Colleen Debaise

About

Colleen DeBaise is an award-winning journalist, author and podcast host. She is currently executive editor of The Story Exchange, a nonprofit media platform dedicated to elevating women's voices. During her tenure, the organization has won 2024, 2020 and 2019 Front Page awards from the Newswomen’s Club of New York, 2024 and 2019 "Best in Business" awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, 2024 and 2022 nominations for Webby awards, a 2024 nomination for an Ambie, and a 2016 nomination for a Gerald Loeb Award, one of the most prestigious honors in business journalism. She recently appeared as an entrepreneurship expert on the History Channel's 2022 docuseries, "The Booze, Bets and Sex That Built America."Colleen has spent the bulk of her career covering entrepreneurship, primarily as the small business editor of The Wall Street Journal, and later as a contributor to The New York Times. Her first book, "The Wall Street Journal Complete Small Business Guidebook," was published in 2009. She created and hosted the Wall Street Journal's event series, "How I Built It." Her second book, Inc.'s "Start a Successful Business," was released in February 2018.An entrepreneur herself, she founded the Hampton Bee, a digital publication that provided news and tips about small businesses on Long Island’s East End. In addition to those roles, Colleen has also served as an editor at Inc., Entrepreneur, BusinessWeek and SmartMoney. She has been interviewed as a small business expert on television and radio, including MSNBC, Fox Business News, CNBC, CBS and NPR.Before covering small business, Colleen spent many years writing about white-collar crime as lead court reporter for Dow Jones Newswires. She also wrote a personal finance column. In 2005, she was the winner of the Newswomen's Club of New York's Front Page award for specialized writing.