The Shade Room’s Angie Nwandu is coming to Disrupt NY

While many traditional publishers are figuring out their social media strategies, The Shade Room has already built an Instagram-centric media juggernaut.

Since its founding in 2014, the startup’s Instagram account (which offers celebrity news aimed at a black audience) has attracted more than 8.9 million followers — compare that to The New York Times’ 2.4 million, TMZ’s 1.4 million or TechCrunch’s measly 583,000.

The Shade Room has been called Instagram’s TMZ, while founder Angie Nwandu has been described as the younger generation’s Oprah. At the same time, like any big publisher, it’s had its share of disputes with Facebook and with celebrities.

Nwandu will be joining us this year at Disrupt NY, where I’ll ask her about how she’s attracted her audience, the prospects for building a big business on Instagram and her wariness about selling out to Hollywood.

You can grab tickets to Disrupt NY, which will take place from May 15 to 17 at Manhattan’s Pier 36, right here.

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