This Growth Hack Got Us on the Billboards of Time Square
As a computer scientist, I’ve always hated the negative connotation associated with the word “hack.” You know, this one. That idea of some kid in a hoodie doesn’t quite match my definition. To me, if you can hack something, you understand it and are willing to work hard to use what you know to make something awesome happen.
“It is hard to write a simple definition of something as varied as hacking, but I think what these activities have in common is playfulness, cleverness, and exploration. Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness.” — Richard Stallman, Founder of Free Software Foundation | On Hacking
The Stallman mentality, plus some admitted serendipity, is how I got to open the NASDAQ with some of my closest friends. The road to the NASDAQ began when some fellow CORE members and I decided to take the initiative to build Ignite@CU. On November 7 and 8th at Columbia University, Ignite@CU will bring together some of the brightest and most influential minds of the undergraduate entrepreneurship scene. We are bringing together student entrepreneurs and student entrepreneurship groups from institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Penn, NYU and quite a few others. Ignite is going to be a weekend of education, networking and shaping of the undergraduate entrepreneurship ecosystem.
With all that we are creating at Ignite, we’ve been leveraging and growing our personal networks like crazy in an attempt to get great companies like Uber, WeWork and Gust involved with Ignite. We’ve been making dozens of sponsorship calls a week and getting very creative and clever in exploring how to make best use of the contacts we made, much in the vein of a Stallman hack. Somewhere in the midst of this grind, I encountered a contact at NASDAQ and was offered the opportunity to ring the opening bell to promote Ignite. It was the greatest growth hack we could have imagined: to have the Ignite and CORE logos plastered all over Times Square for the world to see.
The second we opened the market Ignite exploded. When I walked off the train at Columbia on my way back from Times Square, my inbox was flooded. From this growth hack we received a surge of applications from people excited to attend our conference. We received national media attention and sponsorships from some amazing companies (including one rhyming with oogle). Ringing the opening bell at the NASDAQ was easily the coolest thing I’ve done in my life. From the second we entered the building, the wonderful staff at NASDAQ created an incredible experience down to every last detail. These people are really good at what they do, and I cannot thank them enough for an incredible experience, (as well as a new profile picture). The people at NASDAQ are doing some great things to support entrepreneurship, like the creation of the NASDAQ Entrepreneurship Center in SF, and we are so excited to continue to work with them in the future.
It’s amazing how far you can get and how much you can grow when you surround yourself with the right people. I cannot begin to explain how much I’ve grown from working on Ignite@CU, much less with hacking with CORE over the last year. In true entrepreneurial fashion, CORE’s members push the boundaries of what it means to be and what is possible as a student organization. CORE has taken Columbia’s students to some of the epicenters of entrepreneurship around the world and even has its own in house tech accelerator, and we are just getting started.
I hacked my way into a wonderful organization filled with the brightest and most ambitious people I have ever met, people I knew I wanted to be like. When you are resourceful and when you surround yourself with the right people, amazing things can happen. As a result of my constant dedication to these two principles, while always maintaining the Stallman hack mentality, I’ve undergone incredible growth, both personally and professionally. There is no better way to spend time than with people who can help you learn and grow in the ways you want. That is the real growth hack.
