Substack Inc.
Company History
Substack History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 2017 in San Francisco, California, United States
When was Substack founded?
Substack was founded in 2017 in San Francisco, California, United States by Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi, making it 9 years old.
- Founded
- 2017
- Founding place
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Founders
- Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi
- Headquarters today
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Milestones documented
- 10 (2017–2026)
- Current CEO
- Chris Best
- Acquisitions
- 3
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Substack founded in San Francisco |
| 2017 | Bill Bishop Launches Sinocism as First Substack Publication |
| 2019 | $15.3M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz |
| 2020 | The Great Media Exodus & COVID-19 Newsletter Boom |
| 2021 | $65M Series B at $650M Valuation Led by a16z |
| 2022 | Launches Substack Reader Mobile App and Substack Chat |
| 2023 | Launches Substack Notes & Raises $7.8M Community Crowdfund |
| 2024 | Passes 3 million paid subscriptions |
| 2025 | $100M Series C at $1.1B valuation |
| 2026 | Data breach disclosed |
- Where was Substack founded?
- Substack was founded in San Francisco, California, United States in 2017.
- Who founded Substack?
- Substack was founded by Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi.
- When did Substack start?
- Substack was founded in 2017.
- How old is Substack?
- Substack is 9 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Chris Best, a Kik co-founder, and journalist Hamish McKenzie started Substack in 2017 with Kik engineer Jairaj Sethi, aiming to give writers a business model that did not depend on advertising. China analyst Bill Bishop's Sinocism newsletter was the first paid publication on the platform, and Substack joined Y Combinator's Winter 2018 batch.
Founders
Chris Best
Chris Best is the co-founder and CEO of Substack. Before Substack he co-founded Kik. He has led the company through its Series A (2019), Series B (2021), 2023 community round and $100 million Series C (2025), and has publicly defended Substack's hands-off approach to content moderation. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Hamish McKenzie
Hamish McKenzie co-founded Substack in 2017. A former tech journalist (and early Tesla employee), he was deeply frustrated by the catastrophic collapse of the traditional media business model, which relied entirely on highly toxic, clickbait advertising. He helped conceive Substack's absolute core thesis: allowing writers to monetize their most loyal readers directly through subscriptions. Hamish McKenzie was born in 1981.
Jairaj Sethi
Jairaj Sethi co-founded Substack in 2017. As the absolute critical technical architect (and former lead developer at Kik Messenger), he built the incredibly robust underlying email and payment infrastructure required to reliably deliver millions of newsletters and securely process massive volumes of Stripe subscription payments without failure. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Key Milestones
Substack founded in San Francisco
Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi founded Substack to build subscription publishing for writers.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBill Bishop Launches Sinocism as First Substack Publication
China analyst Bill Bishop moved his Sinocism newsletter to Substack, proving that writers could earn six figures directly.
Source: en.wikipedia.org$15.3M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz
a16z led a $15.3 million Series A.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe Great Media Exodus & COVID-19 Newsletter Boom
Prominent journalists (Matt Taibbi, Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Greenwald) left corporate media to build independent Substack empires.
Source: en.wikipedia.org$65M Series B at $650M Valuation Led by a16z
Valuation surged to $650 million, crossing 1 million paid subscriptions and launching Substack Pro.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLaunches Substack Reader Mobile App and Substack Chat
Debuted dedicated consumer mobile reading app and subscriber-only chat rooms.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLaunches Substack Notes & Raises $7.8M Community Crowdfund
Debuted Substack Notes to rival Twitter/X, raising $7.8M from 6,700+ community investors on Wefunder.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPasses 3 million paid subscriptions
Substack said in 2024 that creators had passed 3 million paid subscriptions.
Source: en.wikipedia.org$100M Series C at $1.1B valuation
BOND and The Chernin Group led the round, with a16z, Rich Paul and Jens Grede participating.
Source: variety.comData breach disclosed
Substack disclosed on February 5, 2026 that user emails, phone numbers and internal metadata were accessed in October 2025.
