What's next for Feed Me?
2 years of writing a daily newsletter and navigating Substack.
Dear readers,
Feed Me is a newsletter about the spirit of enterprise — the personalities, motivations, and businesses that shape the world around us. Part of the publication focuses on genuinely interesting original reporting, specifically on American subcultures through the lens of business. The other part provides readers with links that map out the most important stories across the internet – I consider this a service worth paying for. I value clarity, relevance, insider perspective, and the art of debate, and I know Feed Me’s readers have similar values because they make it clear in the comment section, daily.
Today, I am going to write about what it has been like to build Feed Me over the past two years, and what you can look forward to in the third year of this business.
I started writing on Substack in the summer of 2020. I was reading and writing a lot of short fiction, and used Feed Me as a place to publish horror stories. In the spring of 2021, I received a few texts from friends who worked in finance, letting me know that Bloomberg’s Matt Levine linked to one of my stories in his newsletter, Money Stuff. It was a short story about a female founder who kept her entire company locked up in the basement of her brownstone. This was one of the key moments that taught me about the power of newsletters as a source of entertainment and discovery, and the traffic potential of being included in them.
In the fall of 2022, I was working at Meta. The company announced that there would be layoffs, and I knew they would affect my team because my team spent a lot of money and there were a lot of people in the office who spent hours a day basically spinning in chairs on top of Hudson Yards. Zuck was right about the efficiency stuff.
A few days before I found out that my team was indeed affected, I came up with the version of Feed Me that now hits your inbox daily – I was in dozens of group texts that were discussing workplace news with the same excitement as celebrity or sports news. In the wake of COVID, suddenly all of my friends (bartenders, billionaires, bankers) cared about who investors were sleeping with, what companies Glossier alumni were building next, and which doctors were giving the most beautiful New Yorkers facelifts. The day I heard “severance package,” I hit send.
I knew Feed Me was going to be a premium, daily, paywalled product from day one.
Newsletters have been a part of every job I’ve had since graduation (New York Magazine, Meta, various VC-backed consumer startups). The years I spent working at those places were the last ones where I thought of newsletters as boring emails that took up space in my inbox. I now think of newsletters as a way to change how people learn and communicate – Feed Me has changed the way my readers interact with news, because it has become a homepage for the rest of the internet.
(To be clear, many newsletters are boring and just take up space in my inbox.)
"It has been pretty amazing to see Feed Me catch fire, especially in New York. So many of the Cool People read and respect it. I love that a talented individual like you can build a media empire from scratch on the back of a humble newsletter.
I am sure there are many great things to come from Feed Me in the years ahead—as soon as you have figured out how to make that machine in the garden purr perfectly without obscuring the view of the plants…"
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, co-founder of SubstackFeed Me’s new contributors.
I believe successful people listen. If you’re wondering if I remember an interaction we’ve had before – good, bad, uncomfortable, joyful – no matter the medium, I promise you I do. I believe successful storytellers live interesting lives. I spend a lot of time with new people and in new rooms. I’ve lived in New York since I was a teenager, and my relationship with the city has taken on a new depth as it has become a core character of this newsletter.
I also believe successful leaders invest in talent. I’ve brought on several columnists who you’ve started to become acquainted with – they are remarkably talented. The doors are open to new talent and contributors. If you want to pitch me, my inbox is open.
will be writing a column called Stay Tuned. In this series, Teddy will be writing about what happens when entertainment comes in contact with tech — and the implications of that. Teddy is a screenwriter turned startup founder, who also writes the newsletter, first Derivative. In his pre-startup life he worked at places like UTA and Netflix and on shows such as Beef and The Perfect Couple.
Semi-anonymous restaurant critic J.Lee will be writing a column called Expense This. In this series, you’ll be reading about Business Guy Restaurants — the bistros, sushi spots and lounges that are best rationalized with the involvement of a corporate card. His account of the Rolexes and rare steaks at Balthazar on election night will go down in Feed Me history.
