Mailchimp (Rocket Science Group)

42 major milestones

Mailchimp (trade name of Rocket Science Group) is a marketing automation and email marketing platform founded in 2001 that grew as a bootstrapped product-led company and was acquired by Intuit in 2021.

Latest Valuation

$12,000,000,000

0 Funding Rounds

Company Timeline

Years 0-4

Mailchimp product launched (named after greeting-card mascot)

Mailchimp launched based on code from a prior e-greeting card project; the chimp mascot was adopted as the brand.

Year 0 • 2001

Early e-greeting card revenue

The original e-greeting cards (featuring the chimp) generated a few thousand USD per month, contributing early revenue and inspiration for Mailchimp.

Year 0 • 2001

Company founded — Rocket Science Group / Mailchimp origin

Rocket Science Group launched Mailchimp as a side project. Founders identified in sources: Ben Chestnut and Mark Armstrong; Dan Kurzius joined later (sources vary).

Year 0 • 2001

Years 5-9

Mailchimp transitions from side-project toward product focus

Mailchimp grew as a product used by the founders' agency clients; momentum led toward considering full-time focus on Mailchimp.

Year 5 • 2006

Company goes all-in on Mailchimp; user/revenue inflection

Founders closed or reduced agency work and focused on Mailchimp. By end of 2007 reported userbase ~10,000 and revenue cited roughly several hundred thousand USD/year.

Year 6 • 2007Valuation: $250,000

Founders buy out cofounder Mark Armstrong (reported)

Sources report that Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius bought out Mark Armstrong's shares in 2008 as they restructured ownership.

Year 7 • 2008

Introduced freemium (Free Forever) plan

Mailchimp added a free tier (initially ~500 subscribers cap) — a pivotal product-led growth move.

Year 8 • 2009

Product-led growth mechanics: referral/Monkey Rewards program

Mailchimp used product-embedded promotion (freemium e-mails with chimp link) and a credit-based referral (Monkey Rewards) program to convert users and spur viral growth after the free plan launch.

Year 9 • 2010

ARR reported ~2M and company profitability after freemium

After the freemium shift, Mailchimp's ARR reportedly reached roughly $2M and the company achieved profitability.

Year 9 • 2010Valuation: $12,000,000

User growth after freemium: 85k → 450k in ~1 year

Within a year of freemium launch Mailchimp's user base reportedly grew from ~85,000 to ~450,000; profits rose ~650% and paying users increased markedly.

Year 9 • 2010

Years 10-14

Technical/user growth milestone: daily/weekly sign-up velocity reported

In growth summaries Mailchimp reported points of very high sign-up velocity (e.g., some periods adding thousands of users per day during early growth phases, per 2012 reporting).

Year 11 • 2012

Year-end: >2M users and ~$30M ARR

By year-end 2012 Mailchimp exceeded 2 million users and reported ARR on the order of $30M.

Year 11 • 2012

User base triples to ~1.2M (Feb 2012)

Mailchimp reported tripling its user base to ~1.2 million users by Feb 2012 (continued strong PLG growth).

Year 11 • 2012

Added headcount and office space after scale milestone

Following the 10B emails/month milestone Mailchimp increased headcount and expanded office space.

Year 13 • 2014

Emails metric: 600M+ emails sent every two days (scale stat)

Public metrics reported that Mailchimp processed more than ~600 million emails every two days (stat reported on their scale).

Year 13 • 2014

Marketing milestone: domain acquisition/redirect for viral ad (mailkimp.com)

In response to the viral 'MailKimp' mispronunciation, Mailchimp bought mailkimp.com and redirected it to mailchimp.com as part of the campaign.

Year 13 • 2014

Platform scale: 10 billion emails sent per month

By June 2014 Mailchimp was sending over 10 billion emails per month on behalf of customers.

Year 13 • 2014

Serial podcast sponsorship and 'MailKimp' viral ad

Mailchimp sponsored the launch of the Serial podcast; a street-interview ad that mispronounced Mailchimp as 'MailKimp' went viral and boosted brand awareness (Mailkimp domain redirect acquired).

Year 13 • 2014

Years 15-19

Scale milestone: ~14M users and ~$400M ARR (reported)

Reports place Mailchimp around ~14 million users and roughly $400M ARR in or around 2016.

Year 15 • 2016Valuation: $2,500,000,000

Mailchimp Transactional: Mandrill renamed

Mandrill was later rebranded as Mailchimp Transactional (reflecting integration into Mailchimp product family).

Year 15 • 2016

Mandrill pricing & access change backlash (developer/community reaction)

The Mandrill merge and licensing/pricing change (requiring a paid Mailchimp account) generated developer/customer backlash; highlighted as a notable product/pricing controversy in 2016.