Source: techcrunch.comMajor Acquisitions
People & Company
2021Acquired the community-building consultancy People & Company to support writers in building communities around their publications.
Yem
2022Startup for organic audience growth tools.
Letter
2021Public correspondence tools.
Keep researching Substack
Substack Company History FAQ
When, where, and by whom was Substack originally founded?
Substack was founded in 2017 in San Francisco, California, by Chris Best (co-founder and former CTO of messaging app Kik), Hamish McKenzie (a former tech journalist at PandoDaily and author), and Jairaj Sethi (former head of platform at Kik).
What core thesis inspired the creation of Substack in 2017?
The founders were inspired by Chris Best's manifesto, "A Better Future for the News." They argued that the advertising-funded internet model inherently corrupted journalism by incentivizing clickbait, rage-baiting algorithms, and sensationalism. To revive thoughtful writing, they created a platform allowing readers to pay writers directly through recurring subscriptions.
Who was Substack's first flagship writer and what did his launch prove?
Substack's first publisher was Bill Bishop, author of the authoritative China analysis newsletter Sinocism. In October 2017, Bishop transitioned his free daily email to a paid model on Substack ($15/month or $168/year), generating six figures in subscription revenue within hours and validating that readers would pay for specialized, independent analysis.
What was the controversial "Substack Pro" program?
Launched in 2020, Substack Pro offered prominent journalists (including Matthew Yglesias, Glenn Greenwald, and Matt Taibbi) guaranteed six-figure upfront cash advances to leave legacy media institutions (like Vox and Rolling Stone) and launch independent newsletters on Substack, with Substack taking 85% of first-year subscription revenue before reverting to its standard 10% cut.
How did Substack expand into podcasting and multimedia?
In 2019, Substack introduced native podcast hosting, allowing audio creators to publish free and paid audio feeds with custom RSS links. It subsequently introduced audio voiceover narrations read by authors, integrated video podcasting, and live subscriber chat threads.
What is Substack Notes and why did it launch in April 2023?
Substack Notes is a short-form, microblogging social feed launched in April 2023. Unlike traditional social media platforms designed to keep users scrolling ads, Notes was engineered to help writers discover one another and drive subscriber growth, with writers sharing quotes, thoughts, and newsletter previews.
What was the public clash between Substack and Elon Musk's Twitter/X in 2023?
When Substack launched Notes in April 2023, Twitter/X owner Elon Musk viewed it as a direct threat. Twitter temporarily blocked Substack links from being liked, retweeted, or searched, falsely flagging Substack as "unsafe." The aggressive censorship backfired, driving massive public sympathy, creator solidarity, and record traffic to Substack.
How much capital has Substack raised and who are its primary investors?
Substack raised over $80 million across Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z - Marc Andreessen), Y Combinator (W18 batch), and prominent angels. Substack reached a $650 million valuation in its 2021 Series B round.
Why did Substack launch a community crowdfunding campaign in 2023?
In March 2023, rather than raising traditional venture capital during a tech market downturn, Substack opened a community crowdfunding round on Wefunder. Over 6,000 writers, readers, and creators invested $7.8 million at the previous $650 million valuation cap, cementing community ownership.
How did high-profile journalistic migrations validate Substack's model?
Prominent writers—including Bari Weiss (founding The Free Press, which grew to over 500,000 subscribers before launching a media network), Casey Newton (Platformer), Judd Legum (Popular Information), and Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American)—proved that independent writers could earn millions annually outside corporate newspapers.
What is Substack's content moderation philosophy regarding free speech?
Substack adheres to a free-expression philosophy: it does not deploy algorithmic feeds that optimize for outrage, and it allows creators to write without corporate editorial censorship. Substack moderates content strictly through its terms of service, banning explicit calls to violence, harassment, and illegal conduct while allowing lawful controversial opinions.
How large is Substack's publishing network today?
Substack hosts tens of thousands of active writers reaching over 35 million monthly active subscriptions, with millions of paid subscriptions generating over $300 million in cumulative payouts to independent creators worldwide.
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