Ben Chestnut
Overview
- Source of Wealth
- Email marketing
- Industry
- Technology
- Residence
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Education
- Georgia Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Arts/Science)
- Marital Status
- Married
- Children
- 2
Assets
- Intuit2,626,634 shares @ --INTU-US
Biography
Ben Chestnut founded what later became Mailchimp with Dan Kurzius in 2001 as a side project to their web design company.
Mailchimp's email marketing software for small businesses garnered enough customers that in 2007 they committed to it full time.
Wary of giving up control to outside investors, Chestnut and Kurzius bootstrapped growth from profits and took no outside money.
In September 2021, Intuit announced it would acquire Mailchimp in a $12 billion cash and stock acquisition.
At the time of announcement, Chestnut and Kurzius each owned 50% of the Atlanta-based company, which had $800 million in 2020 revenue.
About
Chestnut learned about small business from his mom, who ran a hair salon from the family's kitchen in Georgia.
He studied industrial design at Georgia Tech, taught himself how to build websites, and worked at Cox Interactive Media.