we can look a journalist in the eyes and tell them we're going to give them all the resources

they need to do the best work of their career.

In the same way that the early folks on that Bay Area staff said no originally, most of the

investors that ultimately invested in the athletic said no.

And then we had to circle back.

Persistence in the face of rejection.

I mean, without that, you know, we would have stopped five years ago.

This year has been an incredibly challenging one for small businesses all across the country.

The US Census data projected there about 30.

Welcome back to episode two of Dell Technology's Small Business Podfront series.

I am Jade Hoy, executive producer of the Athletic Podcast Network.

As you know, these have been trying times for small business owners across the world.

And for the second year in a row, Dell Technologies has assembled the best podcasters

to tell their stories on starting up, scalability, and surviving.

In this episode, we will continue our conversation with the founders of the athletic,

Adam Hansman and Alex Mather, as they detail the athletics' rapid growth over the last five years.

How and why they decided on Chicago and Toronto and recruiting the best talent.

We will also be joined by General Manager of Content Strategy and Analytics, Akeel...

Kiel Nambiar.

Who was an integral part of the early years and one of the brains behind the athletics

early success.

Let's start here.

...