How I emailed Bill Gates and How I got a response from him!

With four people in my office chanting “Do it! Do it!” I pressed the send button. Last Friday afternoon, I forwarded the Business Week article to Bill Gates. I highlighted the first sentence of the article that mentioned my name and my blog, and, most importantly, I highlighted the last sentence of the first paragraph that read, “And Bill Gates is happy.” I jokingly wrote, “I hope this isn’t a misquote =)” in the body of the email.

A couple of days later, I get a reply back, saying,

I’m happy. Nice article!

It was awesome to grab my coworkers on Monday morning saying, “come check out this mail” just to see the look on their faces (and to here their expletives of course). Before I knew it, I had a small crowd in my office applauding and cheering. Saurabh forwarded the mail around to our product unit. Lots of people have been telling me congratulations. The email hangs outside my door with “Real!” handwritten above the header.  The whole experience was pretty funny.

The Business Week article Blogging with the Boss’s Blessing now appears to be available publicly (no subscription required). It should comes out in print really soon.