Forbes veteran Alex Konrad launches Upstarts Media, a founder-focused startup journalism outlet on Substack

will we'll share the link at some point. You can go our fantastic. Anyway, uh we got Alex Conrad coming into the Temple of Technology. Welcome to the show. Congratulations. Uh let us know. Let us know what you're announcing. What are you doing? Break it down. Yeah. Thank you guys.

I'm so excited to announce my new startup today called Upstarts Media. Cool. Upsource media is a new tech media publication focused on the startup ecosystem. Fantastic. Uh what's the angle? What are you doing differently? What are you leveraging?

And will there be a list of the best and more importantly the worst venture capitalists dropping soon? I know I know that I have a customer in you for that for sure. But um theor I'll think about that. You know, I actually did 25 audience calls ahead of time, and I should have I should have asked that specific question.

Should I launch an anti-midas list? But yeah, um for for your your audience who don't know me, I spent 12 years at Forbes covering venture capital and startups. I really lived in that world, you know, wrote a bunch of cover stories about folks like Melanie Perkins at Canva, the Collison brothers at Stripe.

Um I wrote one about a soft wrap report at Whiz, which has been in the news a lot. You know, really enjoyed writing about startups and the VCs who fund them. And I felt like we were in a moment where so much uh traditional tech media coverage is focused on big tech politics.

You know, we have tech people in the White House. Um big policy debates, not so much on sort of the startups that I really love writing about. You know, I just heard from so many people that it was just hard to kind of get those founder journeys, um you know, startup storytelling out there right now.

And so I'm hoping to do my small part to just tell those stories. How do you think about the the different products that are offered in the media ecosystem?

I mean, most people just think like it's a news article, but once you dive in, you realize like there's investigative journalism, there's breaking news, there's profiles, there's opeds, there's editorial, there's all this different stuff. How do you think about the landscape and what interests you the most? Yeah.

Well, first off, you know, these these tech bros showed up and they just completely uh created a seismic event for us in media.

No, but but seriously, like jokes aside, you know, I think you guys and a lot of these new brands that have been the most interesting in tech journalism and media right now have kind of come from these adjacent spaces. They haven't been traditional journalists.

Um, we have seen though some people go independent and try to kind of get more direct. You know, we keep hearing go direct, you know, from certain founders and and PR folks.

I think that's great for certain people, but my hope is that there's still room for curated storytelling from journalists like me who can help, especially those founders who maybe don't have the platform to go direct and also can just maybe connect the dots in ways that you wouldn't get from some of these awesome podcasts and shows like your own.

I I mean, I really do agree with you. We were talking about to Lulu about this yesterday, just the idea of like yes, you should go direct and post your own news, but then you should also talk to new media like you and and us and then you should also talk to the Wall Street Journal if they call if they come calling.

And it's really like an ensemble strategy to build this like cinematic universe around you and what you're doing if it's important. Yeah. How how do you think about you? Funny funny timing. So, we talked about this last week uh about TechCrunch selling uh it was unclear what they were going to do.

I think TechCrunch had sort of created this the thing they did well was like make people's parents proud, right? It was like you wanted to get into TechCrunch. It it was just sort of like this moment in every founders's journey.

You go there to announce a round or for a product launch or whatever and they sell to private equity which people were like, "Oh, great.

like private equity is just gonna come in and you know I I don't you know nobody knew what they were gonna do and then the first Techrunch headline I see is this like hit p you know drive by hit piece on 11x which whether or not it's fair it's like techrunch is in a very weird position around they're I guess trying to do investigative journalism but then they still want to be the place that maybe you launch your startup are you trying to pick a lane and saying like we are pro-founder we are pro tech we know this is hard but we want to like, you know, tell your story in an authentic way that makes like are you looking to really like develop trust with these founders and cover them across their entire career?

Is, you know, what is that?

Like I'm I'm trying to kind of hone in on on your specific angle because I think the temptation is, you know, uh, somebody starts out writing tech positive and then eventually they get some crazy scoop and they're like, "Oh, this is going to get so many this is going to get so many controversy.

Yeah, I'm just going to publish this fund's returns, you know, whatever. Um, but I'm curious how you think about it. I I have like three different responses for that, but I can try to keep them short. Um, it's really a important important debate.

I think you know, first I would say our ideology is that Upstarts was founded on the belief that startups are at their best when they punch above their weight, challenge the status quo, try to improve the world in some way.

And I think at that core I believe that technology is great for the planet, great for our daily lives and I want to write about that. Um I think at the same time you know I am going to be a journalist. I am going to be independent.

So I'm not a cheerleader you know and and just because a lot of my you know Midas VC you know pals might be subscribing today doesn't mean I'm going to suddenly write about their portfolio company or something like that. You know I I want to keep a really impartial and fair view.

But that's really what I tried to build in the last 15 years writing about startups was that sense of trust that you can expect me to be fair to to have sort of the good of the ecosystem at heart.

So if I do something that doesn't feel super comfortable, um I'd say that's actually a good thing because you can get that from an amazing VC podcast or you can get a beautiful marketing video. I might ask questions that push you a little bit, but I am in the ecosystem.

I I do consider myself a founder of a startup here and I have that empathy that I'm going to be only punching up really carefully. I'm not going to be punching down, you know, I never want to get out of bed and be like, what startup am I messing with today? So, no Gawker 2.

0, but uh uh I want to talk about like the instantiation of the work that you do. Uh obviously, you're a writer first and foremost, right? And and most people experience your work through Forbes. com essentially. Um but have you thought about where that lives? Is it are are you targeting the email inbox?

