How to Attract the

You’re reading an excerpt of Great Founders Write, by Ben Putano, writer, entrepreneur, and book publisher. He’s the founder of Damn Gravity Media, a publishing house that inspires and educates tomorrow’s great founders. Purchase now for lifetime access to the book and on-demand video course.

Building an online audience requires a different kind of courage than leading through a crisis. You’re choosing to put yourself out there, even when you’d rather be anywhere else.

And for those with the courage to build an audience, the payoff is massive.

Naval Ravikant, founder of AngelList, believes media is the most powerful form of leverage today (along with software). That’s because, unlike capital and labor, media is permissionless leverage.

Here’s an excerpt from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson:

[Media and code] don’t require somebody else’s permission for you to use them or succeed. For labor leverage, somebody has to decide to follow you. For capital leverage, somebody has to give you money to invest or to turn into a product.

Coding, writing books, recording podcasts, tweets, YouTubing—these kinds of things are permissionless. You don’t need anyone’s permission to do them, and that’s why they are very egalitarian. They’re the great equalizers of leverage.

We see examples of permissionless leverage everywhere online today.

In 2021, Shaan Puri, co-founder of The Hustle and Milk Road, set out to raise a $1M rolling venture fund in twenty-one days. He sent a single Tweet to his (at the time) 100K followers and raised $1.5M … in just five days. Meanwhile, eighteen-year-old Charlie D’Amelio has built a business empire and launched her acting career by amassing a TikTok audience of over 100M followers.

But many founders don’t want to build a big personal audience. They feel like self-promotion is inauthentic and spammy. They hate being in the spotlight and have no interest in becoming a “thought leader.” And the idea of spending 24/7 on social media sounds like a living hell.

If you’re nodding your head in agreement to the statements above, this chapter is for you.

Because here’s the truth: You don’t need a massive online audience to grow your business. You just need the right audience—an audience of ideal customers and superfans who will promote and pay for your work.

The size of your audience is irrelevant. You don’t need a million followers, or 100K followers, or even 10K followers. Most important is who you’re attracting and why.