I don't have any strong opinions on the product being built by Substack Inc, but I do feel weird that they swiped the name "substack", which is a handle that's been used by open source hacker James Halliday for at least a decade. [0]
It's been his handle on GitHub, Twitter, Hacker News, YouTube, Reddit, etc., and it makes me uncomfortable to see a startup try to turn his name into a corporate brand.
I don't mean that they used Substack because JH was using it, but a quick web search of the company name would make it obvious that there was a naming conflict.
This was my immediate association as well. I've followed the open-source work of substack for many years, and continue to use many of the modules he published.
1. The founders of the corporation were not aware of the established personal brand James Halliday had built under the handle, or didn't preform a google search to find out.
2. The founders were aware and just didn't care or lacked the creativity to construct a unique brand.
Both make me disinterested in whatever they're shilling.
It's been his handle on GitHub, Twitter, Hacker News, YouTube, Reddit, etc., and it makes me uncomfortable to see a startup try to turn his name into a corporate brand.
[0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20091113043728/http://substack.n...