In the fall of 1727, Ben Franklin — then a 21-year-old printer with a failing business — gathered 12 men for regular Friday evening meetings in Philadelphia. He called it the Junto and was quite intentional about who he invited.

They weren’t the most prestigious or powerful people in the city (nor was he).

Instead, the first members included a self-taught mathematician, a surveyor, a clerk, a joiner and a merchant’s clerk, among others. Each possessed different skills and expertise while sharing a hunger to improve both themselves and their community.