After 12 years at Forbes, Alex Konrad walked away from one of the most prestigious seats in tech journalism. He ran the Midas List. Co-created the Cloud 100. Wrote cover stories on the biggest names in tech.

And then he left… to build his own media company from scratch.

In this episode, Alex joins me to talk about what happens when you go from covering founders to being one. We get honest about entrepreneurship, attention, media, and why so much of what we glorify in startup culture doesn’t line up with reality.

This conversation isn’t about hype cycles or hot takes. It’s about the actual work.

We talk about why the word “founder” is often over-romanticized, why running a small business deserves more respect than it gets, and why most people misunderstand how press, attention, and storytelling really work. Alex also breaks down what founders consistently get wrong when pitching media, why “nobody cares” is the correct starting assumption, and how to reverse-engineer coverage that actually leads to real outcomes.

If you’re building something in public, thinking about your relationship with attention, or trying to create work that actually holds weight over time, this episode will reframe how you think about all of it.

We cover:

• Why entrepreneurship is wildly over-glamorized and what the job actually is
• The difference between being a “startup founder” and running a real business
• Why “nobody cares” is the most useful mindset for founders and creators
• How to think about press strategically instead of emotionally
• Why talking to Bloomberg vs an independent outlet leads to completely different outcomes
• The real reason founders think journalists are “out to get them”
• How AI and content slop are forcing a return to quality and trust
• Why some of the best stories look boring right before they look obvious

Listen to the full episode and let us know what resonated.

And if you enjoyed this one, subscribe for more honest conversations about building, pressure, and the unsexy parts of doing meaningful work.

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