Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen turned Axios into an overnight media success story

Thank Donald Trump. Also thank a lively mix of scoops and summaries of stories other people wrote. And if you want to, thank a desire to show the folks at Politico — the last media company Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen helped create — that they can do it again.

But bigger and better — with a significant ownership stake, to boot.

A year ago, no one knew how to pronounce Axios. Now it’s a brand that connotes buzzy, insidery looks at what’s happening in the Trump White House and across Washington, delivered each morning via Allen’s email newsletter. VandeHei has ambitions to make a similar splash in other industries, like technology and finance.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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