Mailchimp was founded nearly 20 years ago by Ben Chestnut and his partner Dan Kurzius in a tiny office that they rented on the westside of Atlanta. Where Ben Chestnut sketched logo after logo before finally deciding – the monkey with a mail carrier hat, while Dan sat next to him writing code and talking to clients.
Both the co-founders came from entrepreneurial families. Ben’s mom ran a hair salon out of the family kitchen, and Dan’s father owned a bakery. It was in their DNA, and then it became their mission with Mailchimp to empower small businesses to grow!
In the past, the company focused on doing one thing exceptionally well: email marketing. The Mailchimp magic started spreading to other channels due to customer requests. During this process, they built an amazing team and innovated fast in order to fulfill the customers’ needs, eventually developing a small business marketing platform that works for all sizes.
On Tuesday, the 14th of September 2021, MailChimp announced that they would accelerate their evolution by joining forces with Intuit!
Email marketing company Mailchimp will be sold to Intuit for $12 billion in cash and stock. Intuit, a company known for products like TurboTax and Credit Karma, said that it would use the acquisition to accelerate growth among small businesses. To date, it is the largest acquisition for this company. Last year, it acquired Credit Karma for over $8 billion.
Intuit hopes to integrate Mailchimp’s digital marketing services with QuickBooks, its accounting software, to help small businesses manage their accounts and customers.
During a recent interview, Sasan Goodarzi, Intuit’s CEO, said, “The real magic is actually in the power of the data. When we bring the platforms together, I’ll actually not only know who I marketed it to, but what you bought when you bought it.”
The company has placed a top priority on setting its customers up for success, and now says it is confident that Intuit’s acquisition of the company will advance that mission and help secure the legacy of support for small businesses that it has built over the past 20 years.
Mailchimp’s understanding of small businesses is embedded in Intuit’s DNA, which confirms the belief that this is the right next step for Mailchimp, their employees, and most importantly, for their customers.
Intuit is a mission-driven global financial technology platform, and some of its products – such as TurboTax and QuickBooks – help small and mid-sized businesses succeed. By combining this marketing platform with Intuit’s AI-driven expert platform, the companies will be able to develop products and services that address customers’ most pressing issues.
Ben Chestnut wrote in a mail to all Mailchimp customers:
“Together with Intuit, we’ll deliver an innovative small business growth engine powered by marketing automation, customer relationship management, accounting and compliance, payments and expense, and e-commerce solutions, creating a single source of truth for your business.
We’ll also be able to offer more personalized support and onboarding, expand our international footprint, and scale our teams to innovate faster and deliver the solutions you want and need.
While our ownership will change once the transaction closes, which we expect to happen prior to the end of Intuit’s second quarter fiscal 2022, our platform will stay Mailchimp through and through: the same user-friendly products and tools, the same resources and support, and the same brand you know and love.
In fact, our goal is for all of these things to get even better as part of Intuit. And, in the meantime, you’ll have the customer experience you’ve come to expect from Mailchimp – including your monthly plan and 24/7 access to our award-winning support team.
We know that our customers and partners expect consistency and continuity as much as they expect new features and functionality, and we’re committed to meeting your needs as we move forward together with Intuit. We’ll keep you updated as things progress.
Thanks for trusting us to help you grow your business. At our core, Mailchimp will always be the humble little monkey that I sketched in those early days, and our mission to empower the underdog will always be our north star. ”
