If you’ve ever received a newsletter or marketing email, there's a good chance it was sent using MailChimp! 💌🐵

Let’s dive into their $12 billion bootstrapped success story.

MailChimp was founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius, two web designers who ran a small agency in Atlanta 🎨

They originally built it as a side project to help their clients send email newsletters 📩

Initially, Ben and Dan offered a basic version of MailChimp for free and charged for extra features.

This helped them attract a large user base without spending money on marketing 📣

As MailChimp grew, Ben and Dan made the unusual decision to not take ANY outside funding from venture capitalists or other investors, in order to maintain control over their company 🙅‍♂️💰

Instead, they used the company’s profits to fund growth, focusing on providing excellent customer service and constantly improving their product 🐵🎯

Over time, MailChimp evolved from a simple email tool into a full-fledged marketing platform, adding features like social media ads, landing pages, and customer relationship management 👥🗣

In 2021, MailChimp was acquired by Intuit for $12 BILLION, one of the largest acquisitions ever of a bootstrapped company 🤝

Because Ben and Dan had never sold any shares to external investors, they each owned about half the company, so each of them walked away with nearly a $6 BILLION payday 💰

The story of MailChimp shows that it's possible to build a massive, successful business without following the typical Silicon Valley playbook of raising tons of money from venture capitalists 🌍