It’s safe to say that Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg have changed the way we keep up with what’s happening in the world. The former NBC news producers launched theSkimm from their couch in 2012 and today the daily newsletter lands in the inboxes of more than 6 million subscribers, covering everything from pop culture to politics. We sat down with the co-founders and co-CEOs as they celebrated theSkimm’s fifth birthday (!) at their Manhattan office to talk news, style and business advice.
How did you meet?
We met studying abroad in Rome in college — we were both searching for the famous fried artichokes. After college, we reconnected back in the states as we were both working as producers at NBC News.
What inspired you to start theSkimm?
We grew up total news junkies, but that wasn’t the case for all of our friends. They weren’t watching what we were producing for a living and instead were asking us “what happened in the world today.” We saw that there was a huge void in the market for news that fit into the routines of our friends — who we later learned were part of this coveted female millennial demographic. We knew this audience, we knew their routines, and we knew we could build a company that helped make it easier for them to live smarter.
