- TheSkimm, a newsletter company aimed at millennial women, is seeking top-level hires to expand its personal finance and commerce businesses.
- It's seeking a general manager of Skimm Money, a finance vertical that's set to launch in March 2020.
- The founders said they're in a "unique position" to understand their audience, and their plans call for launching an app, access to financial coaches, a private community, and events.
- The company has been looking to diversify its revenue with products around big decision-making moments that its audience will pay for as its user growth slows.
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Buzzy media company theSkimm is seeking top-level hires to expand its personal finance and commerce businesses.
The daily newsletter aimed at millennial women is advertising for a general manager of Skimm Money, which it calls its newest business line. It's also advertising for a commerce editor to grow its commerce business; the role calls for someone to "write and edit engaging shoppable content in theSkimm's signature voice across a variety of platforms including newsletter, web and social."
TheSkimm has already been dipping a toe into personal finance news and tips, with a Money section on the site where it's recently published articles such as "The Finances of Fertility & Family" and "How to Make a Wedding Budget." Its daily newsletter features "News to Wallet" items and it recently launched a video series, "Asking For a Friend," that deals with how women have dealt with financial challenges.
It also published a book this year, "How to Skimm Your Life," that includes financial tips.
As the new role implies, the company is looking to go deeper into personal finance. Its plans call for launching an app, access to financial coaches, a private community, and events starting in March. The role will report to the chief product officer.
"For years, theSkimm has been a trusted partner to this generation of women when it comes to life's necessities-from news and civic engagement to finance and career," theSkimm cofounders and co-CEOs Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg said. "We're in a unique position to understand this audience: they're getting a seat at the table, influencing billions of dollars in spending, and could decide an election. But they're also facing unprecedented student debt and still fighting to close the wage gap. More and more, we've seen our personal finance offerings resonate within our community, and we're continuing to develop new products and services to help Skimm'rs make confident choices and take control of their financial future."
Founded in 2012, TheSkimm has raised $28.4 million from investors including Google Ventures and 21st Century Fox. It's said to be on track to make $30 million in revenue this year, profitably, but its subscriber growth has slowed and it's been looking for an investor or buyer, people close to the company have said.
TheSkimm doesn't say how it would charge for its planned personal finance products, but people familiar with the company say it's been looking to diversify its revenue with paid products that center around big decision-making moments in its users' lives.
Its first app, Skimm Ahead, is an events calendar that launched at a monthly subscription price of $2.99.
TheSkimm has been running a survey asking users questions like how they make financial decisions, how they get personal financial advice, and what topics and products they'd be interested in.
It's hard to get people to use new apps and pay for them, though. Another personal finance service that targeted women was LearnVest, which was bought by Northwestern Mutual and then discontinued. But there are still other personal finance news and information outlets like Mint and NerdWallet.