What I Don’t Know: Keeping Up With the Algorithms, with Alex West Steinman of The Coven

Being chief executive doesn’t mean doing everything–or, necessarily, being good at every little thing your company does. In “What I Don’t Know,” What I Know host Christine Lagorio-Chafkin asks founders to explain a skill or task they just aren’t good at. Maybe it’s the first thing they delegated once they hired staff–or something they would like to get off their plate.

On this week’s bonus episode, Alex West Steinman says: “People look at a business like ours or see the category of businesses like ours, like the Riveter and The Wing, and they go, ‘oh, like, they're really good at social media!’” No so, says Steinman, the co-founder and CEO of The Coven, a co-working and collaboration membership space in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. She admits social media is not her strong suit. She doesn’t like keeping up with the algorithmic changes, or processing things via social networks’ endless scroll of content. Her takeaway: What’s good for the business might not be good for any given individual.