The Skimm Co-Founders: News Junkies Turned CEOs

Boss Files with Poppy Harlow

CNN

Business, Entrepreneurship

4.6 • 538 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2018

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Skimm co-founders and co-CEOs, Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, have grown their company to more than 6 million newsletter subscribers today. They open up about the initial challenges they faced getting investors on board, why they feel a responsibility to educate their audience, and how they are using their platform to get more millennials to register to vote. Produced by Haley Draznin, CNN.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Project Hail Mary is an extraordinary cinematic experience. You're a great scientist, Dr. Grace. The world is counting on you. Starring Ryan Gosling. So I met an alien. Two worlds, one impossible mission. We're gonna save the stars. Project Hail Mary. Amaze, amaze, amaze. Seat first March 14th and 15th in Cinemas Everywhere, March 19th. In this episode of Boss Files, well over 6 million people wake up with us every day.
0:24.5	We definitely have the fastest growing newsletter on the market.
0:26.7	The Skim co-founder Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin.
0:31.0	News junkies and former NBC producers who jump ship and set out on their own.
0:36.4	Their road to founding the skim was rough at first,
0:39.4	turned down by almost every investor initially. But they refused to take no for an answer,
0:45.2	eventually raise the money, and launch what has become a daily source of news for millions of
0:50.6	Americans, including Oprah. We see that millions of people throughout the country
0:55.8	are reading us every single day. That's something to be proud of. It's something to celebrate
0:59.6	that we are getting people to read news every single day and to come back or to go deeper
1:06.1	in a topic. They've landed interviews with big newsmakers like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
1:14.3	Plus, how two millennials are managing a team of millennials.
1:18.4	Here's my conversation with Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin of the skim.
1:23.1	Danielle Carly, thank you for being here.
1:24.8	Thanks for having us.
1:25.8	This is exciting.
1:26.7	It's wonderful to have you here. For those unfortunate souls who do not read this game, give us the elevator pitch, Danielle, quickly. Sure. So this skim is a company that makes it easier to live a smarter life. Our product that we're most known for is our daily email newsletter, the Daily Skim,
1:48.0	that breaks down what you need to know first thing in the morning gets you on your way.
1:48.8	6 a.m.
1:50.7	Yes, 6 a.m. There we are. And really what we've become today is a full-fledged audience company
1:55.8	that looks at the modern routines of women primarily 22 to 34 and creates products that really syncs with how
2:04.0	they're living their days and makes it easier to be smarter within that routine.
	...

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