Thanks for the shout-out, Karo — and wow, this is a thinky piece. You clearly put real time and brainpower into it.
Substack’s architecture and product design are absolutely worth studying, and what’s wild is how much of it creators never even see in the UI (yet). I’ve spent the last 14+ months poking around their undocumented backend APIs, and honestly… every debug session feels like opening a Kinder egg. Always some new surprise inside.
Your take on the business model and discovery mechanics really lands. Relationships matter way more than people want to admit. Right now, recommendations are driving about 2× as many subscribers as Notes, and I’m seeing the same pattern across other creators too.
I especially liked your point about trust taking time. It naturally kills off “guru mode” and rewards “build in public” behavior instead — more touchpoints, more context, more real signals that a creator is actually doing the work.
I’m saving this one because it’s the kind of post you have to reread to fully digest.
Thank you so much, Finn!!! You're basically doing the nerdiest possible version of field research and I'm here for it 😂. Very interesting about recommendations driving 2x as many subscribers as Notes, was it always like this for you?
Thanks so much for the shout out! I trust you enough to recommend your work without reading it…although I always read your posts because they’re great! 🤗
Agree that Substack has a unique model for encouraging publications to reward readers over advertisers, and I’m curious how or if this might change as Substack rolls out its sponsorship network. 🤔
Also, Substack really needs to make tax and compliance easier for small creators…saying this as I look into whether I need to register as an EU business entity and pay VAT tax on my handful of paid subscribers in Europe. 🫠
Do you need to do that? I had no idea! In Denmark nearly everything tax related is automated and linked to my personal number that is linked to my Stripe account. I just need to store the invoices.
I was thinking of including the sponsorship network in the post too, but I simply don't know enough about it yet, I'm also curious to see what it'll change.
It’s complicated, but once you sell enough goods or services to customers in another state (measured by number of transactions or monetary value), you have a tax “nexus” there and have to register with that states’s sales tax authority. For now, I’m in no danger of hitting either threshold! 😂
The joy of working for yourself! I cannot imagine the nightmare that comes with hitting these thresholds. As per Karo, we might need to consider moving to Denmark for those simplified ways... 😂
Gosh, this part with the taxes is crazy. I was just looking into it this week. Lucky for us, in the US, once you exceed the thresholds you can pay for Stripe monthly to file for taxes & basically do everything for you (it's not that cheap once you have lots of transactions, but at least there's a solution for it).
For EU countries you can apply for: https://vat-one-stop-shop.ec.europa.eu/one-stop-shop_en rather than registering in each country individually. In my case, since I'm in an EU country, I need to exceed 10,000EUR per year to register for it, but I don't know if that applies to people outside of Europe. Worth investigating.
For other countries is preeeetty tricky, you kind of need to register in each individually, which is a huge headache.
We just need someone with experience on this to write it!
definitely not me haha - the topic bores me & also annoys me😂 and I also don’t have experience with taxes anyway. I just chatted with the Stripe bot (for far too long) until I partially understood how it works.
💯 I’m with you on the annoyance factor. Since I’m planning a Spanish-language version of CarouselBot, I opted for a merchant of record—I want as little to do with tax and accounting as possible! 😂
Thank you so much for the mention Karo. But even more importantly think you for the reminder that it is ok to grow and change and branch! I have definitely evolved as a writer since I started Slow AI. And also the direction has evolved as I realised what the future of critical AI literacy looked like and crucially how I could learn from others on this platform and amplify their voices without feeling threatened. You may not be a guru, but you are a guide I would always choose to follow. 🙏
This is such a generous comment Sam! And that's exactly right, we're all learning from each other here, all the time. That's the best part. I’d be curious to learn more about how your thinking on Slow AI has changed over time🤗
This is my favorite part of Substack: "Writers recommend writers. Not machines. People." I like you thought I wouldn't pay for subscriptions but the time and energy those I do save me are worth the weight in my sheckles. And I know as I grow I will be able to find those who are a few steps ahead to learn from.
