Chris Best

And it would be the first step towards this bigger thing we feel we're seeing.

How did the name come?

We had it narrowed down to two names.

We had lots of ideas.

What was the other one?

It was either going to be Substack or Monograph.

Both respectable.

Both respectable.

Somebody bought the domain monograph.com while we were arguing about it.

And I said, screw it, I'm buying Substack.

The very first piece that was physically posted was sort of a manifesto that Hamish and I wrote.

Once we decided to make the company, we kind of got to work.

I started building the website that was going to hold the thing, and he started writing kind of an original vision for the thing.

And I felt that we couldn't publish it somewhere else.

We had to use our own software to publish the first piece.

So that was the first thing that was ever published at all.

And then the first Substack to launch was this guy, Bill Bishop.

who had been writing an email newsletter about China for kind of a business and government audience.

Well, he read the manifesto.

I think Hamish had known him for a while.