Masslooking

Where it started

My first startup — and my whole introduction to online business. Before this I didn't even know the term. I teamed up with a partner who brought design and web know-how, and built on a PHP script I'd discovered that let an Instagram account view millions of stories worldwide — a trick most people had no idea about.

The growth hack

Instagram users love checking who viewed their stories. So our clients' accounts would show up as a viewer, pulling curious people to their profile — a surge of 1k–5k genuinely-interested "organic" followers at a time. We targeted by niche: to grow a New York sneaker shop, we'd set the script loose on followers of competing sneaker stores. The same idea adapted to any niche.

The result

We grossed $1k in the first 24 hours, and from there it cascaded — clients worldwide, hundreds of thousands in revenue. We ranked #1 on Google for "mass looking" (jumped in at under 200 monthly searches, ended with hundreds of copycats chasing us). When Instagram eventually patched the loophole, we'd already sold the site at peak. An unforgettable ride — and a financial cushion that carried me for years.

The site's been offline a while now (you can grab the domain for about 100 bucks, lol), but you can still see it via the wayback machine.