Rising to the Challenge: Alumni Spotlights: THE COLLEGE: Indiana University Bloomington

Rising to the Challenge

College alumna finds stellar success with challah company and media consultancy.

A close-up shot of various challah loaves made by Dolly Meckler.

By Raymond Fleischmann | March 2024

Entrepreneurship comes naturally to Dolly Meckler (B.A. ’14), who majored in Telecommunications in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB).

“I’ve always been a hustler,” Meckler says. “In high school, I had an after-school job and also had a business where I made candy creations. Think large structures decorated with your favorite Halloween candy. When I got to Indiana University, I created and produced a webseries called Hello Dolly, which started as an IUSTV production and then turned into a larger Internet-based project.”

For Meckler, these projects and side hustles have added up to some major results—and major success in her career. After graduating from IUB, she continued her Hello Dolly webseries and also founded a company called Snaplistings, which went on to be acquired in 2017. Following that, she worked in marketing for HBO and YouTube and, in 2019, founded her own social media consultancy in New York City. Even when the pandemic hit in 2020, it didn’t slow Meckler down.

“I’m always trying new things,” she says, “and that’s when I baked challah bread for the first time, amidst the baking phase of quarantine. To my surprise, the bread came out beautifully and I posted it on my Instagram only to find that I had dozens of followers who were interested in purchasing some for themselves. I thought to myself, ‘Wait a second. I know how to build a brand. Why don’t I give this a go?’”

And with that, Meckler’s challah bread business was born. Challah Dolly sold braided challah both online and in pop-up stores throughout New York City, and the company went on to be featured in publications such as The New Yorker and Forbes.

In reflecting on her time at the College and IU and how this has impacted her career, Meckler points to the ways in which her telecommunications degree helped her understand how people interact with different kinds of media.

“I know for certain that it molded me to think critically about marketing and media,” Meckler says. “I was in the honors telecommunications program at IU and had the opportunity to write a thesis under the guidance of Professor Julia Fox; she always encouraged me to dig deeper and connect ideas. I also have a minor in gender studies, and Professor Jen Maher opened up my world and helped me gain a deeper understanding about people’s relationships and dynamics within mainstream society.”

Meckler at one of her pop-up stores in New York City.

I thought to myself, ‘Wait a second. I know how to build a brand. Why don’t I give this a go?’

Meckler’s own brand consultancy in New York has worked with clients such as Netflix, LinkedIn, and the Tribeca Film Festival, and she’s currently working with another agency, Becca, in crafting marketing for a variety of restaurant and hospitality clients. As she continues her career, the advice she has for students and young entrepreneurs is guidance rooted in equal parts realism and unabashed encouragement.

“There’s never a good time to start, and you just have to be fearless when launching a company,” she says. “I can’t tell you how many cold emails I’ve sent, how many no’s I’ve received, and how many failures I’ve had, but it never deterred me enough to ever give up.”

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Raymond Fleischmann

Raymond Fleischmann is director of advancement communications for the College of Arts and Sciences and serves as the primary editor for The College magazine. He holds a B.A. in English and the Individualized Major Program from Indiana University, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Ohio State University. His first novel, How Quickly She Disappears, was published by Penguin Random House in January 2020, and his short fiction has been published in The Iowa Review, Cimarron Review, The Pinch, River Styx, and Los Angeles Review, among many others. Reach him at rfleisch@indiana.edu or through his website raymondfleischmann.com.