What We Do

As you know, we publish a newsletter every morning at 6A ET. But we don’t write ALL day and many of our readers, friends, and sometimes parents have asked ‘what do you do all day’? ‘Do you just sleep?’ Short answer: No.

How to cook like a co-founder

As new co-founders and roommates, we are always looking for ways to have good food on the cheap. One of our New Year’s resolutions is to cook more—for peace of mind, good food, and the sake of our new entrepreneur wallet. All in spite of our very tiny kitchen. 

Tonight’s menu was Greek salad with herbed pita and breaded chicken cutlet.

CHICKEN CUTLET RECIPE:

-4 boneless chicken breasts

- flour

-2 eggs

-breadcrumbs

-olive oil

-salt

-pepper

1. Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper

2. Fill three separate bowls with flour, eggs (already beaten), and breadcrumbs

3. Dip each cutlet in flour so it’s fully covered, follow up with the egg batter, and then the breadcrumbs

4. Heat about 1/3 cup of olive oil in pan. Add cutlet and brown on each side. About 10 min later, you are all set!

You know you’re a real company when…

You get corporate Christmas gifts! Look ma we made it!

Christmas time has made Skimm HQ reflect on the amazing year that’s been and how we got through it. Sure there was faith, hope, risks and all that fun stuff, but there was also food. We would like to thank the following local places surrounding Skimm HQ for keeping us going.

Cafe Minerva...for knowing our orders, reminding us when the kitchen closes, and having Wi-Fi.

Tremont…for making us want to work harder so we can afford their prix-fixe. And giving us your Wi-Fi password.

Baracca...for understanding sometimes we need sangria. And giving us your Wi-Fi password.

Hollywood Diner...for delivering us cinnamon sugar toast and a chocolate egg cream at 3am.

La Bonbonniere…for the chocolate chip pancakes. Serious stuff.

*Special shout out to Spring Sun Nail   for understanding that we bite our nails

New Entrepreneur Lesson of the day: Get familiar with your local spots. Make friends. Find Wi-Fi. Be thankful.

Things we learned in SF

There are hills. Lots of them.

We had a great end to our west coast road trip with lots of meetings and time to see old friends. We also made sure to do a tour of the best cafeterias, stopping by both Google and Twitter to chat with women in tech and share our Skimm story.

Where should our next road trip be?

Things we never did while working at NBC

Go on the Today Show.

Well, there’s a first for everything!

Skimm HQ had a big personal and professional milestone by appearing on TODAY this AM and chatting REPEAT AFTER MEs with Willie Geist.

Check us out:  http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49993676/#49993676

It was a surreal day to be picked up by a black car, to head to hair and makeup, and sit in a green room, and then have Kelly Osbourne comfort us on our nerves. If you asked us a year ago (or even last week) if this is what we’d be doing today, the answer would be: NO.

And for that we are incredibly grateful.

Thanks for all of the support and helping to spread theSkimm!!!

Stand your ground law

New Entrepreneur Lesson of the Day: Stand your ground.

As our company grows and grows (!!!)—all very exciting things—we have had lots of meetings where people loooove that we are brand new to this. Sometimes we wonder why, sometimes we remember that not everyone has the best of intentions.

Remember:

-Don’t share proprietary info

-A partnership goes both ways. Be strategic in what you commit to and make sure it benefits you in some way

-Don’t be selfish but be smart

-You never know who someone is connected to so be careful what you say and don’t be a braggart

-Same rules of dating apply: always assume you’ve hooked up with the same people and offer to split the bill

What happens when…

When we debated whether or not to take the plunge into the startup world, we were constantly reminded that “now is the only time in your life to do this!” No kids, no mortgage, minimal expenses. Money? We’d figure it out. Health insurance? We’re young.

Hello, reality check. We blogged last week about one tough day but this weekend one of the Skimms had a scary experience as a passenger in a car accident. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured but this Skimm had to spend a few hours in the ER. Thanks to Obamacare, she is still covered under her parent’s insurance for a few more months, but a scary realization set in when she realized under her specific plan, she no longer had dental insurance and needed to see an oral surgeon. 

It was a wakeup call that in a few months, she will no longer have that Obamacare option. The other Skimm doesn’t qualify under her parent’s plan and is spending her savings every month to pay for COBRA. Politics aside, there has to be a better solution.  

These are scary new entrepreneur realizations: we need to get a small business insurance plan. Those things are expensive. 

Any other entrepreneurs out there with similar experiences? We really don’t want to have to move to Canada.