Ben Chestnut on His Children Discovering Mailchimp’s Success

The Mailchimp co-founder shares a family anecdote about wealth and an unexpected magazine cover.

BCBen ChestnutGuest · Co-founder
Channel
20VC with Harry Stebbings
Published
Dec 29, 2022
Video
0:52
Read
1 min
Original
English
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SUMMARY

In 30 seconds

In this short interview clip, Ben Chestnut recalls how his children learned about Mailchimp’s success and jokes about their views of other families’ cars.

  1. 1A magazine coverA magazine cover prompted Chestnut’s children to ask about Mailchimp’s value.
  2. 2Comparisons at schoolHe recalls their comparisons with classmates’ families.
  3. 3A family carThe anecdote ends with a joke about his Audi R8.

Takeaways

  1. A magazine cover prompted Chestnut’s children to ask about Mailchimp’s value.
  2. He recalls their comparisons with classmates’ families.
  3. The anecdote ends with a joke about his Audi R8.
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01

A family discovers the business

Chestnut tells a short story about his children and wealth.

Mailchimp co-founder Ben Chestnut says his children did not initially know how successful the business was. One child’s classmate brought a magazine with his face on the cover, prompting questions about the company’s value.

He recalls them noticing other families’ expensive cars and asking when their own family would be rich. He says the numbers had not really registered with them.

Chestnut jokes that he owns an Audi R8, associated with Iron Man, but his son still talks about another child’s parent having a supercar. His children sometimes ride in his car without viewing it the same way.

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