Forbes Asia - October 2018

56 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2018

T

wo years ago, Ben Chest-

nut found a crumpled

piece of paper in the

trunk of his Mercedes

GL63 SUV, alongside

the muddy shoes and helmets he

uses while mountain biking in the

hills of northern Georgia. Forgot-

ten there for a year, the paper as-

sessed how much a top private equity

firm in New York thought his compa-

ny was worth: $2 billion. The CEO of

Mailchimp stashed it in his personal

safe along with the business cards of

some America’s deepest-pocketed fi-

nanciers—for his wife to shop a sale

in the event of his death, but not a

minute before. “That’s my retirement

plan,” Chest nut quips.

He has good reason not to rest.

Chestnut and his cofounder, Dan

Kurzius, have both profited richly

from their patience. With $600 mil-

lion in revenue, Mailchimp is in the

black and has more than doubled its

estimated valuation to $4.2 billion in

the last two years, giving Chestnut,

44, and Kurzius, 46, its sole owners, JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES

FORBES ASIA

MAILCHIMP

Mom &

Pop’s Best

Friend

Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius have built

billion-dollar fortunes by helping save small

businesses the old-fashioned way: email.

BY ALEX KONRAD