Year 15 • 2016

Mandrill transactional service merged into Mailchimp (pricing change)

Mailchimp announced changes to Mandrill: merged as add-on, required paid Mailchimp plan to buy Mandrill credits; pricing for credits increased (25k-credits example from $9.95 → $20).

Year 15 • 2016

Recognition: Named among innovative companies (Fast Company / industry press)

Mailchimp received industry recognition and featured in innovation lists and business press in 2017.

Year 16 • 2017

Office expansion: announced Brooklyn and Oakland offices

Mailchimp reported plans to open offices in Downtown Brooklyn and Oakland, CA (Aug 2017 reports).

Year 16 • 2017

Brand redesign and wordmark update

Mailchimp underwent a major brand redesign (logo, palette, typeface, imagery) and standardized the wordmark to 'Mailchimp' (lowercase 'c').

Year 17 • 2018

Revenue milestone: ~$700M reported (2019)

Public reports cite Mailchimp revenue of approximately $700M for 2019.

Year 18 • 2019Valuation: $4,500,000,000

E-commerce & ads expansion (product integrations)

As part of the pivot to a full marketing platform, Mailchimp added features for building landing pages/sites, recording/tracking leads, and running ad retargeting on Facebook/Instagram and e-commerce integrations.

Year 18 • 2019

Acquisition: LemonStand acqui-hire (reported Feb/Mar 2019)

Mailchimp acquired LemonStand (an ecommerce competitor) in a deal reported in early 2019 (TechCrunch reported Mar 27, 2019).

Year 18 • 2019

Strategy pivot: expand from email into full marketing platform

Mailchimp announced a strategic shift to become a broader marketing platform (landing pages, websites, CRM leads, ad retargeting on Facebook/Instagram) and forecasted ~$700M in 2019 revenue.

Year 18 • 2019Valuation: $4,500,000,000

Corporate structure: continued bootstrapped ownership

Throughout its history Mailchimp remained a privately owned, bootstrapped company — founders repeatedly declined outside VC investment for ~20 years.

Year 19 • 2020

Acquisition: Courier Media (Mar 2020)

Mailchimp acquired London-based media/magazine company Courier Media (stated goal: international growth); Courier had ~100k readers across 26+ countries.

Year 19 • 2020

Years 20-24

Pre-acquisition scale reported (~140M customers, ~$800M ARR)

Multiple post-hoc summaries cite Mailchimp having roughly 140 million customers and ~$800M revenue/ARR around the time of the Intuit acquisition (figures vary by source).

Year 20 • 2021Valuation: $12,000,000,000

History note: refused offers for ~20 years before sale

Public reporting notes that Mailchimp turned down repeated acquisition offers/outside investment across ~20 years prior to the Intuit deal, underscoring its bootstrapped approach.

Year 20 • 2021

Media: Bloomberg reports Intuit in acquisition talks

Bloomberg reported on Aug 31, 2021 that Mailchimp was in talks to be acquired by Intuit for more than $10B.

Year 20 • 2021

Intuit confirms acquisition agreement (~$12B)

Intuit announced it would acquire Mailchimp for approximately $12 billion in cash and stock (news release Sept 13, 2021).

Year 20 • 2021Valuation: $12,000,000,000

Acquisition completed by Intuit; transaction details

Acquisition closed Nov 1, 2021: consideration included ~$5.7B cash, ~$6.3B stock (10.1M shares at $625.99 close on Oct 29, 2021) and 573,000 RSUs. Platform renamed Intuit Mailchimp.

Year 20 • 2021Valuation: $12,000,000,000

Security incident: data breach via social engineering (Mar 2022)

In March 2022 intruders gained access to data for 319 Mailchimp customers via social engineering; exposed recipient email/IP/location metadata.

Year 21 • 2022

Leadership change: Ben Chestnut steps down as CEO

Reports indicate co-founder and long-time CEO Ben Chestnut stepped down in August 2022; Rania Succar is listed in public materials as CEO after the transition.

Year 21 • 2022

Post-acquisition brand integration under Intuit (ongoing)

After closing with Intuit, Mailchimp has been integrated and operated as a business unit under Intuit; product naming updated to Intuit Mailchimp.

Year 22 • 2023

Product updates: AI growth assistant, enhanced SMS, e‑commerce integrations (recent)

Mailchimp public communications list new product features such as an AI growth assistant, improved SMS, and deeper e-commerce integrations as 'What's New' items (date unspecified in provided material).

Year 23 • 2024

Security incident: Jan 11 2024 social engineering/internal-tool access (investigation ongoing)

On Jan 11, 2024 unauthorized actors used social engineering to access an internal Mailchimp tool and accessed 133 customer accounts; investigation and impact assessment reported ongoing.

Year 23 • 2024

Wikipedia flagged as in-need-of-update (May 2025)

Mailchimp's Wikipedia page includes maintenance notices indicating some content needs updating as of May 2025 (meta observation from provided source).

Year 24 • 2025