Welcome to the Smart Friends Network, a collective of excellent products & media properties created by our many smart friends.
Take a look at some of the great work by our smart friends below! We are also very excited to announce the launch of our flagship podcast, Hi Smart Friend, coming May 27th and featuring - yes, you guessed it - our many smart friends.
Why Join the Smart Friends Network?
Amplification & Reach
You are making something smart, cool, useful & great, and it deserves to be seen, and then seen again. It's super noisy out there, and everyone has the attention span of a gnat. We created Smart Friends Network to help you break through the noise and get seen, heard and noticed.
Networking & Connection
When you have this many Smart Friends, you want them to meet each other. Smart Friendship is not a zero sum game, it's the gift that keeps on giving with each new Smart Friend pulled into the fold. Magic happens when Smart Friends meet.
Press, Social & Earned Media Support
We've been very effective in getting media coverage for our Smart Friends in the past, and we know that it's useful to be a trusted destination for journalists seeking stories and sources. We know how to attract press & social coverage for our members.
New Projects Development & Support
In addition to the "Hi Smart Friend" podcast launching later this month, we will have new properties coming soon. We also actively work with members to support their budding projects. We *love* to develop & support new projects, and we're very good at it.
Partnerships & Collabs
It's a proven fact: Smart Friends who work together go further, faster. The Smart Friends network is a very efficient way to bring future partners together (and part of our mission is to help you find each other).
Strength in Numbers
It's just math. A bunch of us working together has greater collective marketing muscle, and presents an efficiency for any smart sponsor who wants to make some Smart Friends. (And yes, we do plan to bring in money with this thing, and then pour it right back in helping to make our member projects pop.)
But wait, that's not all!
We are also so excited to meet *new* smart friends, and support and promote and amplify your excellent work. Please drop us note in the contact form below, or just sign up for updates. We won't send you crazy spam or add you to weird petitions. We'll just let you know what our smart friends are up to, and pretty soon, they'll be your smart friends, too.
Thanks for all you do!
Rachel Sklar
Founder
Smart Friends Network
Smart Friends
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About Us
Rachel Sklar is the founder of the Smart Friends Network. She was previously the co-founder of membership network TheLi.st (with Glynnis MacNicol) which was acquired in 2020, and subsequently founded Inner Circle, a new membership network in beta filled with Smart Friends. She is a former lawyer, an award-winning journalist, and an in-demand creative consultant for communications, amplification and growth strategy. Rachel has successfully placed clients and Smart Friends in national media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, Elle, BBC, CNBC, Business Insider, Marie Claire, InStyle, Vox Media, Forbes and many more, and facilitated numerous introductions that led to hires, partnerships, investments, speaking opportunities, invites to cool events, and, it must be said, three marriages.
Her fun facts include writing jokes for two world leaders (the good ones, promise) and singing on a dance-pop hit in Sweden at the turn of the millennium. Rachel is a single mother of an amazing ten-year-old daughter who also has many smart friends. They have big plans.
Ruth Ann Harnisch is an American producer, investor, activist and philanthropist. She founded the Harnisch Foundation in 1998, not only fully aware of the unfairness that allows families of wealth to shelter income from taxes but also determined to make the best use of this advantage. (Neither she nor any family member is on the Foundation’s payroll.) Ruth Ann invests both personal and philanthropic capital in content creation, including feature films, documentaries, series, and other media that advance social causes and explore topics of important public interest, often in partnership with other funders including Impact Partners and Sundance Catalyst. Her documentary films have been shortlisted for (Unrest), nominated for (The Hunting Ground, Sugarcane), and won (Icarus, Best Documentary Feature, 2017) Oscar consideration. She is also a private investor with a portfolio that includes many women-led startups and energy infrastructure.
Ruth Ann is a member of the Women Donors Network, Women Moving Millions, Rachel’s Network (environmental funders), the International Women’s Forum (Tennessee and New York City Forums), and the Leadership Nashville Alumni Association.
She most recently became the first patron of Creative Mornings, the biggest “friendship engine” in the world, helping people to connect and create in real life and virtually.
Ruth Ann is the Publisher of the Sunday Long Read, a sponsor of HellGate podcast (among others), founding supporter of over 100 Substacks, recently hailed as “the legendary champion of indie media” by Delia Cai (DeezLinks)
She and her husband Bill Harnisch provided funding for a neuroscience center that will begin treating patients later this year at the Peconic Bay Medical Center.
The Smart Friends Network and Inner Circle exist because of Ruth Ann's financial support (plus all the other kinds). She is the OG Smart Friend & we are so grateful for her! Learn more about Ruth Ann & her great work here.