The biggest Substacker of 2025 hasn't started posting yet. Here's what I think they will do that will blow them up.

Substack is hitting a tipping point the way TikTok did in 2019. But the biggest TikTokers didn't come until 2-3 years later. We are reaching that window for Substack.

In this Trend Report, I will write about the specific type of creator that I think will take over on Substack in 2025. And in the paid portion, I will give specific tips on how to grow on Substack in 2025 after talking to their CEO, Chris Best, today.

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I am writing this Substack while listening to Tate McRae’s new album at 9:04 pm PST on Thursday, February 20th, 2025 and wearing a shirt Substack gave me when I visited their team in NYC that says: “Somebody who loves me very much subscribes to my Substack”. I include this tidbit to not only give you a visual but to give us a timeline for when this article is being written because it is going to be very predictive. Like, very predictive.

That means I could get a lot of this wrong. And that is okay. I am okay with being wrong when it comes to my predictions about how algorithms and platforms shift. There is never a right or wrong answer when it comes to things as fluid as platforms. But right now, my Aquarian spidey-senses are tingling.

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Substack grew by being a newsletter. Which means writers wrote. While the long-form writing is a saving grace for attention spans across the country, I do think that if Substack is going to burst out of it’s reclusive bubble on the internet it is going to have to do something major. It is going to have to meet the audience where they are at.

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Frankly, audiences want video. But video is accessible everywhere on the internet. While I do think video creators are going to have a huge wind of growth on the platform where demand still far exceeds supply, I think there is an edge to Substack that you don’t find on any other platform. I think the creator that will take off in the next year on Substack is going to be…anonymous. Hear me out.

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People often compare Substack to Tumblr. I was a die-hard Tumblr Teen™ in the 2010’s. Tumblr shaped my obsession with the internet, with curating, with community-building and with taste-making.

Pictured above is a photo collage from an article about Tumblr on The Independent

But the main difference between Tumblr and Substack is the length of content. At least from what I remember, there were almost never long-winded, written posts on Tumblr. Or maybe I was never intelligent or introspective enough to be fed that type of content. I was too busy reblogging gifs of Lana Del Rey smoking a cigarette at a dinner table with A$AP Rocky to see the deep dive, analytical posts.

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When people compare Tumblr to Substack, I think they are subconsciously connecting the dots of the ethos of the two platforms. It is a connection they may not even realize they are making or be able to articulate.

Both Tumblr and Substack value curation over identity.

The biggest Tumblr accounts of the 2010’s were primarily run by anonymous teens in their bedrooms. The cool kids gravitated towards the platform because part of being “cool” is being mysterious and not try hard. Instagram is for the try-hard, popular kids. YouTube was for the intelligent, nerdy and niche kids with a foresight no one else had. Snapchat was for the kids with no other social presence but deeply connected in social circles. But Tumblr attracted the cool, underground kids who didn’t seek out popularity. Instead, they sought expression and curation. How powerful to be in an online community where you all talk daily and have each others backs without ever knowing who the other person is. Or knowing who they are and never revealing it publicly, something that bonds you even more.

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Tumblr had a culture where it was almost looked down upon to share your identity or seem self-promotional. In a way, I think Substack has attracted a similar, more evolved audience. The Tumblr kids are now the marketing managers with a secret Substack account they are growing on the side where none of their co-workers know it’s them or that it even exists.

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While Substack has seen TikTokers jump over to the platform who are showing their face in videos, like myself and Aaron Parnas (who now has a staggering 300k+ subscribers after only starting a month ago), I do think that we will see the massive takeover of a Banksy style creator on the platform. Someone who uses all the typical features like video, written and notes — but you never know their identity. Substack naturally has attracted creators who grow entire newsletters under monikers or catchy, branded names. So the foundation of the platform was built on a veil of mystery that will be baked into their foundation forever.

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While I think that the creator that will be the Charli D’Amelio of Substack will be entirely anonymous, I do think there is a possibility they will show their face. But they will purposely keep a layer of mystery. Such as by using a filter over their face, changing their voice or purposely building a world that mystifies and intrigues their audience. They will use this platform as more of a social experiment or commentary on the internet than anything. Just like Banksy does with their paintings in the real world.

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Did you know that the first “influencer” to ever land a brand deal was lonelygirl15? She was YouTuber’s first-ever vlogger who posted videos from her childhood bedroom. Or so we thought. Turns out, she was an actress hired off Craiglist. The whole premise was her team (a pair of talent agents at CAA) wanted to crowdsource and draw viral attention for a short film. The actress would batch film videos on a set that they would then sprinkle onto YouTube to look like daily vlogs. They then started dropping purposeful hints that her parents were part of a cult and she was in danger. While the mystery around her grew, so did her star. People became obsessed with her. She landed the first-ever brand deal for an influencer with a Neutrogenia placement in one of her YouTube videos.

I interviewed the genius behind LG15, Greg Goodfried, on my podcast and it is still one of my favorite episodes to this day. You can listen to that episode here.

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I think Banksy and LG15 are good examples of what we will see happen on Substack. This is an emerging platform that values curation over creator-first profiles. Audiences here seem to have a disdain for people who are too self-promotional or self-centered. Instead, they gravitate towards accounts with a little mystery. Accounts that hold a mirror up to corners of the internet and not themselves.

This account will almost be like a Gossip Girl of the internet. Something we have seen before but there will be an edge to it as it exists on Substack. A platform that values longer content and world building like no other. They might do it accidentally or purposefully. There will be TODAY Show segments trying to figure out the identity of this mysterious account. There will be hour-long deep dives on YouTube theorizing that this new, millionaire Substacker is an industry plant. But most importantly, just because they are anonymous — doesn’t meant they aren’t authentic.

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In the paid portion of this trend report, I will talk about the specific tools that you can use in 2025 to grow as a creator on Substack. This is inspired by my convo today with the CEO of Substack, Chris Best.

You can become a subscriber for $9-a-month at cocomocoe.substack.com