'Walk away inspired': Hear the co-founders of theSkimm talk on Thursday

Innovating, persevering and cultivating personal success — these are the themes that the founders of theSkimm, Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, will share on Thursday as part of the 2019 Shuford Program’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lecture.

Created in May 2017, the Shuford lecture series aims to bring entrepreneurs and innovators to campus. The program was implemented after the Shuford family from Hickory, N.C. made an $18 million donation to the College of Arts and Sciences, more than doubling the size of the University’s undergraduate entrepreneurship program. 

The donation — the largest single one-time gift from a living family or individual to the college — went toward a $35 million fundraising campaign started to foster innovation and entrepreneurship on campus. 

Last year, the Shuford program hosted its inaugural lecture with Shabana Basij-Rasikh. Ronda Manuel, director of development for the Arts and Sciences Foundation, said there was a great turnout at last year's lecture and hopes this year will be the same. 

"It’s a unique opportunity for our University to be able to merge entrepreneurship, journalism and creativity all under one umbrella," said Bernard Bell, executive director of the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship.  

Dorothy Shuford Lanier, an advisory board member and chairperson on the Innovate and Lead Committee, is part of the Shuford family, a fifth-generation UNC family. She said she had the idea of bringing theSkimm founders to campus after realizing how much she appreciated their newsletter. 

The story of theSkimm, she said, epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit and will be applicable to all students — not just females.

Founded in 2012 by Weisberg and Zakin, theSkimm tries to make life easier for female millennials by breaking down the top news stories of the day in their newsletter — The Daily Skimm. Since then, the two former news producers have launched theSkimm App and incorporated visual and audio through interviews on their social media platforms. 

Most recently, Weisberg and Zakin wrote a New York Times Best Seller book called "How to Skimm Your Life" to help their over 7 million subscribers navigate adulthood, careers and global politics, among other things. 

“Dorothy likes for the speaker to be someone who is fairly young and that is relatable to students, so that students can see that there are people just like you that have followed their dreams, worked hard and that have really been successful as young innovators and entrepreneurs,” Manuel said. 

Molly Corrigan, the internship coordinator of the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship, is planning to attend the lecture. She said she's most excited to have two well-respected female founders come to campus who can speak to the entrepreneurial community. 

"A lot of times when you think of entrepreneurship, it’s the stereotypical image of upper middle class white men unfortunately," Corrigan said. "So to have representation that could mirror someone in the audience, I think could be pretty inspiring."

Bell will moderate the hour-long Q&A event, which will take place from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium. The co-founders will be asked questions that students in his Practicum in Entrepreneurship course, ECON 393, submitted.

“I had 11 pages of questions from the students in the class that were amazing questions,” Manuel said. “We had to kind of pick a top 20 out of those.”

The questions themselves will vary from how the co-founders started the company, how they found the courage to quit their previous jobs and what failures they’ve experienced throughout their entrepreneurial careers. Additionally, Bell will ask Weisberg and Zakin to elaborate on what they perceive theSkimm brand as and what message they hope their startup conveys to their users.

Shuford Lanier said she is excited to have these co-founders at UNC because she hopes their presence will remind students that creating a successful business is a long path, despite how easy some public figures make it seem.

"When you hear theSkimm story, in a way it seems like they make the success because we are only seeing the bright and shiny, so I really hope they'll open up about the trials and tribulations and the difficult parts of it," Shuford Lanier said. 

She also said she hopes that students will realize that there is no one paved path to success that every person takes, but rather unique paths filled with distinct failures and challenges. 

To close, Bell will have Weisberg and Zakin share advice for students and faculty members alike, who may be interested in pursuing entrepreneurship or who would like to incorporate innovation into their current line of work. 

“I really want everyone in the room to walk away inspired  — not just students,” Manuel said. 

She said she is still waiting for approval on whether or not students will have the opportunity to ask the entrepreneurs questions directly at the end of the moderated session. Regardless, Manuel said she thinks students will enjoy the event and desire to be more creative and innovative in all parts of their lives after hearing the founders speak. 

“We want students to see that here is what’s possible,” Manuel said. “You can have an idea in your head, and you may or may not have the time and energy to put toward it. If you really work hard toward it and really put forth the work that is needed, then you can be just as successful as Carly and Danielle are with theSkimm. I hope that people that may be thinking of an idea are really inspired to take that next step and move forward with it.”

@evelyaforte

university@dailytarheel.com