“Among siblings, there is a motivation — it could be a sibling rivalry — where if [one is successful], the other says ‘I can do this too.’ It’s actually very healthy, and very encouraging and can actually help siblings attain a higher level of leadership or success in the industry,” said Eric Zinczenko, COO and president at Galvanized Media, who after years of working in media, is now employed at the same company that his brother, David, created.

Ben Lerer co-founded Thrillist and his younger sister, Izzie Lerer, co-founded The Dodo. (Their father Ken Lerer co-founded The Huffington Post.) The Lerer siblings worked together for a time at Group Nine Media, before Ben sold the company to Vox Media earlier this year.

Brothers Vinit and Preet Bharara worked at the same media company, Some Spider Studios, up until last year. And though they don’t work together at the same organization, Paul Vogel, the CFO at Spotify, is the younger brother of Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel.

While there’s significant data on siblings that run family businesses together, there’s not much out there on siblings that work in the same industry. (There are 5.5 million family businesses in the U.S. alone, according to a story from Digiday’s sister site WorkLife on siblings in business together.)

And just because these execs are related, it doesn’t mean they want to talk about it. The Zinczenko brothers, the only sibling duo of those above who agreed to speak to Digiday, credited their strong relationship with one another as a solid foundation to wade into the nitty gritty of running a business.

Sibling ‘shorthand’

David Zinczenko founded Galvanized Media in 2013 (and is now CEO) after nearly a dozen years at Rodale. Eric, the former CEO of Bonnier Corp, joined the company in August 2021.

“We have a shorthand, for sure, because we know each other so well,” David said, in a joint call with his brother. “He can sense what I’m thinking. We know each other’s moods. It’s helpful when you’re trying to get a lot done,” he said.

It can also be a challenge, noted Eric, who said that the ability to read one another so easily can “add stress” to their jobs if their actions visibly disappoint the other.

There are also rules even if they go unspoken, the brothers said. When it’s time to spend time with other family members — such as around the holidays — there’s an informal agreement to “leave work at work,” Eric said.

David recently spent Thanksgiving at Eric’s home where “David was very respectful,” Eric said, and didn’t pull him away to “talk business for an hour.”

“It really was family time… We could have used all that time over the Thanksgiving holiday to talk about the business but instead we were checking in with family, we’re asking about their …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron