive its emails, listen to its podcast, watch video, join a chat and discover other creators without leaving Substack.[22][23]
Reader app
Gave publications a shared consumer destination without replacing email delivery.
Recommendations
Let publishers recommend one another and turned audience overlap into a distribution system.
Chat
Added private and public conversation around publications.
Notes
Created a short-form social feed and a discovery surface between full posts.
Live video
Expanded real-time video access to all publishers.
Video feed
Brought algorithmic video discovery into the app.
Creator Kits
Gave eligible publishers a private media kit and entry point to brand matching.
The shift gave Substack more influence over audience acquisition. Email delivers to readers a publisher has already reached. Recommendations, Notes and the app can introduce a publication to people elsewhere in the network. That internal distribution helps explain why a growing publisher may continue paying a revenue share rather than move to cheaper standalone software.
Subscription growth restored access to large-scale capital
Substack's paid publication subscriptions rose from 100,000 in 2020 to one million in 2021 and two million in early 2023. The company passed three million in February 2024 and five million in March 2025. One reader can pay for several publications, so the figure measures subscription relationships rather than unique paying people.[11][4][5]
The company said in June 2026 that more than 100,000 publishers earned money through subscriptions and that its ten highest-earning publishers generated more than $100 million a year combined. These company figures show that Substack can support large independent publications, although they do not describe the typical publisher's income.[36][28]
The financing path included a reversal. Substack dropped an attempted large round in 2022 and cut 13 of 94 employees as technology valuations fell. A community round in 2023 raised $7.8 million at a $585 million pre-money valuation. In July 2025, BOND and The Chernin Group led a $100 million Series C at a reported $1.1 billion valuation, funding another period of product and network expansion.[30][31][29][6]
Discovery changed Substack's responsibility for what readers see
Substack's early product resembled publishing infrastructure: readers chose newsletters and writers managed their own communities. Recommendations and algorithmic feeds created a different relationship. Substack now decides which publications and posts to place before people who did not choose them in advance.
That tension became public in late 2023 after reporting identified explicitly Nazi publications, some with paid subscriptions. Substack initially defended a narrow policy focused on incitement to violence. It removed five publications in January 2024 under that existing rule, while technology publication Platformer left the service over the company's wider position.[32][33][34][35]
The dispute matters to the business because the network is now part of Substack's value to creators. A company that supplies recommendations, social feeds and video discovery operates more than an email delivery service. Its content rules and ranking choices shape which publications gain distribution inside the product.
Substack is widening the independent-media business
Subscriptions remain Substack's main documented revenue source, but the company has started building another creator-income channel. In June 2026 it expanded a native sponsorship programme and introduced Creator Kits, allowing eligible publishers to set preferred advertising formats and budgets and opt into brand matching. The programme's platform fee and creator revenue share have not been published.[36][37]
Substack's strongest position comes from combining creator ownership of the publication and subscriber list with a network that can supply new readers. Its next phase extends that system across video, communities and sponsorships. The company's challenge is to preserve the direct publisher-reader relationship while exercising the distribution power of a media platform.