Home Depot, CNN, and ... Mailchimp

Home Depot’s Arthur Blank and CNN’s Ted Turner have long been the entrepreneurial faces of this city since the 1980s, largely because no one else has since made a big-enough splash. Finally, they have some heirs: Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius, the relentless (and idiosyncratic) co-founders of Mailchimp. At this for nearly 18 years, the 40-somethings are now running a $4.2 billion email marketing company of which they still own 100 percent. When Chestnut, who hails from nearby Augusta, and Kurzius, an Albuquerque transplant, founded Mailchimp following the dot-com crash, they decided to emulate larger locals like Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and CNN to create a B2B tech company with consumer company flair. “This isn’t just a product, it’s not just a business,” says Chestnut. ”It’s a global brand.”