Growth Hacking

Noun · Startup & VC · Origin: 2010

Definitions

  1. A marketing approach focused on rapid experimentation across channels and product development to identify the most efficient ways to grow a business. Critics call it 'marketing with better branding.'

    In plain English: Using creative, data-driven experiments to grow a company quickly and cheaply — think Dropbox's referral program that gave free storage for inviting friends.

  2. The most famous growth hacks: Hotmail's 'Get your free email at Hotmail' signature line (1996), Dropbox's referral program (2008), and Airbnb's Craigslist cross-posting tool (2010). These exploited specific distribution channels in ways that could only work once.

    Example: 'The Dropbox referral program — give 500MB for each friend who signs up — was the canonical growth hack. It turned every user into a salesperson.'

    Source: canonical examples

Etymology

2010
Sean Ellis coins 'growth hacker' in a blog post looking for a marketing replacement — someone whose 'true north is growth'
2012
Hotmail's 'PS: I love you. Get your free email at Hotmail' signature is retroactively crowned the first growth hack
2014
Growth hacking becomes a job title at startups; critics argue it's just marketing rebranded for people who think marketing is beneath them

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