MailChimp Acquires TinyLetter (ask me anything) | Hacker News Reader

MailChimp Acquires TinyLetter (ask me anything)

blog.mailchimp.com

71 pointspud45 comments

This is basically the refutation of many of the negative comments in yesterday's post. You go, dude.

http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=2942129

When you came up with tiny letter did you do it to serve a personal need and did you ever have any intent to sell it so quickly?

I used to run a popular blog in 2000. The thing I didn't like about blogging, was that if I shut down my blog (which I eventually did), I would lose my entire audience.

So I started letting people sign up for email newsletters back then, just to kind of "own" the contact info of my readers, so I could continue communicating with them, even if I shut down my blog.

Today everyone is a publisher. And with the proliferation of social media, RSS and eventually Twitter came to solve that problem -- even if I don't tweet for a year, I'll still have my followers (assuming people are still using Twitter then, which I think they will be).

However, having the email addresses of your followers & fans still seems a bit more durable, not relying on Twitter or any other service.

So... that's why I built it. Did I think I would sell it so quickly? Originally, no.

Congrats. I recalled when you posted this project launch on HN http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1829101

Not bad for a "lazy Sunday afternoon" worth of work.

That was the first time I showed anyone. Couldn't have done it without HN and everyone's feedback. So, thank you.

PUD WHY U NO... err, you pretty much did everything right.

Good job and congrats.

Congratulations! Did they offer you more because it was coded in CFML and they didn't laugh at your back end?

Maybe more time for you to recreate F'd Company now?

What's funny is that right after I posted that blog post about how I use an unusual stack[1], MailChimps CEO sent me this eerily similar blog post about their stack: http://blog.mailchimp.com/ewww-you-use-php/

[1] http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=2942129

It seems like you were a single founder in this one - what if anything allowed you to overcome the known difficulties of being a single founder?

I don't personally buy into the "being a single founder is harder" thing. True, if you don't know how to program (or design, or sell, etc) then yeah, it's gonna be easier if you have a co-founder who does. But if you're able to get it done yourself, having other founders around seems like a burden. That said, I've had success and enjoyed working with co-founders on bigger projects. But TinyLetter is simple enough that I didn't need anyone else.

Congrats on the acquisition. You're quite prolific when it comes to churning out the various web apps you produce.

Could you give us some insight into how you come up with the ideas for your apps? What's your thought process for determining whether an idea is worth pursuing or not?

Congrats again. Your success has always been an inspiration to me and is very well deserved.

Every time an idea pops into my head, no matter how silly, I write it down. Then when I think of (or read) something cool that applies to one of my ideas, such as a clever way to market it, I write that down with it.

Do that long enough (I've been at it 15 years -- I'm 35 now) and you'll have pages of notes.

As for which ideas I pursue- the ones I think I can pull off. Simple web apps, for example, versus a plastic stencil-like guide for cutting the hair on the back of your neck (idea #178).

As for doing it solo vs raising money & hiring a big team -- again, whatever way it will have the most success (for the product, and for my happiness).

This is an even sillier question, but how exactly do you keep track of all your ideas? A special notebook? Spreadsheet? What have you found is the best way to keep track of all your ideas on the go, while never losing track of them, etc?

Thanks!

- I use .txt files. - On work OneNote

Everything local and have backups, not in the cloud.

Evernote, these days. Which reminds me, I should save a backup right now.

Used to be a little spiral bound notebook that I was scared to death of losing.

Well, I can't help but be curious, what was the acquisition price?

We decided not to disclose acquisition price. I don't remember why we decided that.

I guess it's like telling people your salary -- just a thing people generally don't do. I think that'll change one day tho as stuff becomes more public.

But you said "ask you anything" :P

Can you at least say how many 0's?

He didn't say he would answer.

Alright, well... Congratulations!

I'm curious why mailchimp made the acquisition. Your service is simple and works well; it wouldn't be hard for mailchimp to build it themselves.

Was the acquisition to get your user base, or to get you to come work for them to build out their newsletter service?

I don't want to speak for MailChimp (read their blog post for that).

But basically, they like TinyLetter. TinyLetter likes MailChimp (srsly, the email business can be slimy as hell but they're totally legit, upstanding, & everyone knows it). TinyLetter has a good brand and a decent amount of users (roughly 500,000 people subscribed to 30,000 newsletters). Both companies recognize an opportunity that we think is large, and buying TinyLetter gives them a head start.

I'll be helping advise TinyLetter for a while, and we both really wanted to work together.

So basically, for these reasons and more, it just "made sense," if that makes sense.

Yep, that makes sense :)

Ask you anything eh? How's blippy?

Blippy (a company I co-founded, invested in, and remain an advisor to) didn't find massive success with our first product, though it has fans.

However, the company's follow-up product, Heartsy.me, is doing very well. Techcrunch covered it here: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/05/blippys-new-direction-daily...

Congrats, never heard or used TinyLetter before but I enjoyed your piece yesterday, and I'm a MailChimp user so I guess I'll be seeing it soon.

This is exactly what was missing from MailChimp. I set up a TinyLetter newsletter for my personal site.

Same. I find MailChimp to be an overdone pain in the butt more often than not and have quickly signed up at TinyLetter to give it a shot.

Well done Pud - was a frequent reader of FC back in the day and I also use CFML!

Just out of curiosity (since you said ask me anything) -- How much did you sell TinyLetter for, and will you be joining Mailchimp? (What did the terms of the deal look like for this sort of acquisition?)

How much for? (ballpark?)

That's great for the founder! I love TinyLetter. Hopefully the quality won't deteriorate with the acquisition!

p.s. Pud, you're an inspiration, in a sense that making small things pays off.

Thanks. MailChimp loves TinyLetter also, and will make sure it continues to get even better. Better != more complicated. Keeping it simple is top priority.

What kinds of publishers have been using TinyLetter, and how did you find acquire them?

TinyLetter publishers are similar to bloggers -- mostly individuals, sometimes with an agenda, sometimes not. Here are two examples of popular ones.

Kevin Rose: http://tinyletter.com/foundation

Green Day fan: http://tinyletter.com/Green-Day-Authority

As for finding users, everyone who subscribes to a newsletter (~500k) goes through the TinyLetter flow, so that's the best advertising. Just took a couple people to say (tweet, etc), "join my newsletter!" with a link, and the viral-ish loop started.

Well I don't think my reply formatted correctly on this iPhone app I'm using. Sorry if it's unreadable.

That's pretty cool. Good move, MailChimp. Any word on the acquisition price?

Congrats, you getting a miniature pet giraffe out of the deal?

No, but I did get a MailChimp cat hat: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freddievonchimp/sets/7215762650...

Hilarious! Post that on Instagram and it will be a mega-hit. IG'ers love cats.

But seriously, congrats. Having followed you since FC, I really like how transparent you are with so much of your work stuff.

great stuff, Phil! what's the next endeavor!?

I'm working on something music related, at http://fandalism.com

but on your site under dead it says:

> Fandalism - Like Soundcloud, but not as good

make up your mind! unless I missed a joke.

Hah. Good point. There was something else that I launched 100 years ago at that domain. Gotta update pud.com with the new infos.

how much?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com