Why I joined Substack: a data-driven approach

Introducing a newsletter from Ramp Economics Lab on how America's most efficient businesses spend their money, and what we can learn from them

Here’s my problem:

1. I want to start a newsletter.

2. There are three main platforms used by writers and brands. I want to pick the platform that will grow my newsletter grow the fastest.

3. I have no idea which platform that is.

I’m an economist at Ramp, the financial operations platform for businesses. I lead Ramp Economics Lab, where I publish research and writing on the latest investments by American businesses using Ramp data.

My work focuses on new and emerging sectors, like AI. One new and emerging sector in media is the newsletter platform. I figured I should look to Ramp data to pick the host of our latest newsletter from Ramp Economics Lab.

Here’s why I picked Substack. I hope this Ramp data can support your decision too.

Substack leads in business adoption

This chart shows the share of businesses on Ramp with paid subscriptions via the major newsletter platforms (Substack, Medium, and Beehiiv). These are all great platforms that help writers grow their audiences, but more businesses read Substack.

I was surprised to see business adoption rate mostly flat, so I checked spend per business, and it’s growing rapidly across platforms. We see businesses are spending more money on more newsletters, even if the total number of businesses paying for Substack holds steady.

Substack has prominent network effects through its notes and discoverability features that make adoption rates a key factor. More businesses reading Substack means more shares, more subscribers, and more readers for my newsletter.

Substack is growing fastest among key industries where specialized knowledge is hard to find

On Ramp, two strategic sectors, technology and manufacturing, now spend more on newsletters than they spend on the top 15 newspapers in the United States.

Those shares are increasing, especially on Substack. In the last two years, manufacturers on Ramp have doubled their spend on the platform.

We believe newsletter platforms can provide specialized analysis to key industries in ways traditional media has not and may not be well-suited to do. This belief will guide our work: sharing smart, up-to-date, and data-driven analysis of business with executives, practitioners, and the general public. Directly through Substack.

Subscribe for more analysis of business spend

I also write on Twitter / X, LinkedIn, and much of our data is available for download directly at ramp.com/data.