(That wasn’t standard at that time.) Microsoft pays 12 million US dollarsĮven though nobody knew the term “growth hack” in 1996, it was exactly what the Hotmail founders had succeeded in doing. In addition, you were given the opportunity to create your own free e-mail account immediately. There, you would receive all the relevant information on Hotmail’s offer. If you clicked on the blue “Hotmail” link, you were redirected to a registration page. Penenberg in his book* Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail.” This is reported by author Adam L. The result of the brainstorming was a single line at the end of each e-mail sent via Hotmail:”PS: I love you. The discussion focused on the question of how the company could quickly get new users without a significant marketing budget. The first growth hack in historyĪnd so Smith and Bhatia discussed things with their investors. A respectable success, but the two founders wanted more. Developers Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith released their free email service Hotmail that day.Īfter a little more than 20 days – at the end of July, 1996 – the service was already being used by 20,000 users of the still young Internet. It was the American Independence Day in 1996 – a deliberately chosen day.

Jack smith hacked