HeyJaredUpstarts Media
Startup news starts here. Upstarts Media is a new tech brand focused on the startup ecosystem. Founded by veteran technology reporter Alex Konrad.
- Indexed videos, last 90 days
- 40
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
- Audience
- ~126K subscribers
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 3, 2026
Latest videos
'There's always going to be people who hate what you're doing' (opens the original)
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"You can't make things palatable for everyone. There's always going to be people who hate what you're doing." When Orchid CEO Noor Siddiqui launched her startup's genetic testing, she was so optimistic about its impact that she didn't anticipate the backlash. Talking to other startup founders in seemingly uncontroversial categories, she discovered they faced 'holy wars,' too -- even if it was about something as small as a semicolon. "I was like, 'Okay, so it actually doesn't matter whether you t
Writer's CEO: 'My kids are more important' than billionaire status (opens the original)
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"Everybody wants to hear you say that there is nothing more important to you than being a billionaire," says Writer CEO May Habib. "And the reality is, my kids are more important than that." Sequoia's rejection letter included a line about how "inspiring" it was that Habib was pitching them with two little kids at home, she says. Now, when investors ask about her family, her instinct is to stress that her in-laws take care of the kids, while she works 90 hours a week. "It's sad that's the instin
Is it ethical to use real brain cells for AI? (opens the original)
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One investor told TBC CEO Alex Ksendzovsky not to even mention his startup uses real neurons to train AI. But not because of any ethical concerns, he argues. “ What we have in the dish is not sentient, never gonna be sentient, does not feel pain, does not have any of the things that humans, animals, et cetera, have," he says. "It's a tiny, tiny fraction of the brain, what we have in there." The neurons are disconnected and reconnected, without blood vessels that could lead to sentience or awaren
Competition makes your startup better (opens the original)
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"As annoying as competition is, it totally makes us better, and it's way better for the customer." Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo is used to newer startups talking a big game as the new 'Vanta 2.0.' What she won't do, she tells The Upstarts Podcast, is mention the competition by name, even when they're scandalous. "I subscribe to the 'never let them see you blink' school of thought. Maybe I have to blink somewhere else, but yeah, that's not here." This conversation was from Season 2 of the Upstart
This is the true founder experience (opens the original)
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“I ran screaming from the room.” Every billion-dollar startup has a good founding legend. But Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo says the real story at her $4.2B valued startup is messier than the legend. According to the lore, she and her co-founder saw the problem first-hand at Dropbox. That part's true. "Then [I] heard compliance, heard what you had to do, ran screaming from the room, did not return," she says. It was only as she looked into wider security needs that compliance popped up again. "Th
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~126K subscribers
Measured Sep 19, 2026
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