How Stratechery founder Ben Thompson built a one-person newsletter that generates about $3 million and became the envy of journalists

• Founded in 2013, Ben Thompson’s $120-a-year Stratechery newsletter is beloved by tech executives and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley and reaches subscribers in more than 80 countries.
• By one estimate, Thompson’s solo-media enterprise is expected to generate more than $3 million in revenue this year.
• Yet as a raft of big-name writers leave their jobs to start their own newsletters via the “pivot to Substack” trend, Thompson’s success will be difficult — if not impossible — to replicate.

Primarily working out of Taipei, Taiwan, Ben Thompson sits some six thousand miles away from his adoring fanbase of techies in California.