Introducing the Substack Creator Accelerator Fund
A $20 million funding guarantee to help creators grow their businesses
Today we’re announcing the launch of $20 million in guarantees to help creators move their paid-subscription audience to Substack. The Substack Creator Accelerator Fund is designed to help creators expand their reach and business by taking advantage of Substack’s growth network and full suite of publishing, community, and discovery tools. On Substack, they can build their own home on the internet: one where creators, not platform executives or advertisers, own their work and their audience.
The creator economy is on the precipice of something new. The recent tumult of social platforms—facing bans, backlash, and policies that change with the political winds—has highlighted the challenges creators face: they cannot rely on social media alone to build their audience or their business. At Substack, we’re building what comes next. We established this fund because we’ve seen creators who specialize in video, audio, and text expand their audience, revenue, and influence on Substack, where the platform’s network effects amplify the quality and impact of the work they’re doing. The Substack app, which has millions of weekly active users, is the single largest source of growth for publishers on the platform, accounting for more than 50% of all new subscriptions and 30% of paid subscriptions.
We’re launching the Substack Creator Accelerator Fund following a successful pilot program of multimedia creators who moved to Substack to take advantage of its growth network, community and discovery features, and multimedia publishing experience. Creators benefit from these tools and features while retaining full ownership of their content and mailing list.
“The group chat feature in the app has been a game changer, creating a thriving space for our community to engage directly,” say
and , hosts of the podcast and community, who moved to Substack in October 2024. The Pantsuit Politics team partnered with Substack during their move to the platform, receiving financial guarantees as part of an early initiative to support creators making this transition. “The discoverability features have introduced us to thousands of new listeners.” Pantsuit Politics’ community has swelled to over 18,000 subscribers on Substack, including thousands of paying members.
The Substack Creator Accelerator Fund provides creators with a financial guarantee to ensure that they will lose none of their existing revenue as a result of the migration. The creators will receive ongoing strategic and business support from Substack’s deeply experienced partnerships team, with particular focus on the migration process and key launch moments. They also get early access to new features and help shape the future of the platform as members of our product lab.
Prominent creators of all kinds have made the move from other platforms to Substack and found greater success. Fashion podcast
, college football show , political analyst , satirical podcaster , news show , and , the host of , have all successfully migrated to Substack. In a post reflecting on his first three months on Substack, Young predicted he will make more money in his first year on Substack than he did in his most profitable year on Patreon. “Substack has built the rarest thing on the internet,” he writes, “a growth engine for the impossible to find.”As the media ecosystem continues to face upheaval, we hope that programs like the Substack Creator Accelerator Fund will help creators find the stability and security that comes with owning their own corner of the internet, a place where they are in charge and they set the rules. It’s one of many initiatives we plan to roll out in the coming months as we build the new economic engine for culture, one where independent media thrives, creators are able to do their best work, and audiences—not advertisers—decide what kind of culture they want to support.
You’ll find more details about the Substack Creator Accelerator Fund below.
We will begin reviewing applications today, January 23, on a rolling basis throughout the calendar year or until all spots are filled. Spots are limited, so apply soon.
Find out more about the program by reading our FAQs, or go ahead and submit your application:
If you want to learn more about migrating your subscriptions to Substack, we are hosting a virtual masterclass to discuss best practices and features of migrating, monetizing, and growing on Substack—with insights from successful creators who’ve already made the switch. The session is open to all creators and will take place on Zoom on Tuesday, February 25, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET. Sign up below to join.
Cool. How about doing something for those of us who have been ambassadors (and investors!) for this platform for years now?
Unfortunately this screams “let’s get Tiktokers to Substack”… would be SO nice to do something for the millions of weekly users of this app that are here already. If it became easier to gain paid subscribers on here, perhaps more people can earn a decent living here and become Substackers.
I’d be very cautious—you have a community of people who adore it here. But we’re all scared about this app becoming something new, and ultimately, something we no longer love.