“This is a bad idea. We are qualified to say this because we have done it,” write Kelsey McKinney and Aleksander Chan, founding members of Discourse Blog and Defector Media, respectively. For our latest special issue on media consolidation, McKinney and Chan break down just how they started their upstart businesses, and how you can do it too. “No starting position will be so good that it can prevent failure. You must face the terror of being seen. You must launch your website and try,” they say. No more dilly-dallying.