Why You Are Not Bullish Enough on Substack
How Substack’s evergreen content, partnerships focus, and creator-first model are quietly becoming the best home for writers, leaders, and communities who want depth instead of drama.
I’ll start with a confession.
I should have joined Substack a year ago.
All the signs were there. Friends were nudging me. My own instincts as a product leader and futurist were flashing green. But at the same time, I was in the middle of a massive organizational shift at Microsoft focused on driving AI adoption at global scale. That is not a side project. That is an “every bit” you have is spoken for kind of season.
So I watched from the sidelines.
A few weeks ago, at the end of October 2025, I finally jumped in.
Since then I have done what any good product manager does when they land on an emerging platform that might matter. I have been digging in and experimenting, not just casually posting and browsing.
I started building a new leadership community on Substack called Leader Unlock. We are just 14 days in and already at 425+ subscribers, currently #69 Rising in Business. I have my first 4 paid subscribers and have already made a couple of hundred dollars. That is not life-changing money yet, but it is a very clear early signal that the model works.
And the more I dig in, the more clear I can see…
Substack is not just “a place to send tech newsletters.” It is quietly becoming one of the most important ecosystem for creators, leaders, and communities on the internet.
Here is why I am bullish on Substack… and why you should be too.
Substack is Built for Evergreen
Most social platforms are built around one idea:
Serve content into a noisy feed, then bury it as fast as possible so you have to post again.
That is great for ad impressions.
It is terrible for depth, learning, and legacy.
Substack is architected differently.
Articles age like books, not tweets
Your long form writing lives as a proper publication on the web, indexed for search and discoverable months or years later.
I have already seen this in my own analytics. People are still finding and commenting on essays days and weeks later, not just in the first 24 to 72 hours. That changes how you write. I stop chasing shock value and start building a library.
Notes Feel like a feed but behave like a conversation
Substack Notes gives you a lightweight timeline for quick posts, quotes, and conversations. At first glance it looks like X. But it does not behave like X.
Content is not purely “last in, first out.” It rides a network of relationships and subscriptions, and it can resurface long after the initial post if people keep engaging. There is no hard 72-hour shelf life that punishes anyone who does not live constantly online.
Chat as the relational tissue
Then there is Chat… oh how I love Chat!
You can run direct messages, small groups, or large community chats, segmented by tiers: free subscribers, paid subscribers, founders circle, VIP supporters.
For someone who has led teams for decades and pastored people for more than 20 years, this feels really important. It is not just comments under a post. It is relational direct contact.
The result is a three-layer stack:
Articles for deep, evergreen content
Notes for ongoing signal and discovery
Chat for community and belonging
All tied to email, not a fragile algorithm.
Relationship Graph is Ownable
On most social platforms, you are renting access to your audience from the algorithm.
On Substack, you actually own a direct line to the people who you are building community for.
There are four primary relationship levels:
Follow – light touch, they may see you in Notes.
Free subscribe – they get your posts and emails.
Paid subscribe – monthly or annual financial support.
VIP or founder tiers – higher commitment, higher access.
Behind that, you can segment. Special chats for paid subscribers. Private posts for VIPs. Early access for community leaders.
Technically, this matters because the platform is email-first. If Substack disappeared tomorrow, I’d still have my list. You still have your people. That is a very different power dynamic than trying to build a business on top of a social feed.
From a leadership perspective, it also lines up with what I care about most. Helping people lead with clarity, live in rhythm, and leave a legacy. You cannot do that with a one-click “like.” and then POOF they are gone… You need layers of relationship and depth.
The Business is Getting Real
I also watch platforms like an angel investor.
Is there actual money flowing, or is this just another hype cycle?
Here is the current picture in simple terms:
Millions of paid subscriptions and tens of millions of total subscriptions flowing through the platform.
Annualized revenue that is steadily climbing, not flat.
A business model where Substack takes a percentage of creator revenue, so their incentives are directly tied to creator success.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from serious investors and a valuation in unicorn territory.
Reports that the company is now cash-flow positive, with tens of thousands of creators monetizing and a small top tier earning serious money.
This is not a toy or gimmick. This is a real business with real momentum.
I am not saying there are no risks. Markets shift. Creator platforms can over-correct on growth. Some verticals feel saturated.
But zoom out.
This is a platform with real revenue, serious backing, positive cash flow, and a moat built around direct subscriber relationships. That combination is super rare!
Partnerships Everywhere
Now let’s talk about the screenshot below…
This is from LinkedIn, filtered for Substack roles.
You see things like:
Head of Entertainment Partnerships
Head of Lifestyle Partnerships
Head of Sports Partnerships
Head of Business, Tech and Finance Partnerships
Head of Partnerships, DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
Most of them are senior roles with salary bands in the 200 to 250K range, plus equity.
This is not a company dabbling in creator outreach. This is a company standing up a virtualized partnerships machine.
Here is what that likely means:
Dedicated teams will curate top voices in every major category, from sports and entertainment to tech, finance, lifestyle, and regional markets.
Brand deals, sponsorships, and partnerships will start flowing through those verticals once the infrastructure is in place.
High quality talent from traditional media and entertainment will have a clear on-ramp into Substack, with humans helping them make the jump, not just self-service docs.
I spent years at Amazon and Microsoft watching how platforms grow when they get serious about category ownership. When you see senior “Head of XYZ Partnerships” roles pop up by industry and by region, it usually signals the next phase is coming.
That is one of the reasons I am so bullish. The job board is quietly telling a story that the public narrative has not caught up to yet.
Culture Signals: Welcome Dolly Parton
Sometimes the best indicator of where a platform is going is not a spreadsheet. It is who shows up.
This week, Dolly Parton quietly launched her own Substack. Within hours she was posting in Notes, saying hello to the community and sharing stories.
Read that again.
Dolly. Parton. Joined. Substack!
You do not need to be a media analyst to understand what that means.
When an icon who has conquered traditional radio, television, film, philanthropy, and even Broadway experiments with a platform like this, it sends a signal to the rest of entertainment.
It says this is not just for niche tech newsletters anymore.
And Dolly is not alone. Actors, journalists, CEOs, and media founders are spinning up their own publications, often as their preferred place to go deeper with their audience.
Celebrity newsletters are not the main story, but they are an important proof point. When people with that many options pick the same tool you are using at your kitchen table, you should pay attention.
Younger Readers Want Depth
There is another shift happening under the surface.
Younger generations are tired.
They are not leaving the internet. They are not dropping social completely. In fact, many are still online almost constantly and still get a lot of their news from social feeds.
But trust is broken.
They see the outrage cycles, the performative posting, the shallow engagement. They are over it.
Research keeps pointing to the same pattern. Younger audiences feel that traditional media and big platforms do not really understand them. They want relevance, authenticity, and practical value.
That lines up with what I am seeing in the Substack ecosystem.
Gen Z and younger millennials are willing to pay for content if they feel genuine relationship with the creator.
They want to learn practical skills, not just consume outrage.
They would rather go deep with a few trusted voices than be pushed around by whatever the algorithm decides to show them.
Substack leans into that energy. It is not perfect. Discovery can still be clunky. The onboarding experience is confusing in places, even for someone like me who lives in tech and customer experience. But once you are set up, the tools and telemetry for building a community are surprisingly strong.
As someone who has spent decades building teams and communities, this feels like an antidote to drive-by engagement culture.
Why This Matters
So what do you do with all of this if you are a leader, manager, founder, pastor, educator, or builder in any field?
Here is my simple argument.
You should be learning Substack right now, even if you are not ready to go all in yet.
