Story
Sam faked a bigger team using 4-5 invented personas to launch The Hustle
To make The Hustle look bigger than it was, Sam wrote under invented personas (Sid Finch, Steph Whitfield, Steve Garcia), each a blended in-joke, and notes Ben Franklin did the same by arguing both sides in his newspaper under different names.
“When I launched The Hustle, in order to appear as though I was bigger than I was, I actually had multiple personalities. So I had Sid Finch, I had Steph Whitfield, I had Steve Garcia, which is— so Steph Whitfield is a combination of two friends. Sid Finch is a famous April Fool's joke that Sports Illustrated made, a fake person.”
Tactic
Start a Junto: Ben Franklin's club of mutual improvement
Shaan describes their 'Junto' group, modeled on Ben Franklin's weekly club of like-minded people meeting for mutual improvement — entrepreneurs gathering to talk through business challenges and raise each other's game.
“Ben Franklin used to have this group that he would meet with on some— either every Friday, I think it was every Friday or something like that, where he would go. And it was a, it was a group of like-minded individuals who were coming together for what, what he called mutual improvement. It was a club of mutual improvement.”
Steal thisForm a small recurring 'Junto' of non-competitive, smart operators who meet to work through each other's real business challenges.