Going forward, I am not supporting any more Substack publishers.
I was once a tech worker. After wrestling with too many moral quandaries about helping bad guys grow their revenue, I quit. For good. In 2021.
Now, I'm an indie creator who helps other indie creators. For very little money. It's ok with me that it's not a lot of money because I believe that what we're doing is important. We're carving out space on the internet that has been taken from us by billionaires in media and billionaires in tech. We're reclaiming our voices away from AI and algorithms. And we're creating communities where people feel they belong at a time when we've never been more divided and lonely.
Substack runs counter to all that.
They are backed by billionaires—and some of Silicon Valley's WORST venture capitalists including Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz who hired an unqualified known murderer just to prove a political point and Peter Chernin, Rupert Murdoch's former COO at NewsCorp among other questionable characters like data schmuck Nate Silver and Skims CEO and Kardashian collaborator Jens Grede.
I have written extensively about why Substack is a problem, how they steal your audience and your revenue and how to leave. And I do not under any circumstances believe they are the right place to start your media venture now. But my bigger concern is that they are re-monopolizing media. There's a reason why their platform is so exciting to so many billionaires and I believe it's because they now see it as a place to control media and public thought. The trajectory of Substack is reminiscent of Facebook with Cambridge Analytica and Twitter with Elon Musk's buyout. It's the same reason Trump is so obsessed with TikTok. With so many mainstream news reporters from CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times opening shop there, not to mention politicians like Karen Bass and Tulsi Gabbard, Substack is becoming a major political influencer and not in a good way. The State Department's even got a Substack, for god's sake.
There is nothing "independent" about Substack.
Suffice it to say I want no part in this and I feel that me helping writers grow their audiences and revenue on Substack contributes to this dystopian future.
If I wanted to help bad guys do bad things, I'd go back to tech and at least get a cushy payout. I charge very low, accessible rates because I want to build OUTSIDE the system with you. Not directly into the pockets of billionaires.
Here's my Substack policy moving forward, as of July 2025:
For existing subscribers using Substack
I am not kicking anyone out. If you're already with me, you can stay with me, even if you plan to stay on Substack. If you'd prefer to leave my world, I'm happy to pro-rate a refund too. I understand that leaving Substack is a big decision and a complex one and I'm not trying to pressure you to do anything. Roughly 30% of my paid subscribers use Substack. I just don't want that metric becoming the majority so I'm drawing a line now. This project becomes not worth it to me at some point if so much of my work is helping Substack grow because it undermines my mission to empower independent media and independent creators.
For new subscribers using Substack
- If you are publishing on Substack as a newsletter writer, a podcaster or a livestreamer, my community is not the right space for you. There are other growth people who support Substack users and I recommend you check them out.
- If you sign up to be a free reader and you're a Substack publisher, you are welcome to stay. I'm not going to vet every newsletter reader. Know that I will not be covering tactics that work on Substack, with the exception of how to leave the platform.
- If you sign up to become a paid subscriber and you're a Substack publisher, I will refund your money so you can find a community better suited for your project. There's a checkbox on the intro form now where you can indicate that you're a Substack publisher and I'll handle the rest.
- If you sign up to attend events hosted through this blog and you're a Substack publisher, I will refund your money.
- This policy ONLY applies to Revenue Rulebreaker subscribers, including Backstage Passholders and Legends. It DOES NOT apply to anyone in the Project C community because Liz Kelly Nelson and I co-operate that together and it's important to Liz to make space for creators on all platforms.
Get in touch if you have questions: lex@revenuerulebreaker.com
What about beehiiv and other venture backed newsletter platforms? Aren't they just as bad?
I do think all venture-backed tech should have a giant warning label and I'm definitely weary of where beehiiv will go next. At this moment, they do not have a social feed or a media stream so there's no way for beehiiv or its investors to control media or public thought. beehiiv also doesn't remotely have the traction and mainstream buy-in Substack does. If any of that changes, we have a similar situation to evaluate.
With all tech—venture-backed or not—it's important that we avoid platform reliance. We are at their whims and any tech platform that can screw us over to make a buck, will do so. The way we win is by not relying on any one of them to run our whole business. Spread yourself out. Host on your own domain. Backup your audience lists. Know your distribution paths. Have alternate options ready.
Lex, you sound like an alarmist about all this!
To that I say: you need to start reading 404 Media, Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At, and Paris Marx's Disconnect.