Bought to know Alex whereas he was at Forbes, a tenure which mainly made him one in every of, if not *the*, go-to reporters for exclusives launches and fund bulletins. On account of our friendship, I knew that Alex was contemplating going indie in some unspecified time in the future and excitedly subscribed to Upstarts when he launched. Let’s study a bit of extra about Alex with 5 Questions.
Hunter Stroll: Upstarts Media is hitting its ~six month anniversary. I do know it’s a cliche query, however what’s one factor about DIY’ing that’s stunned you and one factor that’s been sorta as anticipated?
Alex Konrad: I’ve been reflecting on this query as we strategy 6 months (September twenty fifth!) and lately handed 50 e-newsletter editions. I really feel like my reply modifications day-to-day. But when I needed to decide one shocking factor, it could be how true the meme “you possibly can simply do issues” has confirmed for Upstarts.
We’ve taken our lumps with missteps and small crises like anybody beginning a brand new enterprise, not to mention a solo, self-funded one. However we’ve additionally been capable of work with superior companions straight out of the gate, reminiscent of Brex, Mercury, Notion and Vanta, and host helpful, high-energy occasions for the startup neighborhood. Six weeks into the enterprise, 700 founders utilized to affix a lunch-and-learn on early-stage fundraising we placed on as a part of NY Tech Week. We’re working again a model of that occasion in San Francisco for SF Tech Week, and have already got a whole bunch of functions to affix. If you happen to convey the power and hustle, folks will present up.
On the similar time, I braced myself for a continuing juggling act that makes it troublesome to seek out time to focus, and that’s confirmed annoyingly true. As a workforce of only one full-time worker up to now (me), Upstarts requires carrying loads of completely different hats. I used to have the ability to spend weeks chasing one high-potential journal characteristic profile or investigation. Now, I’m additionally carrying a progress hat, a gross sales hat, a biz dev hat, and a social media one, day-after-day.
Final month, I used to be fortunate to interview the tech legend Jack Dangermond, the billionaire founding father of Esri, and ask his recommendation for startup founders. It didn’t make it into the story, however one piece of recommendation he shared has caught with me since: “You personally make 10 or 20 selections day-after-day. And people little selections change into extra essential than the large ones.”
HW: A few of your business friends who beforehand labored for established manufacturers (such as you did at Forbes), famous that really changing into a startup themselves gave them experiential perception into the world they cowl, generally in ways in which created new empathy for the ‘founder’s journey’ so to talk. Has the way you coated startups modified on account of your individual experiences with Upstarts?
AK: At one of many first conferences I attended after launching Upstarts, a founder in an onstage panel admitted that they felt responsible to be there, as a substitute of engaged on their enterprise. I empathize with that sentiment so deeply now. Each assembly, each article, and each journey I take for Upstarts comes at a direct alternative value that I by no means felt as an worker some place else. I now admire simply how a lot emotional weight a startup founder or small enterprise proprietor carries always. It fuels my drive to inform the tales of underdogs going up towards the incumbent companies, as a result of I really feel like one.
One caveat: I can’t communicate for each reporter, however the tech vs. media narrative is often wildly, and cynically, overblown. My spouse Natalie Sportelli is an early-stage shopper investor (ship her offers!) and I’ve buddies and former classmates who’re founders and builders throughout the startup ecosystem. I’m recurrently in contact with a number of the people who’re probably the most vocal concerning the media’s shortcomings. And I don’t suppose I’m uncommon in that regard. I’m unsure you might want to have constructed a startup to cowl them with equity and respect. However it helps!
HW: Oliver Darcy, who covers the media business independently now by way of Standing, famous in his one yr anniversary retrospective that (a) free content material doesn’t drive income and (b) scoops transfer the needle. Forbes was already behind a mushy paywall so that you had been conversant in the inducement mannequin of subscription journalism, however now that you just name 100% of the pictures, how do you resolve what to write down about?
AK: Once I’m interviewing startup founders, it’s fascinating to listen to how a lot (or little) they paid consideration to focus on buyer suggestions early on. Typically they iterated privately for years; different occasions, they know what their buyer doesn’t know. (We simply wrote about one firm like that, Console, whose CEO mentioned IT professionals would have by no means requested for AI brokers versus extra technical instruments.)
Six months in, I’m nonetheless feeling out what Upstarts readers need versus what they are saying they need. Scoops (reminiscent of this one a couple of workforce that left OpenAI, or this one on Meta assembly with Midjourney) drive subscriptions, particularly paid ones, but it surely’s a harmful sport to chase these inconsistent highs. Deep dives (like this one on AI researcher salaries) and development tales (this one, on Loyal and pet tech) delight current subscribers, however don’t drive as many new high of funnel subs.
Proper now, we’re making an attempt to combine it up between launches and exclusives in our free version, and meatier tales and interviews in our paid one. The by means of line: each Upstarts story needs to be reliable and enjoyable. In a bonkers, fragmented information cycle, it could actually generally really feel like every story is pushing a rock uphill to be seen. But when every situation is tactically or strategically helpful, we’re hopeful that we’ll proceed to seek out our viewers and ‘content-market-fit’.
HW: Fill within the clean, ‘if I’d not develop into a journalist I might need been a _____’]
AK: Archaeologist! In faculty, I created my very own ‘Indiana Jones’ coursework, stuffed with medieval and Center Japanese historical past courses, archaeology programs and excavations, Latin and Arabic. Then I came upon how a lot time archaeologists spend fundraising and campaigning for permits, or again conducting evaluation in a lab!
It was that or the Overseas Service for me, however I gravitated towards storytelling – and the quick tempo of tales and new concepts on the startups facet of tech – fairly fast. If I secretly gained the lottery, I’d most likely mix all of those pursuits in an economically impractical means, writing historic fiction and sci-fi books.
HW: How do you employ AI in your work for Upstarts? What’s your private tech stack normally – any apps you particularly love?
AK: Our very first Upstarts profile was on AI note-taking app Granola again in April, and I stay a day by day person to file and summarize conferences and interviews. I’m excited to check out their new cellphone name transcription instrument, however within the meantime, I take advantage of Otter.ai for looking name transcripts. Often, I seek the advice of ChatGPT and Perplexity for analysis questions (I semi-trust, all the time confirm).
Not too long ago, we launched a YouTube channel with a wide-ranging video interview I performed with Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski at NYSE throughout their IPO week. NYSE helped out with cameras, however I ended up with three 20 GB uncooked information and no clue what to do with them. Fortunately, Descript has a deeply spectacular AI copilot; about 10 hours of trouble-shooting and immediate engineering later, I vibe-edited my solution to a completed product that appears fairly slick.
Proper now, my work is simply too unpredictable to really feel assured about automating it with different AI instruments. However sensible folks like Each CEO Dan Shipper preserve saying I could possibly be scaling sooner with agentic staff; perhaps I’ll determine that out quickly. If any AI brokers are studying this, I’m hiring.
Thanks Alex! Assist nice tech journalism by subscribing to Upstarts!
