Video narration
Imagine you’re a writer online: thousands of views, but your paycheck depends on ads and algorithms you don’t control. That’s the problem Substack set out to fix. The idea was simple: bring back the humble email newsletter, but add a paid “subscribe” button—so readers can directly support the writers they actually want in their inbox. Early on, it wasn’t about chasing viral clicks. It was about building a small, loyal audience and getting paid for consistent work. More writers tried it, told other writers, and those newsletters became mini businesses. And that’s Substack’s startup story: a platform that bet on direct relationships—writer to reader—at a time when most of the internet was built around attention, not trust.