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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 662 Ananda Krishnan|# 664 Thomas Straumann ➡

# 663 Ben Chestnut 

$4.80B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 7/25/2024
$25.6M (0.53%)

# 663 Ben Chestnut 

$4.80B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 7/25/2024
$25.6M (0.53%)
OccupationCofounder, Mailchimp
Source of WealthEmail Marketing
Age50
ResidenceAtlanta, Georgia
Marital StatusMarried
Children2
EducationBS, Georgia Institute of Technology
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$9.44B
Ben Chestnut
Ben Chestnut
United States
Net worth: $4.80B

Self-Made Score 

Wealth History

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Biography

Overview

Ben Chestnut is an American billionaire Internet entrepreneur, co-founder, and former CEO of Mailchimp.
Chestnut, alongside Dan Kurzius, founded what later became Mailchimp in 2001, initially as a side project to their web design company.
Mailchimp's email marketing software gained significant traction, prompting Chestnut and Kurzius to commit to it full-time in 2007.
They opted to bootstrap growth from profits rather than seek outside investment, maintaining full control over the company's direction.
In September 2021, Intuit announced the acquisition of Mailchimp for $12 billion in cash and stock.
At the time of acquisition, Chestnut and Kurzius each owned 50% of Mailchimp, which boasted $800 million in revenue in 2020.

Early Life and Education

Ben Chestnut was born in 1973 or 1974 and raised in Augusta, Georgia, and attended high school in Hephzibah, Georgia.
He pursued physics at the University of Georgia before shifting his focus to industrial design at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Career Highlights

Chestnut co-founded Rocket Science Group, later known as Mailchimp, serving as its CEO for over 20 years.
Under his leadership, Mailchimp grew to become the leading email and automations platform for growing businesses, with over 13 million global users.
Recognized as Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016, Chestnut has been lauded for his dedication and innovative leadership.
Received the 'Most Admired CEO' award by Atlanta Business Chronicle in August 2017.

Compensatory Policies

Chestnut implemented compensatory benefits for Mailchimp employees, prioritizing fair treatment and economic support.
His motivation stems from his upbringing by a military father with limited economic opportunities, driving his commitment to equitable corporate policies.

Views and Beliefs

In interviews, Chestnut has challenged the notion that social media would render email and email marketing obsolete.
He maintains a perspective on the enduring relevance and effectiveness of email communication for businesses.

Personal Life

Ben Chestnut is married with two children and resides in Atlanta, Georgia, where Mailchimp is headquartered.

How long would it take you to become as rich as Ben Chestnut?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.11% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Ben Chestnut's net worth of $4.80B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 52.22% compared to 16.62% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

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Ben Chestnut is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Ben Chestnut, Email Marketing is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Edited by: Lee Bailey