When we started Glasp in September 2020, we couldn't have predicted the path that would take us from zero to three million users. We didn't anticipate the AI revolution that would transform our product, the global community that would emerge around our mission, or the countless ways users would integrate Glasp into their knowledge workflows. We certainly didn't anticipate that, a few years in, the search engines we had so carefully optimized for would start being replaced by answer engines, or that we'd respond by publishing research papers.
What we did know was our mission: to create an open knowledge platform where people share what they learn and build on each other's insights. That mission has remained our guiding light, even as our product, team, and community have evolved.
Looking back at the journey, several lessons stand out.
The Power of Authentic Connection
From those first several hundred onboarding calls to our ongoing Glasp Talk interviews, authentic human connection has been at the center of our growth strategy. In a digital landscape increasingly dominated by algorithms and automation, genuine relationships create differentiation and loyalty that can't be easily replicated.
For founders building new products, this suggests that time spent deeply understanding and connecting with early users isn't just nice to have. It's a strategic investment that shapes everything that follows.
Patient Capital Beats Fast Money
By focusing on organic growth channels and sustainable user acquisition, we built a foundation that doesn't depend on continuous cash infusion. This approach was born from necessity, since we didn't have significant funding, but it became a strategic advantage.
The lesson isn't that funding is bad. It's that building growth mechanisms that don't rely on paid acquisition creates resilience and independence. Patient capital, whether your own time or investors who share your long-term vision, lets you build something enduring rather than chasing short-term metrics.
Technology Trends Are Opportunities, Not Threats
Throughout our journey, we've lived through transformative technological shifts: the rise of generative AI, then the shift from search engines to answer engines. Rather than treating these changes as threats to our model, we embraced them as opportunities to extend our core value proposition.
This adaptive approach let us capitalize on the AI revolution while keeping our identity as a knowledge-sharing platform. By asking how each new technology could serve the mission rather than distract from it, we turned potential disruption into acceleration. We expect to have to do this again, and we'd rather be early than comfortable.
Mission Matters More Than Metrics
Although this story has discussed user numbers and growth strategies at length, our success has never been defined primarily by metrics. We measure our impact by how effectively we're advancing our mission of open knowledge sharing.
That focus attracts users who share our values, guides our product decisions, and creates a sense of purpose that sustains us through challenges. In a business landscape often obsessed with growth at all costs, having a clear "why" beyond the numbers provides both direction and meaning.
The Future of Glasp
As we look ahead, we remain committed to the mission while continuing to evolve the product and community. Our vision extends beyond the three million users we've reached so far, to a world where knowledge flows more freely between individuals, across generations, and beyond traditional barriers.
The methods will keep changing. AI will keep transforming how we create, consume, and share knowledge. Increasingly, the "reader" of what we publish is as likely to be an AI assistant as a person, and we intend to be a source those assistants trust and cite. New platforms and formats will emerge. User needs will evolve.
Through all of it, our principles stay constant: creating authentic connections, building sustainable growth, embracing new technologies in service of the mission, and prioritizing long-term impact over short-term gains.
We hope this story of going from zero to three million users offers insights you can apply to your own projects, whether you're building a product, growing a community, or simply trying to share knowledge more effectively.
The path won't be identical. Every product and team faces unique challenges and opportunities. But authentic connection, patient growth, technological adaptation, and mission focus can guide you through whatever path emerges.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. The story of Glasp continues to unfold, and we invite you to be part of writing its next chapters.
Timeline of Key Milestones
September 2020: First lines of code written for Glasp
October 2020: First users sign up through personal invitations
January 2021: Reached 100 users through founder-friend distribution
June 2021: Shifted focus from product managers to writers as target audience
August 2021: YouTube sponsorship with Aurelius (300K subscribers)
September 2021: First Product Hunt launch
November 2021: Reached 1,000 users
Early 2022: Began focusing on SEO and content marketing
Mid 2022: Created DALL-E Wordle (DALLE-dle), featured in PC Gamer
November 2022: ChatGPT released; launched Chrome extension within days
December 2022: Created YouTube Summary with ChatGPT
January 2023: YouTube Summary with ChatGPT went viral, featured by major publications
March 2023: Launched Digital Clones feature
June 2023: Reached 1 million total users across all products
September 2023: Newsletter subscribers surpassed 250,000
Early 2024: Reached 3 million users across the Glasp ecosystem
Early 2026: Launched Deep Dive, a library of long-form guides translated into 7 languages
2026: Shipped AEO infrastructure: llms.txt, structured data, and a remote MCP connector so AI assistants can work with Glasp
2026: Published a series of research papers on arXiv based on Glasp's highlighting data
June 2026: Published this story at glasp.co/story