Nissue #32: Chris Best, Co-Founder and CEO of Substack.
Substack. So hot right now! Seriously, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk is putting out his new novel in serialized form on the platform. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy has a meandering newsletter that is like a glimpse into his mind. Salman Rushdie is now on there as well, awash in a sea of stories. And let’s not forget Nish Nadaraja, whose In Search Of Lost Answers comes out every Tuesday.
So yeah, I run my newsletter on Substack and wanted to meet the person who created this simple but somewhat elegant newsletter platform. Thanks to Lulu Cheng Meservy, Substack’s awesome VP of Communications, I was able to contact the elusive Chris Best and ask him my usual Proust-like questions about life and work.
Nish: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Chris: Sitting by the fire all together, each reading a great book.
Nish: What was your worst job ever?
Chris: Unskilled labor on a construction site.
Nish: What was your first job ever?
Chris: Marking targets at a rifle range.
Nish: What was your best job ever?
Chris: Being a dad! Professionally: founding a company.
Nish: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Chris: Jealousy. Indecision.
Nish: What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Chris: Success. Kidding aside, humourlessness.
Nish: What’s some advice you’d give to yourself at 23?
Chris: Move somewhere more interesting.
Nish: What is your greatest extravagance?
Chris: Getting delicious takeout lunch near the office most days.
Nish: You have exclusive dinner reservations for 4 excluding family and close friends, who are the 3 people (alive, dead or imaginary) you’d invite?
Chris: My 3 favourite Substack writers. [Editor’s note: Where are we going?]
Nish: What is the theme song of your professional life?
Chris: I can’t reveal this.
Nish: What is your motto?
Chris: Greatness requires both art and science.
Nish: What is something you’re really excited about right now?
Chris: The new stuff we are building…
End Interview.
P.S. Another founder I interviewed is Ashley Sumner at Quilt. And I’d pay to see exclusive writing from sports journalist Matthew Futterman and author Jessica Anya Blau!