Reluctantly, I’m reducing my exposure to US tech, for reasons I don’t want to go into right now1. I can’t do it all at once, and I don’t want to do it entirely. Just a bit at a time.
First: I’m reducing my use of social media. The platforms I’ve used for the last however many years are all American. (I experimented for a while with TikTok last year but it didn’t last.)
For the last couple of months, I’ve been bringing more of my work back here, to my website. That includes reposting stuff I put on LinkedIn and Instagram, and even painstakingly reposting comments, with links to the people who commented.
Next, I’ve been thinking about how to send out what I produce by email. I looked around for European alternatives to the US-based email platforms I’ve used: MailChimp, ConvertKit, Substack, Buttondown.
One European company I’ve found is Brevo. I can’t say I love the look of it. It’s very much a marketing platform. Not at all the same ethos as Buttondown. Does it make sense to leave a congenial American platform for a European alternative just because it’s European?
Surely not.
But I guess I could use it as a kind of experiment. And perhaps my experiment might encourage others to try something similar and gradually build a European ecosystem of email platforms that aren’t all about marketing?
By the way, you can subscribe to my newsletter here. At the time of writing, it’s still US-based.
Last updated: 23 January 2026
1 Reducing my exposure. I could try to explain why, but I don’t want to get diverted from writing about how – and I’m guessing the reasons may be easy to guess.
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