Will there be a printed version? I'd love a t coffee table book of the Conrad list maybe this year. I think that would sell really well. I think every single VC firm would probably pay $1,000 for the for the Conrad printed coffee table book. Sell a lot of those. Uh are we going to get videos podcast?

What are you thinking? Yeah. So, it's a little crazy because I am bootstrapping this business at first to kind of control my outcomes and test the product market fit. But I kind of want to do everything you said. I mean, maybe not the the coffee table book just yet. That could be a year two goal.

But I'm going to be launching a live video series um of monthly interviews, very different from what you guys do, but just a quick fun interview with the CEO uh next week and I'm doing that like my newsletter over Substack who have been a great partner. Great.

So um working closely with them and going to be publishing twice a week. I also got to shout out you know and this this might be controversial on this show but um I am going to be working with uh partners to make sure that one edition of my newsletter is free each week.

I want to be proving this can be a sustainable business but also inclusive to folks who maybe are early career students, you know, founders who are cutting their burn and they want to get high quality news but they don't want to pay yet.

And so I actually signed a launch partner in Brexner, but um always happy to work with others down the road. Um but yeah, I mean that's basically the way I'm thinking about this is multiple streams, a newsletter. I'd love to do a podcast eventually. Um, but I'm gonna be building in public.

I'm gonna be screwing up a lot. I think that'll be part that'll be authentic with this audience. You know, you guys you guys will see that. Awesome. Yeah. Uh, what's the future of the Forbes brand? Uh, it's been in an interesting spot. Uh, I'm saying this.

You're not saying uh or confirming this, but I know they've been like on the market trying to sell themselves for a long time. They sold off a bunch of random assets. Russell was circling.

Forbes Forbes book publishing is not really tied to the parent company any you know it's like very unclear like it's it was an iconic media property you tried to keep it alive uh and you know you and certainly more brand cache than techrunch I think like the Forbes brand still has a lot of Yeah but it's been diluted over time and and part of you know if you had stayed and said I'm going to recommmit the next decade and sort of bring it back I I'm sure there's a variety of factors that that didn't allow for that.

But uh what happens with Forbes? I know you probably can't uh maybe you can give the your your most sort of positive perspective on it. Upstarts is acquiring Forbes in 2026. Not kidding. He first scooped but but to answer Jordy to answer Jordy a little more seriously, you know, I started covering startups in 2010.

You know, Techrunch was a giant. Venturebe was a giant. You know, Forbes, the website was still very siloed. So was Fortunes. Media has changed a ton in the past decade plus. I think like people forget that the Midas list was actually started in 2000.

So it way predated me too and it will outlive us all whether VCs like that or not, you know. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. That makes sense. Uh how what what do you think the uh what what's the future of Substack?

they they they went through this kind of, you know, period of massive hype and then there was a period where every media platform was attacking them and then it seems like they've come out of it and now people are deciding to to go on and build real businesses from day one on the platform.

Uh what's your take on on um are are they having real network effects? Like do you think they're their sort of existing audiences there are going to help you accelerate your growth faster?

maybe kind of break down the decision to start there versus working, you know, ground up on on a beehive or one of these other products. You know, I think um there it's good if there are multiple options out there and that they get better and better.

And I think companies like Beehive are pushing Substack to update their their own technology. You know, from a technical component, I was really impressed with Beehive. Ultimately, Substack was where a lot of my peers, a lot of the folks I think are startup curious are today. It is, I think, an effective social network.

And so when I was thinking about who I wanted to partner with, that was really important for me. You know, other journalists, other um writers who are in the ecosystem who aren't journalists, um I hope that we can collaborate. They can, you know, send their audiences back and forth.

And I think, you know, what they're doing in video notes, they're trying to kind of adapt and and have new ways to reach audiences. And that's going to be a huge priority for me. Um I I had a crazy idea. I pitched a another writer I want to get your take on.

Uh the 30 under 30 list is is uh it's controversial, but I think generally like there's a lot of people that want to be on it. They're excited and then they they get frustrated when they turn 31 or they're ineligible.

Uh my idea was uh every week for the full year you post here are 20 cracked 20 year olds and then the next week it's here are 21 really great 21 year olds, here's the 22 year olds and you're just chronicling all the great people in tech. It's an opportunity to get on a list every single week. It's massive viral fuel.

Do you like the idea and can we expect it from your media empire in the near future? I promise I promise everyone I would wait at least two quarters before I shipped the crazy list. So I got to add that to the product road map. But I do want to cover non. I think there are a lot of cool people in startups.

Totally who we don't ever hear from. So totally operators, right? Yeah. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. Well, I I mean thanks for stopping by. I congratulations on the launch.

Uh we'll definitely stay tuned and we'll have to have you back when you break a big story or do a wonderful and it'll be my goal to have you guys on my show someday. So fantastic to do it. We're down. We will also be streaming at the same time. We will have dual syndication. I love it.

Uh well, thanks so much for stopping by. Good luck. Congrats again. Congrats again. We'll talk to you soon. See you guys. Thank you. Bye. Fantastic. Well, coming in next, we have Will. This is your buddy. Yes. You want you want to give a little backstory on who this guy is? Yes.

Uh I mean he should be in the waiting room any second. I will make sure. From terrain. com. Good good domain. Fantastic domain. Fantastic domain. Fantastic word. Nice little logo. Says call your shot. Terrain is an earlystage investment firm focused on software and technology.

Not giving me a lot to work on there, but we'll hear it from him.