This is a great breakdown, I never thought of this before but it totally makes sense: how the platform is designed is a huge part (if not the whole reason) why it's such a great space and perfect for the anti-guru 😊 it's interesting as I've seen some of them come here with their tactics that work on Instagram... we'll see how that shakes down for them. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the garden.
Me too, I'm on team garden🤗 And you're right, you can almost see when someone brings their X/Instagram tactics over. It'd be interesting to monitor how they evolve. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment!
Karo, I’m genuinely touched! 🙏 To be on a list of writers you’d "like before reading" is the ultimate win to me. And, to be honest, it's true in both ways!
You just explained it perfectly: the change from hub-and-spoke to mesh networks. Making anything (like a product or a newsletter) is about something more meaningful. I've realized that lately, it's about creating human experiences.
Format-as-feature" is a great way of explaining it! AI can create an expert-style authority quickly, but it can't produce the critical thinking that your architecture needs from a reader. Which explains very well why long-form content is the best way to stand out from content that has become boring and similar to all the others.
I'm honored to be part of the garden you're describing and be in this masterpiece! :)
Yes, creating human experiences may be the key here. You've articulated it much better than me heheh 😂 Grateful to be building this mesh together with you!
I’m so relieved to be in a space that isn’t drowning in guru energy. I burned out on social media and those endless “expert” reels after spending years post‑Covid glued to my screen. Discovering Substack reminded me how much I actually love reading. It's a special place, even if you’re just here to read and haven’t started writing yet.
I just hope it can stay this way… otherwise I may have to give up on the internet altogether 😂
Hehe :) I know exactly the feeling you’re describing, Cara (about post-Covid social media and then finding Substack). Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment! 🤗
What an impressive analysis, I learned a lot from this. I’m not very familiar with product theory, so I hadn’t realized just how much thought goes into these decisions. Really impressive work, thank you for sharing it.
Karo!! I'm in such good company here ❤️❤️ Thank you for including me, genuinely means a lot coming from you!!
And I agree with everything you said. A lot of platforms build "walls" and they call that retention. I feel like Substacks' saying that they'll make leaving easy and bet on being worth staying for. It's such a different relationship with your users and it shows up everywhere in the culture.
Oh Karo, this resonates so much. I love Substack for exactly these reasons. And I love how many incredible humans and writers I’ve met here and that strange feeling that I’ve known some of you for years.
Thank you so much for the mention. I feel lucky we crossed paths 💜
Karo, it’s so thoughtful of you to write this article! I admire every one of the Substackers you shouted out (you included, of course!). Each of you has a unique voice here that I’m constantly learning from and that keeps reshaping my thinking.
Thank you, Karo for writing this article. Very insightful. What I love about Substack the most is writers recommending writers and not the machines. It is a human centric approach and not the model at the center. This flips everything on its head to create a truly authentic community that comes together because they like and trust one another.
It lines up with what we see in product worlds too: if the system rewards shallow signals, you get shallow output. Here the incentives are trust over clicks, and that changes what gets built and shared.
Thanks for the shout-out, Karo — and wow, this is a thinky piece. You clearly put real time and brainpower into it.
Substack’s architecture and product design are absolutely worth studying, and what’s wild is how much of it creators never even see in the UI (yet). I’ve spent the last 14+ months poking around their undocumented backend APIs, and honestly… every debug session feels like opening a Kinder egg. Always some new surprise inside.
Your take on the business model and discovery mechanics really lands. Relationships matter way more than people want to admit. Right now, recommendations are driving about 2× as many subscribers as Notes, and I’m seeing the same pattern across other creators too.
I especially liked your point about trust taking time. It naturally kills off “guru mode” and rewards “build in public” behavior instead — more touchpoints, more context, more real signals that a creator is actually doing the work.
I’m saving this one because it’s the kind of post you have to reread to fully digest.
Thank you for writing it 🙏
Thank you so much, Finn!!! You're basically doing the nerdiest possible version of field research and I'm here for it 😂. Very interesting about recommendations driving 2x as many subscribers as Notes, was it always like this for you?
My growth patterns have changed a lot. Just 8 months ago Notes were driving most of the growth, see this article https://open.substack.com/pub/finntropy/p/growth-test-for-serious-substack?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2023k5
Now recommendations is the key growth driver.
Thanks so much for the shout out! I trust you enough to recommend your work without reading it…although I always read your posts because they’re great! 🤗
Agree that Substack has a unique model for encouraging publications to reward readers over advertisers, and I’m curious how or if this might change as Substack rolls out its sponsorship network. 🤔
Also, Substack really needs to make tax and compliance easier for small creators…saying this as I look into whether I need to register as an EU business entity and pay VAT tax on my handful of paid subscribers in Europe. 🫠
Do you need to do that? I had no idea! In Denmark nearly everything tax related is automated and linked to my personal number that is linked to my Stripe account. I just need to store the invoices.
I was thinking of including the sponsorship network in the post too, but I simply don't know enough about it yet, I'm also curious to see what it'll change.
If you make enough money, you’ll need to set up tax accounts with all 50 US states! 😂
Fortunately, the threshold is very high ($100K for a lot of states).
OMG, that’s horrible! On a second thought, knowing you, you’ll probably build a product for it 😂
No way, accounting and bookkeeping are like my least favorite things! 😂
heheh 😂
You do? Even when you do business in your your state? In NY, we are allowed to pay taxes based on the service location.
It’s complicated, but once you sell enough goods or services to customers in another state (measured by number of transactions or monetary value), you have a tax “nexus” there and have to register with that states’s sales tax authority. For now, I’m in no danger of hitting either threshold! 😂
The joy of working for yourself! I cannot imagine the nightmare that comes with hitting these thresholds. As per Karo, we might need to consider moving to Denmark for those simplified ways... 😂
😂😂😂
Gosh, this part with the taxes is crazy. I was just looking into it this week. Lucky for us, in the US, once you exceed the thresholds you can pay for Stripe monthly to file for taxes & basically do everything for you (it's not that cheap once you have lots of transactions, but at least there's a solution for it).
For EU countries you can apply for: https://vat-one-stop-shop.ec.europa.eu/one-stop-shop_en rather than registering in each country individually. In my case, since I'm in an EU country, I need to exceed 10,000EUR per year to register for it, but I don't know if that applies to people outside of Europe. Worth investigating.
For other countries is preeeetty tricky, you kind of need to register in each individually, which is a huge headache.
This probably deserves its own post!
Thank you for sharing this! 🤗 Agree with Karo that this needs its own post!
We just need someone with experience on this to write it!
definitely not me haha - the topic bores me & also annoys me😂 and I also don’t have experience with taxes anyway. I just chatted with the Stripe bot (for far too long) until I partially understood how it works.
💯 I’m with you on the annoyance factor. Since I’m planning a Spanish-language version of CarouselBot, I opted for a merchant of record—I want as little to do with tax and accounting as possible! 😂
Oh no… I’m already scratching my head over that… 😂
Thank you so much for the mention Karo. But even more importantly think you for the reminder that it is ok to grow and change and branch! I have definitely evolved as a writer since I started Slow AI. And also the direction has evolved as I realised what the future of critical AI literacy looked like and crucially how I could learn from others on this platform and amplify their voices without feeling threatened. You may not be a guru, but you are a guide I would always choose to follow. 🙏
This is such a generous comment Sam! And that's exactly right, we're all learning from each other here, all the time. That's the best part. I’d be curious to learn more about how your thinking on Slow AI has changed over time🤗
I think moving towards a working definition of critical AI literacy. Which only was made possible through writing on the topic over many weeks! 😅
That's true. It's almost like a research project, when you break it down from 100 different perspectives, week after week.
That was so kind of you to share! I feel the same about your posts! I know they are genuine and true and recommendable even before I read them :)
The feeling is completely mutual 🤗 Thank you Joel!
This is my favorite part of Substack: "Writers recommend writers. Not machines. People." I like you thought I wouldn't pay for subscriptions but the time and energy those I do save me are worth the weight in my sheckles. And I know as I grow I will be able to find those who are a few steps ahead to learn from.
That's my favorite part too! Thank you for reading, grateful you're in this ecosystem, Lee 🤗
This is a great breakdown, I never thought of this before but it totally makes sense: how the platform is designed is a huge part (if not the whole reason) why it's such a great space and perfect for the anti-guru 😊 it's interesting as I've seen some of them come here with their tactics that work on Instagram... we'll see how that shakes down for them. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the garden.
Me too, I'm on team garden🤗 And you're right, you can almost see when someone brings their X/Instagram tactics over. It'd be interesting to monitor how they evolve. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment!
Karo, I’m genuinely touched! 🙏 To be on a list of writers you’d "like before reading" is the ultimate win to me. And, to be honest, it's true in both ways!
You just explained it perfectly: the change from hub-and-spoke to mesh networks. Making anything (like a product or a newsletter) is about something more meaningful. I've realized that lately, it's about creating human experiences.
Format-as-feature" is a great way of explaining it! AI can create an expert-style authority quickly, but it can't produce the critical thinking that your architecture needs from a reader. Which explains very well why long-form content is the best way to stand out from content that has become boring and similar to all the others.
I'm honored to be part of the garden you're describing and be in this masterpiece! :)
Yes, creating human experiences may be the key here. You've articulated it much better than me heheh 😂 Grateful to be building this mesh together with you!
I’m so relieved to be in a space that isn’t drowning in guru energy. I burned out on social media and those endless “expert” reels after spending years post‑Covid glued to my screen. Discovering Substack reminded me how much I actually love reading. It's a special place, even if you’re just here to read and haven’t started writing yet.
I just hope it can stay this way… otherwise I may have to give up on the internet altogether 😂
Hehe :) I know exactly the feeling you’re describing, Cara (about post-Covid social media and then finding Substack). Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment! 🤗
What an impressive analysis, I learned a lot from this. I’m not very familiar with product theory, so I hadn’t realized just how much thought goes into these decisions. Really impressive work, thank you for sharing it.
Thank you Anders! I'm really happy you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment 🤗
Great write-up! Never seen it laid out so clearly 🙌
Thank you, Jonas!!! Happy it clicked! Thanks for taking the time to say this🤗
Karo!! I'm in such good company here ❤️❤️ Thank you for including me, genuinely means a lot coming from you!!
And I agree with everything you said. A lot of platforms build "walls" and they call that retention. I feel like Substacks' saying that they'll make leaving easy and bet on being worth staying for. It's such a different relationship with your users and it shows up everywhere in the culture.
Oh Karo, this resonates so much. I love Substack for exactly these reasons. And I love how many incredible humans and writers I’ve met here and that strange feeling that I’ve known some of you for years.
Thank you so much for the mention. I feel lucky we crossed paths 💜
Blame it on love month if this sounds cheesy.
Karo, it’s so thoughtful of you to write this article! I admire every one of the Substackers you shouted out (you included, of course!). Each of you has a unique voice here that I’m constantly learning from and that keeps reshaping my thinking.
Can’t thank you more 💕
Thank you, Karo for writing this article. Very insightful. What I love about Substack the most is writers recommending writers and not the machines. It is a human centric approach and not the model at the center. This flips everything on its head to create a truly authentic community that comes together because they like and trust one another.
Yt people need to stop colonizing words like guru first of all.
True!
Interesting lens - Substack’s incentives shape behaviour.
It lines up with what we see in product worlds too: if the system rewards shallow signals, you get shallow output. Here the incentives are trust over clicks, and that changes what gets built and shared.