What’s the Secret to Emily Sundberg’s ‘Feed Me’ Substack Success?

Emily Sundberg has built something special, and she’s nowhere near done. The writer and internet culture critic is behind one of the hottest Substack channels in business and culture. She also seems to know absolutely everyone worth knowing. Her daily business newsletter, Feed Me, has become a must-read for strivers and dealmakers alike, showing just how powerful individual media voices have become.

Sundberg joins Pia Baroncini, host of Everything Is the Best, for a conversation that bounces between her journalism origins, her daily writing grind, work challenges, and her knack for building connections. Baroncini couldn’t hide her enthusiasm: “I’m so happy that journalism has found another platform on Substack. There used to be a respect for writing. People held editors in high esteem, and real networking happened. I feel like you are almost bringing that back.” 

Whether you’re still figuring life out in your 20s or trying to blow it all up in your 30s, this conversation is for you.

A one-woman show to media enterprise

Three years ago, Sundberg was running Feed Me solo while doing consulting work on the side to make ends meet. Today, it has grown into a small but mighty team and is the number one business newsletter on Substack. Conversations on enterprise with her friends (who worked in different industries from hospitality to hedge funds) inspired Sundberg to launch her newsletter.

The newsletter’s audience exploded beyond its original niche. “Now people know what Substack is, and it’s becoming more diverse as far as where my readers live, work, their ages, and even their political views,” Sundberg says.

Sundberg tries to hit send by 11 a.m. every day, pulling together stories from across the internet. Her process involves some prep the night before, then mornings spent reading newspapers, magazines, newsletters, brand pages, new arrivals, and industry papers.

One smart move that’s paid off: putting the comments behind a paywall. Sundberg’s content lives on social media where people can discover and engage with it, but the real community happens behind the subscription wall. “It’s a community that feels so much more permanent than the comments on an Instagram post. People can get as angry as they want, share their views, and express their ideas—but they come back the next day, and they’re paying me,” she says.

Sundberg also throws parties for her community, which look nothing like typical influencer events. “These people, who know each other through Substack channels, get drunk together in Montauk, f****ed in Soho in a bar, or have dinner in L.A. It’s fun to see them all in the same room.”

Always online, always in the know 

Creating a daily newsletter means Sundberg lives online: “There’s no healthy way to teach someone to do this. I have a lot of group texts with friends who work in finance, hotels, travel, investing, and the restaurant world. I’m on LinkedIn all the time. Also, now a lot of tips come to me,” she says.

Sundberg explains that Feed Me thrives especially on New York content and how covering exclusive stories about the city makes the newsletter a success. She shares a recent example of an inside scoop she got about a landmark New York City building: 

“Recently, a guy in Soho, who’s basically like the prince of Soho real estate, called me about a neighborhood meeting that night about a potential gate being installed outside of the apartment building that Carrie Bradshaw lived in on Sex in the City. The gate has to get approved because it’s a historic building. Nobody’s written about it yet. I wrote about it, and hours later, The New York Times and New York Magazine linked to it. That man wanted that story to be in Feed Me, not all these other places.”

Business savvy and spotting trends

Most afternoons find Sundberg working alone and listening to podcasts, especially from Dear Media. Sundberg makes it her business to track shifts in the market. Her advice for entrepreneurs: “The tighter your blinders are on when it comes to building your business, the better.”

She and Baroncini agree that the beauty space is overly saturated. “If I was to start a business today, I would move away from the closet and the bathroom and invest in the home space. We’re starting to see people are becoming more interested in building themselves a beautiful kitchen and a beautiful home gym.”

For brands to cut through the noise, Sundberg thinks they need products that really work or seriously upgrade your life—or at least look damn good doing it. “I love Celsius because it works. I love LMNT because it works. These beverage brands are just a part of my routine,” Sundberg says.

Perhaps her most valuable piece of advice is about being true to yourself: “I’ve written three things that I’ve ever regretted. Most of the things I say, I’ll double the f*** down on. That’s how I built my business. That’s the tone that I take and what I write about. It’s a little bro-ey, a little heavy handed, and a little surprising. Readers might get mad today, and I’m not gonna look because I’m already working on tomorrow’s letter.”