The story of how a small team grew a web highlighter from zero to 3 million users, told chapter by chapter.
In September 2020, Glasp started as nothing more than an idea and a few lines of code. A tool that would let people highlight and save the parts of the internet that mattered to them, capturing knowledge that would otherwise be scattered or lost. We had no funding, no users, and certainly no playbook for how to grow a web service in the crowded landscape of productivity tools.
What we did have was a mission: to create a platform where knowledge could be shared openly, where the insights you highlight today might help someone else tomorrow. We wanted to build a digital legacy of human learning, a place where knowledge doesn't die with us but lives on for others to discover.
This story is about how we grew Glasp from zero to 3 million users without traditional growth hacking shortcuts or massive marketing budgets. Instead, we focused on creating genuine value, building authentic connections, and staying true to our mission even when growth seemed painfully slow.
A Journey That Was Never a Straight Line
Our path hasn't been a smooth climb. There were pivots, experiments that failed, and many moments of uncertainty. We adjusted our target audience several times, from product managers to writers to broader knowledge workers. We jumped on emerging technologies like AI while keeping our core focus on human curation and connection. And when the way people find information shifted again, from search engines to AI answer engines, we had to rethink distribution from first principles one more time.
Each chapter of this story covers one part of that journey:
- How we built our initial user base through hundreds of personal onboarding calls (Chapter 2)
- How we leveraged underused distribution channels like academic backlinks, Medium, and repeat Product Hunt launches (Chapter 3)
- How we created viral moments by being early with AI tools like our YouTube Summary with ChatGPT (Chapter 4)
- How a community of learners became our strongest growth engine (Chapter 5)
- How we adapted when AI assistants started answering questions directly, and what we did about it (Chapter 6)
- Why a two-person startup began publishing research papers, and what that did for us (Chapter 7)
- The principles that held all of it together (Chapter 8)
- The lessons that survived it all, and where the journey goes next (Chapter 9)
What This Story Is, and What It Isn't
This isn't a blueprint to replicate exactly. Your product and circumstances will be different. Rather, it's a collection of principles, stories, and tactics that worked for us. Some strategies took months to bear fruit. Others created immediate spikes in users. The common thread was authenticity, persistence, and a genuine desire to create something of lasting value.
There is also a personal thread running through it. Part of why Glasp exists is that I nearly died when I was young, and that experience left me with a question I couldn't put down: what happens to everything a person has learned when they're gone? Glasp is our attempt at an answer. If the things you read, highlighted, and found meaningful can be passed on, then learning becomes something you leave behind, not just something you consume.
Whether you're building your own product, growing a community, or simply curious about how a small team can compete in today's digital landscape, we hope our experience offers useful insights. The greatest growth hack isn't a trick or shortcut. It's creating something people genuinely want to use and share, and then having the patience to let that value compound over time.
Let's begin at the beginning, with zero users and a lot of hope.