[[Sean Ellis (entrepreneur)|Sean Ellis]] coined the term "''growth hacker''" in 2010.,<ref name=sellis>{{cite web |url=http://www.startup-marketing.com/where-are-all-the-growth-hackers/ |title=Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup |author=Ellis, Sean |publisher=Startup-Marketing.com |date=June 26, 2010}}</ref><ref name=fastco2>{{cite news |url=http://www.fastcompany.com/3013859/the-secret-that-defines-marketing-now |title=The Secret That Defines Marketing Now |author=Holiday, Ryan |publisher=''Fast Company'' |date=July 8, 2013}}</ref> with [[Everette Taylor]] as co-founder<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fortune.com/2016/03/16/marketing-everette-taylor-startups/|title=Marketing Maven Everette Taylor on the Best Strategies for Startups|date=2016-03-16|website=Fortune|access-date=2016-05-07}}</ref>. In the [[blog]] post, he defined a growth hacker as "''a person whose true north is growth. Everything they do is scrutinized by its potential impact on scalable growth.''"<ref name=sellis/> Andrew Chen introduced the term to a wider audience in a blog post titled, "Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing" in which he defined the term and used the short term vacation rental platform Airbnb's integration of [[Craigslist]] as an example.<ref name=tc1/><ref name=chen1>{{cite web |url=http://andrewchen.co/how-to-be-a-growth-hacker-an-airbnbcraigslist-case-study/ |title=Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing |author=Chen, Andrew |publisher=AndrewChen.co}}</ref> He wrote that growth hackers "''are a hybrid of marketer and coder, one who looks at the traditional question of 'How do I get customers for my product?' and answers with A/B tests, landing pages, viral factor, email deliverability, and Open Graph.''"<ref name=fastco1/><ref name=chen1/> In 2012, [[Aaron Ginn]] defined a growth hacker on ''[[TechCrunch]]'' as a "mindset of data, creativity, and curiosity."<ref name=tc1/><ref name=aginnt>{{cite web |url=http://www.aginnt.com/growth-hacker/ |title=What is a growth hacker? |author=Ginn, Aaron |publisher=Aginnt.com |date=n.d.}}</ref>
In 2013, the second annual "Growth Hackers Conference" was held in [[San Francisco]] set up by [[Gagan Biyani]].<ref name=vbcon>{{cite web |url=http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/10/6-important-lessons-from-this-years-growth-hacker-conference/ |title=6 important lessons from this year’s Growth Hacker Conference |author=Griggs, William |publisher=Venture Beat |date=May 10, 2013}}</ref> It featured growth hackers from LinkedIn, Twitter, and [[YouTube]] among others.<ref name=vbcon/>
