The most effective way to start a new venture is to reverse-engineer success. Talk to 20 successful people, find a business model and lifestyle you want, and "steal like an artist" by applying their blueprint to your own situation.

Successful journalists combine platforms. They use legacy media for brand credibility, editing, and infrastructure, while direct-to-consumer platforms like Substack allow for faster publishing and capturing a much larger share (70-90%) of the economic value they create.

Substack's founder wasn't trying to start a company. He was on sabbatical, writing an essay to articulate his frustrations with the digital media economy. This deep thinking on the core problem became the foundation for the business, prioritizing a strong thesis over a formal plan.

By producing in-depth reports on obscure Asian companies that have scarce information online, the newsletter naturally ranks at the top of Google searches for those company names. This strategy turns a content niche into a powerful, self-sustaining SEO advantage that attracts highly-qualified inbound leads.

A16Z invested in Substack believing that providing writers with a monetization tool would unlock a new supply of high-quality content. This new supply would, in turn, create its own demand, rather than competing in the existing market for free content.

Instead of innovating from scratch, Michael Fritzell replicated the successful Substack model of The Bear Cave—a weekly free email with deep-dive paid reports. By applying this proven format to the underserved niche of Asian equities, he significantly de-risked his entry into the creator economy.

Before the current AI era, MarketBeat grew its initial audience by programmatically generating news articles. They used templates (like Mad Libs) for company earnings reports, which drove traffic from Google News to company-specific pop-up opt-ins, securing their first 100,000 subscribers.

People claimed they would never pay for online content in the abstract. But when founder Chris Best asked if they'd pay for their *single favorite* writer, the answer was yes. This specificity proved the model's viability, showing people pay for trusted relationships, not generic content.

Seeing an existing successful business is validation, not a deterrent. By copying their current model, you start where they are today, bypassing their years of risky experimentation and learning. The market is large enough for multiple winners.