Jul 10, 2020 · 37m · 20vc
20VC: The Future of Subscription Media, Why Startups Need To Stop Blaming Facebook and Google & How Founders Should Think Through Customer Acquisition Channel Dependencies with Alex Mather, Founder & CEO @ The Athletic
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In this episode of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Alex Mather, founder and CEO of The Athletic, about building a premier subscription sports media business. Mather shares key insights on scaling operations, mastering data-driven customer acquisition, navigating venture capital, and evolving personal leadership.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 34.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.4 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 1.6 Harry pushing back 1.0
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 27:37 Rant on media blaming Big Tech
Alex aggressively rejects the prevalent narrative blaming Google and Facebook for media's decline, telling executives to stop whining and figure out their own business models.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 28:59 Questioning Facebook CAC unit economicsHarry refuses to accept Facebook as an easy growth channel, pushing back on rising acquisition costs and questioning whether unit economics actually hold up.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 29:27 Data-driven conversion automation lessonAlex explains the technical mechanics of analyzing paywall conversion signals within the first 20 minutes of an article release to automate profitable ad spending on social platforms.
Harry holds his own ▶ 25:38 Challenging Substack non-threat premiseHarry uses insights from his previous conversation with Substack's founder to challenge Alex's assumption that top individual newsletter writers do not compete for subscription budgets.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Mather's Career Background and Founding The Athletic | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Harry introduces Alex warmly and asks a standard background question about his path into tech and founding The Athletic. Alex provides a conversational timeline from Penn State to Strava and media. | |
| Key Lessons Learned from Strava: Focus and Inclusivity | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Harry references a question provided by Strava founder Michael Horvath regarding lessons unlearned. Alex shares thoughtful insights on avoiding shiny object distractions and balancing inclusivity versus exclusivity. | |
| Resource Allocation and Expanding The Athletic to the UK | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Harry asks about capital and resource allocation strategies. Alex explains how speed and aggressive scaling into the UK created a defensible moat against legacy competitors. | |
| Leadership Evolution, Communication, and Managing Press Mistakes | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Harry prompts Alex on leadership evolution and past mistakes using an investor quote. Alex candidly details a painful early PR mistake in the New York Times and the necessity of dedicated communications strategy. | |
| Fundraising Challenges and Investor Value-Add | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Harry explores the difficult 2016 fundraising environment for subscription media and probes Founders Fund's value-add thesis. Alex mildly reframes Founders Fund's philosophy as non-meddling rather than non-valuable. | |
| Building Effective Board Relationships | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Harry cites a past interview with Substack's founder to ask if media is splitting into empires and rebels. Harry pushes Alex on whether solo writers on Substack steal paid subscribers, which Alex reframes as non-competitive. | |
| Rethinking Big Tech Dependency and Data-Driven Acquisition | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | Alex strongly attacks traditional media executives for complaining about Facebook and Google instead of adapting. Harry pushes back on high customer acquisition costs, leading Alex to detail their automated data-testing approach. | |
| Quickfire Round with Alex Mather | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Harry runs through a rapid-fire series of questions on books, leadership traits, and mentors. Alex offers brief, pragmatic answers without friction. |
Statements from this episode (19)
Alex Mather raised over $139M for The Athletic
“To date, Alex has raised over one hundred and thirty nine million dollars with The Athletic from some of the best in the business, including Founders Fund, Bedrock, Y Combinator and Emerson Collective, to name a few.”
Mather helped scale Strava from 1,500 to over 10 million users
“I was lucky enough to be employee number seven there, the first sort of design and product hire, and built out those teams over the years at Strava, and helped grow that company from 1500 users to over ten million”
Mather: Subscription business models force direct alignment with consumers
“Subscription is just one of these things that allows you to focus directly on the consumer”
Mather: Early Strava overexpanded features into nutrition and route planning
“And so there were definitely a few years there at Strava where we were running around trying to build so many things at once. Whether it be nutrition or finding a route to ride or things like that.”
Mather: Strava should have targeted casual cyclists sooner
“And at some moments in the company's history, we were probably a little too exclusive. We should have talked to more of the weekend warriors versus the folks already riding 200 miles a week.”
The Athletic launched in the UK with 55 employees within 119 days
“And a 119 days later, we had 55 full-time employees in the UK, and we were launching.”
The Athletic surpassed 100,000 paying UK subscribers within one year
“And so, those advantages, they seem small on paper, but here we are a year later, and we're well north of a 100,000 paying subscribers in the UK, building a really great product for fans all over the world.”
The Athletic scaled its headcount to 550 employees
“Going from zero to 550 employees is used to write code, and thankfully they don't let me anymore, but now my job is communication, and all day long I must focus on communicating, and that is absolutely a full-time job.”
Mather: Founders must prepare for press like VC pitches
“I would just give any entrepreneur the advice of investing in comms. Someone who's wonderful on the comm side, and Taylor Patterson on our team, is just amazing. Keeps me honest. Keeps me trained, and dealing with the press is a job, and you have to have a str…”
Overcoming VC disinterest creates a strong pioneer moat for startups
“If few investors are interested, if you can cross that hurdle, it creates an incredible moat for you, because you can be the pioneer.”
Strava's founder and Charles Hudson wrote the first Athletic angel checks
“Michael Horvath, the founder of Strava, was our first check, but it was a smaller check, and then the next check was Charles Hudson at Precursor”
Mather: Board members showing genuine care matters most to founders
“One of the most valuable things on a personal level is you can tell so quickly when the board member cares about the company, About you as a founder, about the journey, and the difference between someone who cares and someone who doesn't is so meaningful to th…”
Mather: Few media categories achieve both scale and margin like sports
“Most categories can't get margin or scale like sports, and so the rebel model, to me, makes a ton of sense.”
Mather: The Athletic headcount will reach thousands within years
“We'll be in the thousands of people, hopefully, over the next couple years, and sports is just one of those areas where the empire makes sense.”
Mather: Substack is capturing the opportunity Medium had and missed
“I think if you look at what happened with Substack, to just take a second to look at that business, and it's a wonderful product, a wonderful founding team, and they're much more competitive with, say, Medium. And we don't necessarily look at them as competito…”
Mather: Media companies should pay Facebook and Google, not demand payouts
“We should be paying Facebook and Google as media companies, not the other way around. If you can't make your business thrive in this world where Facebook and Google exist, that's on you.”
Mather: Paid Facebook acquisition works for subscription media, not ad models
“Frankly, the CAC has been very workable. When you're a subscription business, you know, you're generating revenue off your subscribers. And so it works for us. It may not work if you're an advertising driven business, but absolutely works for us.”
Mather: Silicon Valley culture needs pragmatism and nuance over rigid principles
“I'd love to see more pragmatism over principles a little bit, which is like, Thought is becoming too much of a religion right now, and I really love just, we talk to our newsroom about this a lot, like, add nuance. Don't take nuance away, and how can we solve …”