Hi there,

I understand weariness and a dubious feeling towards a new company that is offering you something, and in our case, for free. Furthermore, apprehension is usual especially when a company is recruiting members; nothing more normal.

Perhaps we have been mistaken by you for another company…or our mission is misunderstood. 

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Hope this appeases you,

People make mistakes. New entrepreneurs make mistakes all f'ing day long. We've made  a LOT...

Things we've done wrong:

Asked for too much

THE STORY: In the earliest of Skimm days, a very big brand wanted to work with us. The head of said brand was an idol of ours and we were very excited. They asked us to throw out a number of how much it would be to work together in a very big way. We asked people for advice and people told us to aim really high. We aimed a little too high.

THE REACTION:  We got a bunch of emails telling us we should be ashamed of ourselves and that we had lost a potential mentor.

THE PANIC: We wrote 3 apology notes and sent flowers we couldn't afford.

THE LESSON: We were wrong. But we also realized that a mentor should want to welcome the opportunity to teach us and put us in our place. Not just make us feel bad.

Never showed up

THE STORY: We had a meeting with the co-founder of a successful brand. We forgot to put it in our calendar and never showed up.

THE REACTION: Angry emails from an assistant asking where the f we were.

THE PANIC: We sent two apology emails, a hand written apology note, and alerted the person who connected us to let them know what happened, and sent flowers. Again. Then two follow up emails. Never heard from her again.

THE LESSON: Nothing annoys us more than when people waste our time so we think it's fair that said co-founder should have hated us for awhile. Time to move on.

Didn't pursue enough

THE STORY: We really liked a potential investor. But couldn't make up our mind about when we were closing our round. So we let the clock tick and tick and tick. When we checked back in with said investor, she was no longer making investments for the year.

THE REACTION: She told us that we didn't pursue her enough.

THE PANIC: We wrote a letter telling her she was right and why we wanted her involved.

THE LESSON: Go after what you want. Or opportunities will slip by.

Forgot about it

THE STORY: We had an amazing intern who worked for us remotely. And then we forgot about her. We forgot to give her assignments. Forgot to check in. Forgot we had her as a resource.

THE REACTION:  The intern kept asking if she could do stuff. We kept putting a note on our to-do list to email her back with an assignment.

THE PANIC: We told her it wasn't her, it was us. And we meant it.

THE LESSON: Managing is a full-time job. Identify key areas you need help in and look for solutions that you can utilize. But adding 'help' for the sake of help, wastes everyone's time.

We've all been there.

You forget to prep for a meeting, didn't have time to do some research and you B.S. your way through. It happens.

Pre-Skimm life, Skimm A &B prided themselves on being really good at it.  

Since theSkimm, though, we've had a lot of meetings where the other party has not gotten the memo that it's ok to do that, as in fake it. It's professional courtesy, really, to BS. Too many times we've talked to potential partners, investors, or interviewees who say something along the lines of "I haven't taken a look at the product" or "You have an email? Is it just with some links?"  

At the end of the day, looking unprepared -- no matter what side of a deal you are on -- is embarrassing and unprofessional.

Something really amazing happens and then you are brought off of cloud nine by a crashing server? Yup. That happened. We remembered we are still a start-up.

We got off of the "Today" show and realized our server had crashed. We had done the prep work. We had covered our bases. It still crashed. Great. We would love to say that we reacted calmly. False. Panic. 

As a start-up, one of the things we stress is customer service. Excellent customer service. We think it's a basic requirement of any successful company, especially one starting out. So it was beyond frustrating to have this issue.

Even worse? Talking to our host site (Ahem, Host Monster) for over an hour and a half, trying to fix the situation. We were told that we can take our business elsewhere because we are bigger than what they choose to provide for. We have never experienced such poor advice and problem solving skills from a provider we were paying, especially in a moment we really needed them to perform. 

Seems like my Mac is being a douche during start up and won't allow me past the loading screen, so I'm typing this on my old laptop (this is what I get for trying to install a printer, I guess), meaning I can go on the internet for the most part (albeit, slowly), but not chatting programs like AIM and Skype.