Nilay Patel talks to Chris Best, cofounder and CEO of Substack, the subscription newsletter startup that’s taken the media industry by storm over the past few months.
The conversation explores how Substack's business model could potentially impact the media industry, but also dives into the basic questions about running a media company -- how Substack makes ... Show More
Yesterday
The end of the human internet
Hey everyone, this is Nick Statt, senior producer on Decoder. We’re taking a brief publishing break while Nilay is out on vacation. We’ll resume regular programming next week, and we’ve got some great episodes in the works. In the meantime, we wanted to share an episode from the ... Show More
43m 4s
Jul 23
What Apple’s OpenAI lawsuit is really about
Today, I’m talking with Hayden Field, The Verge’s senior AI reporter, about the major trade secrets lawsuit between Apple and OpenAI, and what this tells us about OpenAI’s future. Hayden has been covering OpenAI for years now, and she also just talked to a bunch of lawyers who sp ... Show More
44m 5s
Sep 2025
Chris Best of Substack on the Future of Media
<p>What if the future of media isn’t controlled by algorithms or legacy institutions—but by independent voices building directly with their audiences?</p><p>In this episode, Erik Torenberg is joined by Chris Best, cofounder and CEO of Substack, along with a16z general partners Ka ... Show More
46m 23s
Jun 2024
Is the NY Times Just a Gaming Platform?
Even the Grey Lady struggles to profit from the news. This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Semafor founder Ben Smith to discuss media profit models, the impact of Google’s AI on the news biz, and the TikTok-ification of information. In the Plus ... Show More
43m 47s
Jun 2022
How to Grow a SaaS Startup -- Niklas Dorn // Filestage
<p>Niklas Dorn, CEO of Filestage, talks about the importance of an optimal martech stack. Filestage has gone from being a bootstrapped company to a market leader in content review and approval platform for marketing teams. As a SaaS company, they were able to scale their product ... Show More
19m 21s
May 2018
#34 Can Storytime Become Big Business?
Max Tuchman is on a roll with Caribu, an app that lets parents and kids read together virtually. But can she convince investors that early success will lead to future returns? Today's investors are Jillian Manus, Michael Hyatt, Nicole Verkindt and Charles Hudson. Learn more about ... Show More
30m 46s
Jun 2023
#282 – Media vs Tech, Twitter Monsters, and Making Millions From Content with Steph Smith of a16z
Steph Smith (@stephsmithio) talks making millions in content subscriptions, working at a16z, putting the AI genie back in the bottle, thread boys on Twitter, educational vs entertainment podcasts, and media companies that monetize aspiring entrepreneurs with Courtland (@csallen) ... Show More
1h 4m
<p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>What does it take to grow a thriving newsletter with 60,000+ engaged readers all while working full-time as a CFO? </p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>CJ Gustafson, from Mostly Metrics, is on this week's episode of the Niche ... Show More
