20 Things You Didn’t Know About Carly Zakin
Carly Zakin is the co-founder of an immensely popular online publication that is called The Skimm. The publication is a uniquely designed news feed that transforms current events into the language and format that is most appealing for millennials, especially females who previously had little interest in reading the news.
Zakin is passionate about sharing information and she partnered with Danielle Weisberg, her best friend to develop a different kind of news publication that had the elements that would make reading the news more interesting for a select group in an effort to educate and inspire women to become more informed about current events.
She is a fascinating executive who deserves to be highlighted so everyone can become better acquainted with her. Here are 20 things that you probably didn’t know about Carly Zakin.
1. She met Danielle in a foreign country
Both Carly and Danielle are American citizens, but perhaps by coincidence, or maybe by fate, they met in Rome, Italy where Carly was studying abroad. The two women hit it off and they began sharing their love of the news and discussing their frustrations over the ambivalence of so many women who are within their age range and social circles.
Both found that they had a lot in common including a passion for the news, friends who didn’t understand the importance of keeping up with current events, and each had some ideas of how to create a new publication that could possibly reach those who didn’t find the news to be interesting.
2. She founded a second company as well
Carly Zakin is a lady who is very aware of a variety of social issues. She is the kind of person who considers a problem and then takes action that she believes will offer a solution. Carly became aware of just how difficult it can be to change careers in the current day and age, so she established a company that offers help to those considering such a move. Zaikin is the founder of HigherWrite, which is a business that started in 2011, offering advice on building a resume and training clients to complete a compelling interview.
3. Zakin has achieved remarkable success with theSkimm
Carly Zakin’s online publication has gone from a concept to a topic of discussion with her good friend to a thriving online news publication. Within just 3 years of its establishment, theSkimm has grown so large that she and Weisberg had to hire a total of 16 staffers just to handle the huge consumer demand. The company has expanded in its scope and there are now more than 1.5 million subscribers who read the publication on a regular basis. This is a remarkable achievement, particularly since the majority of readers didn’t use to be interested in reading the news.
4. She is also a charitable person
Carly Zakin and her partner Danielle Weisberg are ladies who have achieved a high level of success in their business endeavors. They are grateful for their bounty, and neither of them takes anything that they have for granted. Carly and Danielle both volunteer to support charity and worthwhile causes by lending their expertise to organizations such as the KIND Fund, Streetwise Partners, and others.
5. Carly Zakin came back to the US to finish her education
Zakin’s time in Rome, Italy was fairly brief. When she returned home to the United States, it was at the University of Pennsylvania that she completed her degree program and graduated in the year 2008. She lost touch with Weisberg for a period of time, but four years later, they reconnected and picked up where they left off, moving forward with a plan to reach the uninformed with the news in a format that they believed would be more interesting and easier to digest.
6. Carly Zakin is an innovative journalist
Zakin has her degree in political science, but we see that she has a firm grasp of anthropological and sociological concepts as they pertain to modern-day attitudes. This is evidenced in her innovative approach, along with Weisberg, to provide relevant current news stories in everyday language that includes a bit of irreverence at times, as well as cheekiness. She isn’t above dropping a few expletives either, but her methods are highly effective in educating the public about a wealth of current affairs with an interesting take on the vernacular for the vehicle of delivery.
7. theSkimm has recently expanded
Zakin and Weisberg have taken their company to new levels recently. The team of co-CEOs has expanded theSkimm with the launch of a product extension, which is a first for the company. It is an app that can easily be integrated into the calendars of its users, which makes it even more convenient to access.
8. She spoke at Hyper-Growth
The past year Carly Zakin has engaged in a variety of speaking engagements. One of them was for Hyper Growth’s Drift Insider Edition at San Francisco. The conference focused on building products, marketing, selling, and sharing strategies for these activities. This is something that Zakin has a great deal of experience with and her opinions and input are highly valued by those in the business sector. The focus of this conference event was mainly on digital marketing, traditional marketing, and sales.
9. Zakin was a speaker at Fast Company
The Fast Company Innovation Festival was held in New York, New York in 2018. Carly was a speaker at the event that focused on a diverse range of industries interested in further exploring creativity, design, the curation of inspiring agendas, and entrepreneurship. This conference fell into the main categories of innovation management, health care, and fashion, and it shows us that Carly Zakin has skills that are transferrable across a broad range of industries.
