Carley Roney Announced as Second 2017 NYU Entrepreneurs Festival Keynote Speaker
Social impact entrepreneurship is one of several themes for this year’s 6th Annual NYU Entrepreneurs Festival. According to Cadence Daniels, Creative Director for this year’s Festival, female representation in entrepreneurship is just as important as highlighting underrated industries. “In order to maximize your social and intellectual toolkit, it is crucial that you learn from people that do not look or think like you,” says Cadence. “It’s exciting to welcome an outstanding woman to share her unique path through entrepreneurship.”
Carley Roney (Tisch ’90, ’94) is that outstanding woman to become the second of three keynotes announced for the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute hallmark weekend celebration of NYU startups, entrepreneurs and stories on March 3rd-4th. A role model and entrepreneurial icon, Carley co-founded The Knot in 1996 with her husband David Liu (Tisch ’87) and two other NYU alumni, Rob Fassino (Tisch ‘88), and Michael Wolfson (Tisch ’89).
Since its founding in 1996, The Knot has become America’s leading wedding planning marketplace, and one of New York City’s most successful Internet companies. Carley and David, along with the other co-founders have taken The Knot through a successful IPO and rebrand as XO Group (ticker: XOXO), a brand expansion to include The Nest and The Bump, and production of several top-selling wedding guides and publications.
While it is her own wedding planning that sparked the entrepreneurial spirit in Carley, she continues to be deeply passionate about entrepreneurship and advises many female founded startups. She has served on Rent The Runway’s board of directors since its inception and has been featured in Inc., Fortune, Vogue, Fast Company, and The New York Times. Carley has worked tirelessly to promote and expand her company and is constantly looking for new ways to inspire women embarking on similar journeys by speaking at conferences such as SXSW, as well as guest lecturing at NYU.
The NYU Entrepreneurs Festival features a series of intimate conversations and learning experiences from NYU’s impressive group of entrepreneurs, both in and out of school and hosts over 1000 attendees each year. Over the course of the two days, the festival will feature three keynote discussions, panels, workshops, roundtables, and an after-party, among other events. When asked what advice she would give to budding entrepreneurs, Carley offers, “Passion is the great differentiator. If you’re starting your own business, you cannot have any doubt in your mind that this is what you want to do 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the first 5 years. You have to have a deep and intense belief in your idea when you’re asking others to follow you and invest in your idea.”
Tickets for the festival are on sale now. Tickets are available with the early bird discount code earlybird17 till Friday, Feb 3rd for 25% off. Buy tickets on our website or via Facebook.
