Hoop Group

The events test: would we pay $150K-$250K out of pocket to host it?

Shaan runs his events (like the Hoop Group basketball gathering) at a loss on purpose. The constraint, "what event is so good we'd spend $150K-$250K of our own money to make it happen," rules out nearly every profit-driven format and pushes them toward unique events.

“You said money. You know, we do the events out of pocket. We don't make any money off of them intentionally. So, well, that's a little bit silly. Why do you do that? Well, Because the constraint is, what is an event that is so good, that is so fun, so valuable, so meaningful to us that we would be willing to spend $150,000 to $250,000 to make it happen? And that literally just eliminates like 99 options of what you might do if the goal was to try to make $100,000 or try to make $200,000, make $300,000, or make $1 million.”

Steal thisBefore designing an event or project, ask what version is so good you'd pay to do it yourself, and cut every option that fails that bar.