The New Atlanta Billionaires Behind An Unlikely Tech Unicorn

At Marcellus, we are fans of Mailchimp. In fact you are reading this email thanks to the cost-effective and user friendly platform that Mailchimp makes available for SMEs like Marcellus. This story is about how two self-taught techies in Atlanta used their own savings and 18 years of hard work to build a business with US$600m of revenues, strong profitability and a valuation of US$4.2 billion. Leaving aside the zero use of VC funding, what makes Mailchimp even more unusual is its focus on one thing and one thing alone for 18 years – email driven marketing solutions for businesses. Even as social media fever rages, the Mailchimp founders – Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius – are happy to focus on a low-tech, unsexy medium of communication.