Meet Alex Skatell, Founder and President of the flourishing media company, IJReview. Sound familiar? That’s because it is. IJReview has become a top 50 website in the country, reaching over 35 million monthly readers. We were honored at the opportunity to sit down with Alex and IJReview’s Editor in Chief, Bubba Atkinson and find out more about how this dynamic duo ticks. Here’s Alex.

1. How did you and Bubba cross paths and eventually begin working together?

It started with BubbaFindsAJob.blogspot.com, we had met through mutual friends from Charleston in DC and I was hooked on Bubba’s writing about his adventures in job hunting from the College of Charleston library. It was creative, smart, hilarious and completely unfiltered and I got frustrated that I couldn’t help him find a job so convinced him to work with me on this project IJReview.

2. What can we expect from Independent Journal being re-launched this fall?

A destination news site, we will continue to excel at reaching you through social but we also want a larger steady stream of loyal visitors at IJ.com. We feel really strongly about some of the ideas built around the re-launch and can’t wait to unveil it to the world.

3. President Obama calls and wants to kick it with you for the day; what’s on the agenda?

Since Bubba already has his day booked with Joe Biden… I’m calling up Nicolas Cage and we are all going on a treasure hunt with the President and his key to the city.

4. Who would you consider your biggest DC influence and why?

I’m lucky enough to work with a great team of smart, hard working really good people and I continue to learn so much from them. I really admire the team at Politico: Jim Vandehei, Mike Allen, Kim Kingsley and seeing what a focused dedicated team can build in DC. Beyond breaking ground with their reporting style and speed they have quietly innovated a brand new business model that is supporting hundreds of journalists in DC and now around the world.

5. Now that we’re neighbors and we know about the rooftop bar, should we assume there’s an open door policy?

Well we already drank the booze you dropped off so as long as you bring reinforcements it’s wide open.