Nontraditional Talent Advantage

Alex Lieberman believes that both Morning Brew and The Hustle excelled at identifying undiscovered talent and recognizing potential that traditional media companies missed. This approach to hiring nontraditional writers became a key competitive advantage for both companies.

Key Points:

• Morning Brew's first three writing hires (Neil, Michael Schwartz, and Nikki) were all nontraditional hires

  • Neil was transformational for Morning Brew
  • Neil executed what the founders couldn't - taking their ideas and consistently putting them on paper every day for years

• The Hustle faced similar hiring challenges:

  • Sam Parr tried recruiting established media people who dismissed his outreach
  • One famous journalist responded to his recruitment attempt with "that's cute"
  • They could only afford and convince non-traditional writers to join

• The strategy focused on finding people who:

  • Could write well but weren't professional journalists
  • Had writing ability but worked in unrelated fields
  • Were motivated by the dream of turning a hobby into a career

• Example of successful nontraditional talent:

  • Lindsay Quinn was a blogger at a procurement startup, not a professional writer
  • Alex Lieberman considered her a "writing hero" and repeatedly tried to recruit her
  • Her talent was recognized across companies - Alex could identify her writing without seeing her name

• The founders were obsessive about quality:

  • They would print out newsletters from Morning Brew, Axios, The Hustle, and The Skimm
  • They would analyze every story with paper and pen, marking what worked and what didn't
  • They benchmarked their writers against competitors' writers

• This approach created distinctive voices for both publications

  • Alex could read a Hustle story and know exactly who wrote it without seeing the byline
  • The unique voices helped differentiate their content in the marketplace