Alex Konrad on building Upstarts Media: service journalism for founders and the scoop economy
Mar 19, 2026 with Alex Konrad
Key Points
- Alex Konrad launched Upstarts Media a year ago as an independent successor to his Forbes Midas List work, publishing service-oriented coverage and a 25-to-35-minute weekly podcast designed for founders.
- Konrad rejects the scoop-chasing model that dominates tech media, arguing that breaking news alone is unsustainable and editorially relevant only if it contains a lesson for the broader startup ecosystem.
- The venture capital category has fragmented sharply across mega-funds, emerging managers, and firms operating as public equity traders, creating untold stories in the narrative gaps Konrad plans to cover.
Summary
Alex Konrad launched Upstarts Media about a year ago as an independent follow-up to his work running the Midas List at Forbes. The company publishes a weekly podcast in 25 to 35 minute episodes designed for commute listening and feature stories built around utility for founders and startup builders.
Konrad designs coverage for founders who lack time to read. A recent story on a GPU startup included custom illustrations by artist Natalie Frado showing how data centers connect to the company, prioritizing visualization over dense text. His podcast applies the same logic, trading depth for accessibility.
On whether to build a signature list, Konrad is open but uncommitted. Lists have lost favor in some quarters, though market maps and ranked formats like a recent Metas list of AI researchers still draw audiences. Upstarts is focused on service journalism rather than list-based content.
Konrad also addresses the scoop economy that dominates tech media, where individual journalists build followings by breaking news about AI labs and founder departures. His biggest story last summer covered a startup founded by former OpenAI employees who raised significant capital for reinforcement learning work, and the subscriber spike felt validating. But he is skeptical of making scoop-chasing a business model. Breaking news hits are not sustainable as a strategy, and he is content to leave that game to journalists like Katie Roof who thrive on it. For Konrad, a scoop is only editorially relevant if it contains a lesson or insight for the broader ecosystem, not just coverage of which OpenAI group raised more money than the last.
On the broader venture landscape, Konrad notes that the category itself has fragmented. The strategies of mega-funds, smaller emerging managers, and VCs who have essentially become public equity traders or private equity operators have diverged sharply. He suggests untold stories exist in that bifurcation and in VCs who may be underrated in the current narrative.