Substack's NEW Native Sponsorships Program That Pays (with Brands like Uber, T-Mobile, and Balenciaga)

Here's what the Creator Kit is, who can apply, and how to land brand deals beyond paid subscriptions

If you’ve been following me for a while you knew sponsorships would be coming. I predicted they’d come in Q1/Q2 and here we are. It’s the end of quarter two and Substack just announced its brand-new native sponsorships program.

This wasn't a lucky guess. It had been leaked in an article I found in 2026. But that’s another story…

Substack’s native sponsorships program

Months later, Substack is rolling out the next phase of its native sponsorships program.

They’re stepping in to play matchmaker between creators and (big) brands.We’re talking an inaugural cohort that includes names like

• Granola,

• Whatnot,

• T-Mobile,

• Uber,

• Balenciaga,

• Polymarket, and

• Yahoo Scout

Who are collectively putting millions of dollars into creators on the platform.

The pitch is basically:

• you keep the editorial control,

• you choose the partners,

• you set the creative direction

• and Substack handles the boring stuff: outreach. The contracts. The logistics. The matchmaking.

You’re invited!

Join our LIVE on Friday and talk about this new feature. I’ll show you my Kit and we can talk about what to do now to get paid through sponsorships.

The Substack Creator Kit

The thing they shipped today to kick it off is called a Creator Kit, a built-in media kit you publish to signal “hey, I’m open for brand deals.” It’s the front door to a forthcoming partnership platform that connects you directly with brands.

Right now it’s only open to Substack bestsellers (with 100 paid subscribers), like me, to give it a try.

And just so the scale is clear. Substack says…

• tens of millions of people read, watch, and listen there every week,

• more than 2 million posts get discovered in the app every single day, and

• 100K+ publishers are already making money on the platform.

That’s the audience brands are paying to reach, through you.

The sponsorship deals on Substack

I bet you want to know how these deals look like, am I righ?!

This is the part I was most curious about, so let me save you the digging. The new sponsorship page lays out four ways brands can work with creators:

Editorial integrations — a content series designed with a brand, native to your voice

Events & experiences — brands sponsoring or co-hosting your real-life creator events.

Audio & video — baked-in, host-read ads or custom segments inside your podcast.

Subscriber perks — pairing early product access or discounted subscriptions with your existing paid bundle (basically what #1 in Business on Substack, Lenny Rachitsky, did with his Product Pass).

And if none of those fit? They’ll build a bespoke deal around your goals.

Not as a “slap an ad on it.” These are structured collaborations, which in my opinion is exactly how sponsorship should work if you care about your readers.

Is Substack still an anti-platform?

Many sent me emails asking me about this. And I get it. You’re smart and notice the shift.

Maybe you’re going like: “wait, didn’t they say they’d NEVER do this?”…

Well, Chris Best’s whole initial essay frames Substack as the anti-platform.

The hero in a world of villains who say “we’ll give you reach if you give us your audience.” No algorithm or ad games, paying to be seen. Just you, your readers, and the people who believe in you, open their wallets and pay you.

And… mostly? I think that’s still true. That’s why I love the platform so much. Subscriptions remain the heartbeat here.

But I want you to keep your eyes open, this might be exactly the moment to remember where every other platform was right before it changed.

Have you heard about Instagram? I attended an event on Saturday and recommended the sports startup this: You now literally pay $3.99 to keep a post visible for 48 hours instead of 24. Pay-to-be-seen, dressed up as a feature. It’s definetly better than only be seen by less than 1%, am I right? But that’s a feature insider Brian also shared wth us in 2025 would be coming sooner or later, we’ll see.

Every platform starts with “we’re different.” The question is never do they mean it today. It’s will they still mean it in three years when the incentives shift? At the same time in an “AI age” it’s hard to stay relevant. Substack finds always new (old) ways to do, so we really only need to use Substack as our go-to tool…

Sponsorships are a window of opportunity

I’m not saying Substack is Instagram. I’m saying: trust the model, watch the meter.

I do trust the model and I think adding native sponsorships will be an incredible window of opportunity for many bigstackers (bigger Substack writers with 25,000+ subscribers). Depending on the ideas form the brands, I also see a huge opoortunity for small- and midstackers with a teeny tiny niche audience or growing and rising audience. There are more and more earning some additional income through sponsorhips already.

The platform is telling creators:

“Your audience has value beyond subscriptions.”

For years it was:

Readers = Revenue

Now it’s becoming:

Readers + Sponsors + Products + Services = Revenue

The strongest creator businesses will have multiple income streams!

Substack just took a big swing at their entire pitch

I'm not threatened. I'm thrilled. It means the manual, gatekept thing I do for my husband via Passionfroot by hand is becoming available to everyone.

And it makes Substack a genuine heavyweight against Kit (and all its new shiny features like live, signals etc.) and Beehiiv.

Publish your Creator Kit today

If you’re a Substack bestseller (100 paying subscribers):

Subsatck recommends to publish your Creator Kit today to signal you’re open to brand collaborations and get first access to the partnership platform when it launches.

What’s a Creator Kit?

“Creator Kits let you build a shareable media kit to attract brand partners through Substack's native sponsorships program.” Substack

When I started my career at Edelman, we called them Press Kits. Folders that inlcuded ALL information a journalist would need. In this case it’s the brand that wants to know who you are and what you do.

I created such a Kit for pitching my Online Writing Club Show to my podcast guests to get Laura Belgray or Jay Schwedelson this year. YAY!

So these kits REALLY work.

How to access?

If you’re eligible, you’ll see the Sponsorships tab in the Dashboard. Heer’s the direct access link:

your.substack.com/publish/sponsorships

If you haven’t built your paid base yet (most of us are here, no shame): Start with the foundation and connect your Stripe. If you need help, that’s the whole point of what we do together in the Club. 👇🏻👇🏻

The Best Time To Go Paid On Substack Is On Day 1🤑

If you’re a brand or agency reading this, you can learn more and connect about partnering with creators here: substack.com/sponsorships

My homework

I asked you whether you’d like me to share the latest news, you said YES,

so here I am. But it’s suuuper late. Past midnight in Germany. So I’m gonna create my Kit tomorrow and share it with you.

But here’s already a quikc overview of my homework:

Header:

About:

Audience

Brand Partnerships:

Testimonials:

Sponsorship formats

What to avoid:

Tell me in the comments

Excited? Frustrated? How are you feeling?

Would you take a sponsorship on your newsletter — yes or never?

And who's your dream brand?