Our Story

Founder story

In 2001, Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius started a web design agency called the Rocket Science Group. Their focus was on big, corporate clients, but on the side, they created an email marketing service for their smaller clients.

Mailchimp was designed as an alternative to the oversized, expensive email software of the early 2000s. It gave small business owners who lacked the high-end tools and resources of their larger competitors access to technology that empowered them and helped them grow.

Ben and Dan loved serving these users, because understanding small businesses is in their DNA: Ben grew up helping his mom around her hair salon that she ran from their family kitchen, and Dan’s parents ran a bakery. With Mailchimp, they found that working for small businesses gave them the freedom to be more creative and adapt quickly to their needs.

So, in 2007, Ben and Dan decided to shutter the web design agency and focus exclusively on Mailchimp. While the new company started as an email marketing tool, our customers repeatedly asked us to spread the Mailchimp spirit to other channels. They taught us that Mailchimp’s brand promise is to help small businesses “look pro and grow,” no matter the channel.

In 2017, we launched a slew of new channels: Instagram, Facebook, and Google ads, landing pages, and more. We’re no longer an email marketing tool—we’re a marketing platform. As our product and team continues to grow, one thing stays the same: Ben and Dan’s mission to empower the underdog.

Mailchimp’s senior leadership team draws on decades of experience across industries to chart a course for the future and guide the company toward its strategic goals.

Learn more about our leadership team.

Culture

Mailchimp works to create a company culture that sustains a creative workforce and encourages a healthy work-life balance. Our employees have opportunities to attend events, share their work, and take time off to volunteer or learn new skills. And we’re always looking for new engineers and artists, misfits and number crunchers to join our team.

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we’re cultivating an equitable and empathetic workplace, a listening and learning culture, and an empowered and inspired community.

We help our team members grow in their current roles and dream about what's next through programs like Mailchimp University, an MBA-style program developed with Emory University, leadership courses for managers, and our apprenticeship program, which gives people without prior experience the opportunity to try out technical roles.

Mailchimp also hosts writers, designers, comedians, artists, and other interesting people at our regular Coffee Hour series for employees.

Learn more about our culture.

Corporate citizenship

Mailchimp serves the people and organizations in Atlanta that help make our city better, weirder, and more human.

We help tackle intergenerational poverty by partnering with nonprofits like Literacy Action that are dedicated to supporting adult learners. We help strengthen arts organizations, like Living Walls, which bring the best street artists from around the world into our neighborhoods. We advocate for considerate urbanism alongside the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and MARTA, our regional transit agency. And we connect employees with our investments through programs like Launchpad, our partnership with Clayton State University, and Mailchimp Community College, which equips those employees with the tools to think deeply about fostering equity and inspiring positive change in Atlanta.

We love our hometown of Atlanta and want to make sure it’s a place where creativity is rewarded and where great ideas come to life. Mailchimp has invested more than $6 million in our community—and we’re just getting started.