Case Study: The Hustle achieves a successful launch of Trends, a Netflix-style premium subscription, with Piano

The Hustle - Customer Case Study

The Hustle, which began as an events company in 2015 and launched its well-known newsletter in 2016, sought to expand into paid products while preserving its curated voice. The challenge was to roll out Trends, a Netflix-style premium subscription that bundles high-quality journalism with events and membership perks, to a large audience in an affordable, technically robust way.

To meet that challenge The Hustle partnered with Piano to power Trends, designing a subscription-first product and coordinating planning led by product manager John Dunkel. Trends was introduced to the newsletter’s 1M+ readers on June 4 and made its content debut on June 11, enabling a smooth launch and the ability to offer premium content, events, and member benefits under a unified paid experience.

The Hustle

John Dunkel

Lead product manager