So You Want to Launch a Newsletter: Tips From Substack Writers
a16z Podcast17 Sep 2020

So You Want to Launch a Newsletter: Tips From Substack Writers

This episode, part one in a two-part series on the Creator Economy, explores the process and economics behind creating an independent newsletter. In this candid conversation, host Lauren Murrow talks with four Substack writers—an artist, a technologist, a journalist, and a clinical researcher-turned-psychedelics scholar—about how to find and foster an audience, the calculus behind going paid versus unpaid, the pressure to produce, and financial benchmarks for making a living from newsletter writing.

The pandemic has prompted a reckoning within traditional media and, in parallel, a surge in the newsletter ecosystem. On Substack, readership and active writers both doubled from January through April. The newsletter hosting platform now has more than 100,000 paying subscribers.

This episode reveals the behind-the-scenes experiences of four newsletter creators, all of whom launched roughly within the past year:

Software engineer Lenny Rachitsky, most recently a growth product manager at Airbnb, whose tech-focused dispatch is called Lenny’s Newsletter.

Artist and writer Edith Zimmerman, creator of the Drawing Links newsletter, which chronicles her life and musings through comic-style illustrations.

Zach Haigney, an acupuncturist and researcher whose newsletter, The Trip Report, explores the science, policy, and business behind medicinal psychedelics.

And Patrice Peck, a freelance journalist—previously a staff writer at BuzzFeed—whose newsletter, Coronavirus News for Black Folks, highlights the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on the black community.

Listen to the end of the episode to hear more about Patrice, Zach, Edith, and Lenny's top newsletter recommendations:

Patrice’s newsletter recs:

The Intersection by Adriana Lacy

Beauty IRL by Darian Symone Harvin

Carefree Black Girl by Zeba Blay

Maybe Baby by Haley Nahman

Zach’s newsletter recs:

Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Sinocism by Bill Bishop

A Media Operator by Jacob Cohen Donnelly

Off the Chain by Anthony Pompliano

The Weekly Dish by Andrew Sullivan

Edith’s newsletter recs:

The Browser by Robert Cottrell

The Ruffian by Ian Leslie

Ridgeline by Craig Mod

Dearest by Monica McLaughlin

Why Is This Interesting? by Noah Brier and Colin Nagy

Lenny’s newsletter recs:

2PM by Webb Smith

Li’s Newsletter by Li Jin

Alex Danco’s Newsletter by Alex Danco

Turner’s Blog by Turner Novak

Next Big Thing by Nikhil Basu Trivedi

Big Technology by Alex Kantrowitz

The Profile by Polina Marinova

Everything by Nathan Baschez, Dan Shipper, Tiago Forte, and Adam Keesling

Not Boring by Packy McCormick

Illustration: Edith Zimmerman

Avsnitt(901)

a16z Podcast: The Rise of Full Stack Startups

a16z Podcast: The Rise of Full Stack Startups

Suppose you develop a new technology that is valuable to some industry. The old approach was to sell or license your technology to the existing companies in that industry. The new approach is to build a complete, end-to-end product or service that bypasses existing companies. Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon, Balaji Srinivasan and Benedict Evans discuss the reasons behind, and advantages of, going “full stack.”

27 Mars 201418min

a16z Podcast: Searching for Mobile’s Own PageRank

a16z Podcast: Searching for Mobile’s Own PageRank

The mobile experience is still in its 1995 Yahoo phase, a sea of apps and websites without an easy way to find what you want and need on your smartphone. What will be mobile’s version of PageRank, the algorithm that made the web manageable? What is the interaction model and the form - app, card, URL – that will help us find, explore and engage with people, products and services from our mobile devices? Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon, Benedict Evans and Balaji Srinivasan delve into the options.

24 Mars 201412min

a16z Podcast: Where is the Technology That "Matters?" Right Here

a16z Podcast: Where is the Technology That "Matters?" Right Here

There is a recurring theme that the tech industry is busy cranking out fluffy social apps rather than hardcore technology. Not the case, say Chris Dixon, Benedict Evans and Balaji Srinivasan. Not only are tech entrepreneurs going after the deficiencies in healthcare, transportation, finance, energy - you name it - with new approaches riding on top of sophisticated technologies, what looks like fluff today often wields some serious influence tomorrow.

21 Mars 201414min

a16z Podcast: The State of the Bitcoin Ecosystem, and a Theory on Satoshi

a16z Podcast: The State of the Bitcoin Ecosystem, and a Theory on Satoshi

Andreessen Horowitz's Chris Dixon and Balaji Srinivasan discuss the state of the Bitcoin ecosystem now that the Mt. Gox dust has settled. What's next in crypto-currency, and a theory on Bitcoin creator Satoshi (not Dorian) Nakamoto.

20 Mars 201415min

a16z Podcast: Apple and Google Won the Mobile OS War, But a New War Has Already Begun

a16z Podcast: Apple and Google Won the Mobile OS War, But a New War Has Already Begun

Apple and Google won the mobile OS war, but the next war – to build big businesses on top of Android and iOS – is just beginning. Andreessen Horowitz Partner Benedict Evans untangles what the next phase of mobile means for entrepreneurs, Apple and Google's competitors, and consumers eager for the next great gadget.

13 Mars 201427min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
badfluence
varvet
uppgang-och-fall
svd-ledarredaktionen
rss-borsens-finest
avanzapodden
borsmorgon
affarsvarlden
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
rss-dagen-med-di
dynastin
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
fill-or-kill
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
tabberaset
lastbilspodden
market-makers
ett-rikare-liv
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar