Perhaps Substack can grow just fine without venture dollars

Substack, a publishing platform known for its newsletter service, announced this week that it had crossed the 2 million paid subscription mark. Given the wealth of historical data we have concerning the growth of paid subscribers at Substack, the number got our attention.

Substack’s simple business model also makes it possible to generate a few gross transaction volume and revenue guesses for the company, which we’ll explore.

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First, a little context: Substack’s first known external capital came in January 2018 via the Y Combinator startup accelerator. The company raised a $2 million seed round in April of the same year. From there, the startup’s ability to raise new funds quickly accelerated, with Andreessen Horowitz leading Substack’s $15.3 million Series A in mid-2019 and a massive $65 million Series B in March 2021.