The Father of Spam
Half of all e-mail sent today is spam. What does the man who started it all think of it now?
By Geoff Williams •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Every day--every hour--it comes, and just try to stop it.Spamming costs businesses $8 billion to $10 billion per year inlost productivity, as entrepreneurs and employees constantly ridtheir e-mail boxes of the unwanted promises: Get out of debt; get12 CDs for the price of one; enhance your sexual prowess. And GaryThuerk is to blame for it all. As a young, ambitious computersalesperson, he sent the first spam to 600 people on an earlyversion of the Internet in 1978. Today, Thuerk is married withthree grown kids, works as a sales representative atHewlett-Packard, and actually appears to be a nice guy. Afterexplaining why he did what he did, he even gave us his e-mailaddress. "But don't print it," he begs.
What do you personally think of spam?Is it good or bad?
Continue reading this article — and all of our other premium content with Entrepreneur+
For just $5, you can get unlimited access to all Entrepreneur’s premium content. You’ll find:
- Digestible insight on how to be a better entrepreneur and leader
- Lessons for starting and growing a business from our expert network of CEOs and founders
- Meaningful content to help you make sharper decisions
- Business and life hacks to help you stay ahead of the curve
