Alex Konrad, Upstarts Media Founder on Startup News & VC Coverage

The Art of Tech Journalism

• 💡 Alex Konrad views journalism as a form of archaeology, digging for underappreciated stories and insights within the tech and startup ecosystem.
• 🧠 A core lesson is the importance of curiosity, driving the desire to delve deep into subjects and uncover narratives that resonate with a wider audience.
• 🎯 Making "unsexy" stories interesting requires connecting them to the audience's self-interest, offering tactical or strategic lessons that readers can apply.

Research and Story Sourcing

• 🔬 At Forbes, deep dives involved months of research and 50-60 interviews, including travel and engaging with customers to build comprehensive context.
• 🚀 For Upstarts, the process is more streamlined, typically involving 6-10 interviews due to its bootstrap nature, requiring efficient scheduling and information extraction.
• ✅ Story ideas originate from diverse sources, including personal product interest, warm introductions from VCs, or even cold outreach from founders with compelling pitches.

Evaluating Startups and Lists

• 📈 When evaluating startups for coverage or inclusion on lists, key metrics include customer momentum, revenue, headcount growth, and funding, similar to a VC's assessment.
• ⚠️ The rise of AI impacts traditional metrics like headcount, as lean startups can achieve significant revenue with smaller teams, shifting focus to hiring direction rather than absolute numbers.
• 📊 Successful lists, like the Midas List or 30 Under 30, balance qualitative insights with quantitative data, aiming to create community and showcase new talent, despite inherent imperfections in data collection.

Founder Mentality and Ethics

• 🔑 The "soul" of a business resides in its founder, who must be deeply obsessed with their vision and driven by the impact their product can have on the world.
• 🌱 Ethical behavior and transparency are crucial for long-term success, as shortcuts or unethical actions eventually catch up, even if they yield short-term gains.
• 💡 Founders like Melanie Perkins of Canva demonstrate that impact and vision often supersede monetary gain as primary motivators for ultra-successful entrepreneurs.

Media Monetization and AI Tools

• 💰 For large media companies, events are the highest-margin revenue stream, followed by subscriptions and online advertising.
• 🚀 Upstarts Media employs a diversified revenue model, combining lead sponsors for free content with paid subscriptions, and plans for future events, adapting to changes in online advertising and SEO.
• 🛠️ Alex utilizes AI for workflow efficiency (notetakers, transcribers, summarizers for interviews, research tools like Perplexity), but stresses the need for human verification and does not use AI for writing articles.