Okay, here’s how I tackled figuring out who Alex Popovich is and putting together that piece. Started completely cold—never heard the name before.
Staring at a Blank Screen
First thing I did was just type “Alex Popovich” straight into Google. Felt like throwing spaghetti at the wall. Got a tsunami of results—mostly LinkedIn profiles, some old news scraps, and weirdly a bunch of Polish pages? Not helpful.
Filtering the Noise
Narrowed it down by adding keywords like “business” and “tech” to the search. That’s when stuff got clearer. Found him tied to:
- Startup hustle – Kept seeing this company “Near” popping up. Looked it up—apparently it’s some location data thing? Yeah, he co-founded it.
- Money moves – Digging deeper, found out Near got bought for big cash later. That’s when I went “aha, that’s why his name floats around”.
- Other gigs – Kept clicking through old interviews. Saw he’d hopped into other companies after Near, mostly tech stuff I didn’t fully get but sounded fancy.
Cross-Checking Facts
Hit a wall with conflicting dates about Near’s founding. One source said 2011, another said 2012. Annoying. Had to pull up old Crunchbase archives (wayback machine stuff) and finally pinned it to late 2011. Also triple-checked that acquisition number ’cause it sounded nuts.
Putting It All Together
Laid out the timeline:
- Dude comes from… somewhere? Seriously hard to find early background. Skipped it.
- Co-founds Near around 2011-2012, rides that wave.
- Company sells later for a boatload of money – that’s the headline grabber.
- Does other startup things post-exit. Vague, but mentioned in tech circles.
Biggest headache? Not much personal story out there. Mostly dry business facts. Had to piece it together like a puzzle missing half its pieces.
The Final Shove
Kept rewriting the achievements section ’cause it sounded like a robot wrote it. Forced myself to simplify:
- Built a data company from scratch
- Scored a massive exit
- Stayed in the tech game afterward
Hit publish feeling like I’d scraped together a rough sketch more than a full portrait. Some guys just operate in stealth mode, I guess.