By Denise Broady, COO, Industry Cloud, SAP
The term growth hacking was initially used by entrepreneur and angel investorSean Ellis back in 2010, when he was hiring for his replacement. While he received many qualified marketing resumes, he felt one key area was missing from potential candidates: growth.
He then added the phrase “growth hacker” in his advertisement instead of “marketing” to explain the profile he’s looking for. The phrase has since been broadly used in the technology startup world and it’s perceived as a new phenomenon to promote and sell products.
I came from startup Top Tier that was acquired by SAP about 13 years ago and we used the concept of growth hacking to test ideas with customers and partners. Our CEO, Shai Agassi, had two leading developers sitting near his office and we would get involved in special projects with them to test new products. It was a close knit family and a great way to bring marketing and product development together.
