Accidentally became an American millionaire

Eric Martin's million-dollar fortune came from winning a contest last year for Jet.com, and it's set to grow even more after Walmart bought the online retailer.

Eric Martin owns 100,000 shares of Jet.com. Photo: Jet.com.

Martin is 28 years old and lives in Pennsylvania (USA). He does not work for Jet.com, but he owns 100,000 shares of the company, thanks to a rather coincidental event.

Last year, Martin read that Jet.com was holding a contest to sign up friends for a beta version of its service. Whoever signed up the most people would win 100,000 shares of the company.

Martin not only leveraged his network of friends, but also spent $18,000 advertising on sites like Swagbucks and Gifthulk, which reward members for online activities like shopping, watching videos, or taking surveys.

In just three weeks, Martin signed up more than 8,000 users for Jet.com's Insider program. In February 2015, the company announced Martin as the winner.

Jet.com has always kept its finances secret. But 100,000 shares were worth millions of dollars at the time.The value of those shares will increase even more when Walmart announced earlier this month that it would spend $3.3 billion on Jet.com, the largest acquisition in the US e-commerce industry. "I prayed a lot and had the right strategy," Martin said onCNN.

He revealed that he was about to open a new company, connecting people with great business ideas with the human resources who can make them come true.

Jet.com is likened to the online version of Costco. It is competing with Amazon by offering a $50 annual membership and deep discounts on all products.

Jet.com was founded by Marc Lore. Lore had previously sold his previous company, Diapers.com, to Amazon for $540 million in 2010. Walmart said that after the merger, Lore would continue to run Jet.com and manage Walmart's US e-commerce business.

According to VNE