He knew people, caught a wave, and was roommates with Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis. They networked, got to meet the right people, developed a web of contacts and sources, and the rest is history. Treat your friends well, and it often comes back multiplied.
The marketing effect was them catching the wave at the right time, and they're just surfing the hell out of it.
yeah no offense against Dwarkesh, and good luck to him, but he's just a kid -it would have cool to have someone with some real ML chops or industry knowledge and good comm skills to host these talks..anyway I am impressed by scope of his guests.. but I do think he doesn't have the experience to counter beyond fawning over them or else steering the topic to less insightful conversation
He kinda reminds me the of the Alex O Conner -same age group -very smart but inexperienced with the heavy hitters