Anonymous Transit Expert will be writing a column called Stand Clear. He’s contributed to dozens of Feed Me letters as an expert on: transit, F1, the crises of Gen-Z masculinity, the Hudson Yards casino, returning to the office, and tipping. The Anonymous Transit Expert has to stay anonymous because he has a Real Job in a Real Office, but maybe one day he’ll quit and we can reveal him.
I have tested these new writers with my audience over the past few months, and have confidence that they will add to the Feed Me editorial voice.
Feed Me’s new look.
Something else you might notice is that Feed Me looks different.
I’ve been working with a brilliant designer named Justin Sloane on a new design system including new fonts, brand colors, and custom icons. The ouroboros symbol brings together two heavyweights of internet history: it's a reconfiguration of Susan Kare’s command symbol, with an 8bit snake head that is evocative of Taneli Armanto’s Snake game preloaded on many of our first Nokia phones. The ouroboros also illustrates the theme of consumption, and the fact that Feed Me’s tone has a bit of a bite to it.
The FM wordmark is made out of shapes within the command-sign. The red and green accent colors are a slight nod to Bloomberg terminal heatmapping. While building out the system, we often referenced automobile logos, American corporate history, and Kare’s work at Macintosh in the 80’s.
A lot of great work ended up on the cutting room floor, but I’m crazy about where we landed and how it will come to life across Substack and other non-newsletter Feed Me projects.
I’m really enjoying making small runs of merch, mostly with friends, and often given out for free (I like surprising paid readers with keychains as a Thank You gift, akin to PBS pledge drives). I’ll have embroidered crewnecks and screenprinted t-shirts available for purchase at the Feed Me party on Sunday.
Feed Me’s growth.
I sent 264 newsletters in the last year
Feed Me is read in all 50 states and in 156 countries. After the United States., Feed Me’s top markets are the UK, Canada, Australia, and France.
10 brands worked with Feed Me this year, most of them as their first foray into Substack advertising. My sponsored letter with Hinge is now Feed Me’s 4th-top-engaged letter, my sponsored letter with Dorsey was the 2nd-top Business newsletter on Substack the day it was published, and the All Fours book club hosted by Warby Parker had a several-hundred person waitlist. This tells me that advertisements on Feed Me are not reducing the reader experience.
The Machine in The Garden was the most popular letter I ever published. It generated over 1,100 new subscriptions to Feed Me, got over 100,000 views, over 390 re-stacks, and almost 300 comments. Some of you called me mean publicly and privately, and some of you agreed with the essay publicly and privately. I’d do it all over again – the comment section of that essay was surprisingly revealing and should be studied by internet anthropologists. It’s probably the most widespread non-politics story in Substack history.
Feed Me events have welcomed hundreds of readers in New York, Los Angeles, and The Hamptons.
13 Guest Lectures have been published, including reader-led interviews with Chris Black, Reggie James, Eric Wareheim, and David Ulevitch.
Feed Me is among the fastest-growing Substacks across all categories, by revenue. It is now the 7th-top grossing business newsletter on Substack.
I have 1 new Instagram account, which you should all follow
Feed Me’s future.
In Feed Me’s third year, the daily newsletter will continue.
You can also expect to see Feed Me’s vision come to life in new formats off of Substack. Here’s a preview of a podcast I’ve been working on for the last few months about American Gen Z men:
I’m looking for a superb production partner on this (individuals, brands, or publishers) so if you think that’s you, drop me a line.
There are a few other projects in the works but I have to keep some things secret. I am seeking an introduction to Mike Bloomberg for one of them, and would return the favor tenfold.
Thank you to my readers, subscribers, advertisers, friends, and the team at Substack for joining me on the adventure that is Feed Me. I’m so excited to continue telling stories with you in 2025. I’m going to answer reader questions in a video next week. Ask me anything in the comments below, I’m curious what you want to know.
And I’m sorry about all the typos.
Are you planning on throwing a Feed Me party in LA again
Have loved sharing a thing that I wanna keep secret (elder millennial preciousness?); What you've created here is just sooo good and a JOY to read. Congrats on all of your success this year :)