10. She was a guest speaker at the Forbes Under 30 Summit 2016
Carly Zakin was one of the speakers at the Forbes Under 30 Summit. This was a large gather of professionals that was held in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference was a seminar for young entrepreneurs in the digital media and finance industries. The group has grown massively and has more than tripled in the numbers in attendance with potential game-changers.
11. She was also a presenter at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference 2019
Zakin has been building an impressive resume within the business community. She spoke in 2019 at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference which was a conference held for those in the information technology industry. This was a women’s conference with a focus on empowering women in the technology industry.
12. Zakin was a speaker at Code Media 2018
Carly Zakin has been busy because of the high demand for her wisdom. In 2018 she spoke at the Code Media conference held at Huntington Beach, California. This was a gathering of professionals in the advertising, digital media, and entertainment industries. It was a meetup type conference designed to bring entrepreneurs together with people who have the potential to help boost their careers as well as their companies.
13. Carly was a speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2016
Another notable engagement that Zakin participated in was at TechCrunch Disrupt NY in 2016. This was a conference in the hackathon category that gave participants the opportunity to engage in professional networking and to learn more about how to do this. The conference lasted for three days with a focus on startup competition designed to immerse participants in the debate about what is changing within the industry. Zakin was one of the speakers for this event and she shared her knowledge and experience on the topic with the attendees.
14. Carly and Danielle released their first book for TheSkimm
Zakin and her partner Weisberg completed their first book in the spring of 2019 and it was released on June 11th. It is titled “How to Skimm Your Life.” Upon the release of the book, the two ladies embarked on a national tour, hitting some of the major cities in the country including New York, Chicago, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Georgia among others. The co-founders of theSkimm scheduled a series of stops with events that they sold tickets for. Attendees received a copy of the book along with admission to the talk that the ladies delivered for general admission. There were also VIP passes available for those who preferred to get a signed book and a gift bag that contained some of the best selling products offered by theSkimm, and a meet and greet with Zakin and Weisberg.
15. The newsletter has evolved into a larger business
TheSkimm began as a newsletter that was intended for a target audience of millennial women, but the owners of the company had a strong desire to expand the business into much more, entering into new product lines. They launched a fundraising campaign to raise the necessary capital to expand its product lines. Google Ventures led the round and was joined by Sara Blakely of Spanx, RRE, 21st Century Fox, and Homebrew and raised an additional $12 million in the round making the total fundraising for TheSkimm $28 million since 2012.
16. Her goal is for multiple revenue streams
Zakin and her partner have the goal of creating a company that generates multiple revenue streams. This is why they seek to expand product lines. Some of these ventures include an e-commerce business, podcasts, adn a subscription calendar app. The funding recently generated will in part be used to build additional subscription services which will be geared towards their original target audience with empowerment and innovations in sharing the news in a digestible format.
17. Zakin is halfway to her goal
We also learned that Carly and Danielle have set another goal for their business. They are hoping to achieve a valuation of $100 million for TheSkimm. At the last valuation, they had accomplished a $55 million figure as of September of 2016. At this time, the company is not commenting on its current valuation, so we’re not sure how close that they are to achieving the overall gold. It is not known if they have sold secondary shares during the last round of fundraising or not.
18. She formerly worked for NBC
Carly Zakin was working at NBC as a producer. Weisberg was also employed with the company in the same capacity. It seems as though fate has brought the pair together on multiple occasions. The ladies both had great jobs, but in order to fulfill their dreams of launching and growing TheSkimm, they had to quit their jobs at NBC in order to make the time to realize their own news publication. It was a decision that both of them made and it resulted in the ultimate success of achieving their goals.
19. She gained notoriety within an hour of launching TheSkimm
Zakin shared in an interview that the very day that they launched TheSkimm was an exciting one. She explained that it was launched from a broken computer in tehir apartment, letting us in on the humble beginnings of the company. Within an hour, the internet was already lit up with news stories about Zakin and Weisberg. This is how fast TheSkimm became a sensation on the internet. Carly went on to share that four days from the launch of the newsletter, the two were invited to appear on “The Today Show.
20. Carly Zakin is an inspiration for women
Zakin and Weisberg are a powerful team. These two women have accomplished an amazing feat and a very successful business. In addition to having a popular newsletter, they have also become dynamic speakers who are in high demand at empowerment and business conferences throughout the nation. Zakin’s words are highly valued by young entrepreneurs who are just starting out in their own business endeavors. She has become wildly successful and she has a great deal of wisdom to share with the rest of the world.She accomplished great things in the business world before she reached the age of 30.
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