ConvertKit's $28M Success
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ConvertKit is a Mailchimp competitor focused on email marketing for bloggers, with strong financials and steady growth under founder Nathan Barry.
Key Metrics:
- Revenue: $28M (34% growth)
- Net Revenue: $27.3M
- Customers: 36,000
- Profit Margin: 11-12%
- Revenue Churn: 3.8%
- Valuation: 7x revenue multiple
Company Characteristics:
- Founder owns majority of company
- Profitable and steadily growing
- Focused niche: Primarily serves bloggers
- Strong product differentiation:
- Users report difficulty switching away once using it
- Superior features compared to alternatives
- High customer retention despite premium pricing
Growth Strategy:
- Plans for either:
- Acquiring more companies and eventual IPO
- Regular secondary offerings for liquidity
- Targeting 25-35% annual growth
- Potential for 25+ years of steady growth through acquisitions
Market Position:
- Competes with Mailchimp, HubSpot
- Described as "best product" in its category
- Defendable position against both larger companies and new entrants like Substack
- Could potentially sell for >$200M today according to Shaan
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.