{"id":124054,"date":"2026-02-05T17:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124054\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:37:12","slug":"new-yorks-substack-it-girl-takes-sf-by-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124054\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s Substack \u2018it\u2019 girl takes SF by storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emily Sundberg, newsletter maven and New York media \u201cit\u201d girl, flew in Thursday from a frozen Gotham for a closer look at AI-era San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Over five days, the author of the cult-favorite business-media-culture-gossip newsletter Feed Me (opens in new tab)<\/a> took meetings at Anthropic, spoke to MBA students at Stanford, met \u201cshitposter\u201d donald boat (opens in new tab)<\/a> at Substack HQ, and attended a sober house party at a $24 million mansion in Sea Cliff owned by the CEO of Midjourney, where guests drank coconut water and La Croix. <\/p>\n

Sundberg had martinis at Bix, swam with seals in Sausalito, walked around Pacific Heights \u2014 writing later about the \u201cmonstrous homes\u201d that looked like heaven in The Good Place, and vacant streets, where \u201cprivate police drove in loops up and down the hills, protecting nobody from everyone else\u201d \u2014 and cracked open Dungeness crab at Hog Island Oyster Co.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe scene at Sundberg\u2019s bar party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole purpose of this trip is to have face time with the people who are reading my newsletter,\u201d she said on the third day of her trip, drinking coffee in the lobby of Hotel Drisco. <\/p>\n

She was staying there on the recommendation of Dylan Abruscato, a friend of Feed Me and president of TBPN (opens in new tab)<\/a>, Silicon Valley\u2019s podcast-turned-media company of the moment. She wore a black turtleneck, blue jeans, and loafers \u2014\u00a0an outfit giving 2026 Manhattan as much as \u201990s Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n

Her first stop, just a few hours off her JetBlue flight, was Bar Part Time in the Mission, where she hosted a party for Feed Me subscribers and admirers, including Abruscato, Brian Gallagher, a senior food editor at The New York Times, and Broke-Ass Stuart (opens in new tab)<\/a>. About 200 well-dressed locals gathered to move through Sundberg\u2019s orbit while drinking orange wine, devouring tacos from the El Tonayense truck, and snagging free Feed Me baseball caps. <\/p>\n

It was a convincingly SF-by-way-of NYC crowd, with sheer blouses and indigo-dyed T-shirts replacing the puffy coats and cashmere scarves strewn around any New York bar this time of year. Sundberg wore a miniskirt and knee-high boots, her hair held loosely in a claw clip. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be in a room of people I\u2019ve never met who read the same stuff as the people who I spend time with in New York,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ThreeEveryone got dressed up.\"MultipleFaded red caps with Feed Me\u2019s distinctly techie logo.<\/p>\n

Sundberg says about 20% of Feed Me\u2019s 100,000-plus readers are in California. She started the newsletter \u2014 dedicated to \u201cthe spirit of enterprise\u201d \u2014 while working as a creative strategist at Meta, but after getting laid off in 2022, she went all in. Though her daily dispatches are centered on New York \u2014\u00a0where Sundberg, 31, has lived for 17 years (she was born and raised on Long Island) \u2014 it has found considerable reach beyond it. <\/p>\n

Her California subscribers include state officials, venture capitalists, and executives at Apple, Meta, and OpenAI. To bring the reporting into their own backyard, she\u2019s adding a monthly West Coast edition and plans to visit every few months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What she found Thursday was a dialed-in scene of zillennials who looked like they knew how to work a party. \u201cIt was a gorgeous, interesting, employed room,\u201d Sundberg said. <\/p>\n

The hostess didn\u2019t make a big speech; after names were checked at the door, readers were left to schmooze and circulate freely between half-moon booths and a checkered dance floor. \u201cThis crowd is cooler compared to the average happy hour,\u201d said one man who works in tech. \u201cI\u2019d much rather be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former legacy media editor approached Sundberg, joking that she had a pitch for the newsletter, without specifying what it was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ThreeSundberg meets fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can pitch me fucking anything!\u201d Sundberg replied \u2014 and she meant it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next morning, Feed Me included intel she had picked up that night: An Airbnb designer was running a fragrance brand; there was a new media venture in the city operated by Patrick McGuire, a former Red Bull executive. She aggregated news about RH\u2019s 50,000-square-foot lease in Walnut Creek and the closure of Taix, Los Angeles\u2019 oldest French restaurant, after nearly a century. \u201cI remember eating mussels and fries in the parking lot with my ex-boyfriend,\u201d Sundberg wrote.<\/p>\n

Maybe it was the sunshine and warm-for-January temperatures, but Sundberg seemed suitably wowed by her journey west. \u201cThere are broad strokes being painted about San Francisco all the time, especially by New Yorkers \u2014 that it\u2019s sterile or chilly or robotic,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sees a direct line between her New York crowd and her burgeoning San Francisco one. The newsletter\u2019s appeal is in \u201cthe alchemy,\u201d Sundberg said. \u201cYou get the line item about the Sweetgreen founder and the tip about the restaurant donating money to ICE, and the interview with the former Vice guy launching a media company. If you want hard business news, you can go to Bloomberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the evening at Bar Part Time wound down, the taco truck closed, the free drinks became a cash bar, and a small crowd lingered. A man wearing wide black trousers, a white knit cardigan, sneakers, and a Feed Me cap approached Sundberg and hugged her goodbye.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we can hang out while you\u2019re here,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d she laughed. \u201cLet\u2019s go see \u2018Melania.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hours after landing back in New York, she wrote from her couch in South Slope, Brooklyn: \u201cI already want to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n