Reinvention
Investors Predicted Mailchimp’s Demise. It Sold for $12 Billion
- CEO Ben Chestnut says venture capitalists are ‘doom and gloom’
- Firm co-founders are worth $5 billion each after Intuit deal
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In the early days of building his email-marketing startup Mailchimp, Ben Chestnut was warned by venture capitalists about the company’s imminent demise should he not take their money and advice.
“A lot would give me the same pitch from the last guy, always a semi-threatening pitch,” Chestnut said in a Zoom call. “Like an insurance salesmen: ‘You’re going to die.’ It was always doom-and-gloom scenarios.”