Substack: Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Substack was founded to create an escape vehicle for writers: Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie imagined a world where writers didn’t have to rely on legacy publications or corporate advertisers, but could instead create a more direct and meaningful relationship with their audience. Despite early skepticism, Chris and Hamish were confident that many people would pay a few dollars a month to subscribe to their favorite newsletters, on subjects ranging from politics to sports to tech. Today, Substack has over 35 million active users, and while many of its offerings are free, a number of its content-creators make upwards of $500,000 a year.

This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Iman Maani.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderie Plus subscribers can listen to how I built this early and ad free right now.
0:05.7	Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:10.0	I talk to lots of business owners every day, and one thing I hear over and over and over again
0:16.8	is that they can't imagine all of their success without the talented people they hire.
0:22.6	In fact, I found my amazing videographer using Indeed.
0:26.2	It was super fast and easy to use.
0:29.3	And listeners of this show will get a 100-pound sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash how I built. Just go to
0:40.7	indeed.com slash how I built right now and support our show by saying you heard about
0:47.3	indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash how I built. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need.
0:59.3	Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.
1:06.3	From household names like Mattel and Jimshark to brands just getting started.
1:11.5	Tackle all the important tasks in one place from inventory to payments to analytics and more.
1:17.5	And if you're looking to grow your business internationally, Shopify has global selling tools to help you in over 150 countries.
1:24.5	In-person, more your thing?
1:26.1	Shopify's award-winning point-of-sale connects your
1:28.7	online and offline sales all in one place. With 99.99% uptime and the best converting checkout
1:36.9	on the planet, you'll never miss a sale again, only with Shopify. Get all the big stuff
1:42.5	for your small business right with Shopify. Sign up for
1:45.7	your one pound per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.co.uk-Uk-slash-built. Go to
1:52.3	Shopify.com.uk-Uk slash built. Shopify.com.com. UK-built.
2:06.0	Whether you're starting or scaling your company's security program, demonstrating top-notch security practices and establishing trust is more important than ever.
2:10.8	Vantor automates compliance for global frameworks like ISO-2701 and SOC2, and the latest European frameworks like the EU AI Act, Dora and NIS2,
	...

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