Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an email marketing and marketing automation platform headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius as a side project within their web design agency, Rocket Science Group, and grew into a standalone business focused on small and medium-sized businesses. The company operated as a bootstrapped, profitable business for nearly two decades before being acquired.

Mailchimp's core product is its email marketing platform, which allows users to design and send email campaigns, manage subscriber lists, and track campaign performance. Over time, the platform expanded to include landing pages, social media advertising, postcards, CRM features, and multi-step customer journey automation. The company serves a broad range of customers, from individual creators to larger organizations, and competes with platforms such as Klaviyo, Constant Contact, and HubSpot.

In September 2021, Intuit acquired Mailchimp for approximately $12 billion in cash and stock, marking one of the largest acquisitions of a privately held, bootstrapped software company. At the time of acquisition, Mailchimp reported annual revenue of around $800 million. Following the acquisition, Mailchimp was integrated into Intuit's small business and self-employed segment. Ben Chestnut stepped down as CEO in 2023, and Rania Succar, a former Intuit executive, took over as CEO.