Patel says email capture growth accelerated dramatically on Substack but fell back after leaving despite SEO work.
“And then I added Substack and growth went like this. And then I left Substack and it went back to like this, the email capture.”
Patel says as the largest technology Substack, the 10% platform fee is worth paying for the growth.
“Even though a 10% cut sounds like a lot, I'm the largest technology substack and I'm telling you that it's worth it.”
Patel says as the largest technology Substack, the 10% fee is worth it for the growth.
“I'm the largest technology substack and I'm telling you that it's worth it. And so, you can think, Oh, I can save the 10%, but actually the growth is all there. Hell yeah.”
Patel says Substack monetization reached hundreds of thousands in months, then millions before he left the platform.
“It got to a few $100,000 of revenue and I was like, Holy crap. And then I was able to start hiring. And then I left when we hit a few million of revenue.”
Patel ran SemiAnalysis full-time for 18 months before monetizing, reaching hundreds of thousands in revenue within months on Substack.
“So I was doing semi analysis for a year and a half full time before I actually launched monetization with Substack. And then that really took off within just a handful of months.”
Patel argues Substack enables sustainable media monetization through audience discovery and direct reader payment.
“And I think Substack has really done something interesting there where it enabled people to monetize their business in a way Or one, get the eyeballs, and two, monetize their business in a way that it's actually sustainable.”
Patel says email growth slowed significantly after leaving Substack despite having dedicated SEO staff.
“And then I left Substack and it went back to like this, the email capture.”
Patel left Substack initially after reaching a few million in revenue to avoid the 10% fee.
“And then I left when we hit a few million of revenue. More and more of the revenue was coming from not Substack. The reason was like, Hey, Substack takes 10%.”
Patel says his Substack revenue alone reached multi-million dollars, sufficient to fund significant coverage.
“Now, scaled to be And it has scaled to be multi million dollar Substack revenue.”
Patel says Substack revenue alone reached multi-million dollars before expanding beyond the platform.
“Now, scaled to be And it has scaled to be multi million dollar Substack revenue. Obviously, built a lot of business beyond that, even that is good enough”