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Substack Inc.

Independent Publishing PlatformFounded 2017
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Leadership History

Substack: CEO History

3 leaders · 2017 to present

Who is the CEO of Substack?

Chris Best is the CEO of Substack, in the role since 2017.

Current CEO
Chris Best (since 2017)
Leaders documented
3
Founded
2017
NameRoleFromToYears in role
Chris BestCo-Founder and Chief Executive Officer2017Present9
Hamish McKenzieCo-Founder and Chief Writing Officer2017Present9
Jairaj SethiCo-Founder and Chief Technology Officer2017Present9

Company Overview

Substack turned the email newsletter into a paid publishing business. Writers publish posts, podcasts and videos that go to subscribers' inboxes and the Substack app; readers pay creators directly, and Substack keeps 10%. By 2025 the platform hosted writers such as Heather Cox Richardson and The Free Press, more than 50 creators earning over $1 million a year, and over 5 million paid subscriptions. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Substack is free to use for free publications. When a writer turns on paid subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of the revenue and Stripe charges its standard card fees. Substack does not run ads on publications. Revenue therefore scales with creator earnings, which is why the company invests in discovery features (recommendations, Notes, the app) that help writers sell more subscriptions.

Chris Best

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

2017 – Present

9 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

Best orchestrated the highly controversial, absolutely critical decision to offer massive cash advances to high-profile journalists (like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi) to lure them away from legacy publications like the New York Times.

Legacy

As Co-Founder and CEO, he acts as the absolute driving force behind the platform's fierce, uncompromising defense of free speech, despite massive internal and external backlash.

Source →

Hamish McKenzie

Co-Founder and Chief Writing Officer

2017 – Present

9 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

McKenzie drove the massive expansion of the 'Substack Network,' aggressively building features (like Recommendations and Notes) to transform the company from a simple email tool into a highly interconnected social media platform.

Legacy

As Co-Founder and Chief Writing Officer, he directly recruits massive literary talent and heavily shapes the company's deeply philosophical stance on the future of independent media.

Source →

Jairaj Sethi

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

2017 – Present

9 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

Sethi managed the highly complex integration of native video and podcasting capabilities directly into the Substack platform, aggressively expanding the company's footprint beyond simple text newsletters.

Legacy

As Co-Founder and CTO, he ensures the platform remains incredibly fast, reliable, and deeply integrated with Stripe for seamless creator payouts.

Source →

Challenges & Strategic Context

Substack operates at the intersection of media, politics, and technology, navigating complex content moderation and platform dynamics. Key challenges include defending against flat-fee newsletter competitors (like Beehiiv and Ghost) that target high-earning superstar writers with lower software costs, maintaining author content neutrality amidst contentious cultural debates, countering major social platforms (Meta, Twitter/X) that suppress external Substack article links in their algorithmic feeds, managing credit card churn on recurring reader subscriptions, and expanding from written newsletters into scalable multimedia video and podcast formats.

Substack CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who is the Chief Executive Officer of Substack and what was his founding role?

Chris Best is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Substack. An electrical engineer and software developer by background, Best previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of mobile messaging app Kik before conceiving Substack in 2017.

Who is Hamish McKenzie and what is his leadership role at Substack?

Hamish McKenzie is the co-founder and Chief Writing Officer (CWO) of Substack. A New Zealand-born author and former tech journalist for PandoDaily, McKenzie previously worked in communications at Tesla and Kik. At Substack, McKenzie leads writer recruitment, editorial relations, and brand advocacy.

Who is Jairaj Sethi and what is his contribution as Chief Technology Officer?

Jairaj Sethi is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Substack. A seasoned systems architect who previously led core infrastructure at Kik, Sethi engineered Substack's minimal, distraction-free publishing editor, email delivery pipelines, and the Substack Notes architecture.

What was Chris Best's educational background and early career?

Chris Best grew up in Canada and studied systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo. In 2009, he co-founded Kik Interactive, helping build Kik Messenger into one of the most popular mobile messaging platforms in the world with over 300 million registered users.

What is Hamish McKenzie's published book and journalistic background?

Hamish McKenzie is the author of "Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil" (published in 2018). His deep background in newsrooms gave him firsthand insight into the financial collapse of local newspapers and the toxic incentives of ad-driven media.

How did executive leadership respond to the Twitter/X link-blocking controversy in 2023?

When Elon Musk restricted Substack links on Twitter in April 2023, Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie stood firm on their free-expression principles, publicly defending Substack Notes as an open space for writers while refusing to modify their product to appease Twitter's ownership.

What is the leadership team's philosophy on content moderation and free speech?

Chris Best and the leadership team have consistently defended a hands-off, free-speech content moderation policy. They argue that algorithmic censorship worsens societal polarization, maintaining that in a subscription model where readers choose what to pay for, the reader is the ultimate editor.

How do the three co-founders divide daily corporate responsibilities?

Chris Best manages corporate strategy, executive hiring, investor relations, and capital allocation; Hamish McKenzie oversees writer relations, community partnerships, and public messaging; and Jairaj Sethi leads engineering squads, platform security, and product design.

Who serves on the Substack Board of Directors alongside the founders?

The Substack Board includes co-founders Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie, alongside venture partner Marc Andreessen from lead investor Andreessen Horowitz, providing strategic guidance on consumer network effects and media scaling.

What was the leadership's strategy during the 2022 tech market downturn?

In mid-2022, leadership proactively restructured the company, laying off roughly 14% of staff and tightening operating budgets to reach cash-flow independence, avoiding the need to raise dilutive venture capital on unfavorable terms.

Why did the founders open the company to equity crowdfunding on Wefunder?

The founders believed that the writers and readers who generate Substack's cultural value should share in its financial upside, raising $7.8 million from over 6,000 community members in early 2023.

What is the enduring leadership legacy of the Substack founders?

The founders demonstrated that independent writers could build sustainable, multi-million-dollar publishing empires without corporate bosses, proving that direct consumer subscriptions can rescue thoughtful journalism from algorithmic sensationalism.

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Explore Substack

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.