How Ben Chestnut Bootstrapped Mailchimp to a $12 Billion Exit

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  • Опубліковано 26 лис 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 34

  • @AurelienAmackerRMIF
    @AurelienAmackerRMIF 6 місяців тому +4

    The man, the legend, thank you for making it happen Rob!

  • @caseyspaulding
    @caseyspaulding Місяць тому +1

    man.. gold.
    Thanks.

  • @AnthonySistilli
    @AnthonySistilli 6 місяців тому +11

    Ben is a pleasure to listen to! Down to earth and humble. Would love to learn more from him haha.

  • @El_Diablo_12
    @El_Diablo_12 6 місяців тому +17

    Lol this dude is hilarious. This was the best kinda interview where you can learn something and be entertained at the same time 😄

    • @El_Diablo_12
      @El_Diablo_12 6 місяців тому +2

      15:00 we’re all winging it
      27:15 Mailchimp hired famous hacker Kevin Mitnick to white hat them
      28:00 Robb sold Drip with 10 people, a few million in revenue

  • @EcomCarl
    @EcomCarl 6 місяців тому +6

    Ben journey with MailChimp is a masterclass in bootstrapping and scaling wisely! His experience underscores the importance of evolving with customer needs and market demands, proving that sometimes the best path is carved by walking it. 🚀

  • @sspykson
    @sspykson 6 місяців тому +2

    This is so cool, pleasure to listen!

  • @tobebuilds
    @tobebuilds 6 місяців тому +4

    28:36 That was my question 😀 amazing experience hearing straight from Ben

    • @MicroConf
      @MicroConf  6 місяців тому +3

      Great to meet you in Atlanta Tobe!

  • @chenlim2165
    @chenlim2165 6 місяців тому +1

    Legend. Keeping it real.

  • @ps-dn7ce
    @ps-dn7ce 6 місяців тому +1

    This is excellent

  • @antoan.s
    @antoan.s 6 місяців тому +1

    Ben is awesome!

  • @thebrogrammer2077
    @thebrogrammer2077 6 місяців тому +7

    this is jason cohen tier

  • @Greg_Chase
    @Greg_Chase 6 місяців тому +4

    "The people at the top - they're winging it too"
    If you have a farm that produces crops, you can hedge the pricing for when the harvest arrives later.
    Tech is not like that. Tech is like milk or cheese left outside in 80 degree sunny weather. You have to move *_FAST_* and planning is quite difficult.
    We're in the middle of an AI 'boom' and people still have very little clue where things are going.
    Farms, you can plan ahead. Tech, no freaking way. Move now or lose the chance.
    Over a long career, we've all seen Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, Global Village, many others, pop above the surface then disappear.
    Borland, WordPerfect, Lotus123, Wordstar. Even Apple Computer nearly went out of business (Steve Jobs turned it around).
    Microsoft, Oracle, Intel are remaining tech giants who were around in the mid-late 1970s.
    .

    • @BondJFK
      @BondJFK 6 місяців тому +1

      Nvidia & Microsoft will survive in another 25-50 years since the Azure cloud and investments in OpenAI, Not sure about other companies

  • @akibo8379
    @akibo8379 6 місяців тому +1

    I love your content. It’s made me jump into saas businesses. Now, I’m working on my first saas idea and would love help with my pitch deck. Can you guys help me with this?

    • @VitaliyPodoba
      @VitaliyPodoba 6 місяців тому

      Hey, I know slidebean guys help with pitch decks for startups.

    • @tobebuilds
      @tobebuilds 6 місяців тому +1

      You don't need a pitch deck. Start validating by talking to potential customers and learning. Read "Start Small, Stay Small," and "The Mom Test"

  • @realestatejunkie0414
    @realestatejunkie0414 25 днів тому

    Sounds like the “internal tool” idea that grew from there

  • @alexmacgregor
    @alexmacgregor 6 місяців тому +2

    Mailchimp story is wild. Great ep.

  • @Gigawattt
    @Gigawattt 6 місяців тому +3

    The thumbnail I clicked on said “I’d tell my younger self this…” with a picture of the founder of MailChimp. Spoiler Alert: He has no idea what he’d tell himself 🤣

    • @ryanchattertonYT
      @ryanchattertonYT 2 місяці тому

      Actually not bad and honest “advice” wtf do any of us know what we are doing?

  • @BondJFK
    @BondJFK 6 місяців тому +2

    How a billion dollar exit works, I think exit will be difficult once you cross $100M ARR

  • @archiee1337
    @archiee1337 6 місяців тому +1

    "You should consider freemium"

  • @mariojohnson4695
    @mariojohnson4695 6 місяців тому +3

    He and the founders got all the equity, the employees got “Ganked”, that’s all I need to know. Bye!

    • @BondJFK
      @BondJFK 6 місяців тому +1

      The employees may get a better salary than the rest of the companies

    • @mariojohnson4695
      @mariojohnson4695 6 місяців тому +1

      @@BondJFKTrue, a good salary is great equity creates wealth.

  • @cairo0009
    @cairo0009 6 місяців тому +15

    He forgot to add the part where you promise you'll never sell your company as an excuse to give your employees 0% equity.

    • @sidm9336
      @sidm9336 6 місяців тому +9

      He did not give his employees ESOPs. So what? There's a lot of companies that don't offer ESOPs. On the other hand, there's a plenty that offer them. What stopped these employees from moving?

    • @El_Diablo_12
      @El_Diablo_12 6 місяців тому +3

      He could’ve changed his mind. Employees got compensated fairly or else they would’ve found employment elsewhere.

    • @tammiesspark
      @tammiesspark 5 місяців тому

      Equity isn't candy. You never hand it out without a very special reason. Usually it's given for 2 special reasons. 1 -- the founder needs key managers to help grow the business and is unable to provide a fair compensation, so they hope to attract a manager who is fine with a long-term comp if the business is successful many years later. 2--the business needs to attract top tier talent who are paid an above market compensation already and are very limited, a business will offer stock options as a way to increase their offer. FAANG does this. Outside of these 2, giving stock to non-founders and investors is a poor business practice and foolish.

    • @oopskapootz7276
      @oopskapootz7276 2 місяці тому +1

      @@El_Diablo_12I know someone who worked there, their comp was massive.

    • @dougdoug9223
      @dougdoug9223 Місяць тому

      I read their 401K plan for employees was very generous in addition to high salaries