Founder Profile
Hamish McKenzie
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Hamish McKenzie?
Hamish McKenzie is a founder of Substack Inc., which was founded in 2017 with Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi.
- Company founded
- Substack Inc.
- Founded
- 2017
- Co-founders
- Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi
Background
New Zealand journalist and author.
Founding Story
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.
Sources
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