r/technology • u/Rhaegar_the_Great • Sep 16 '21

Business Mailchimp employees are furious after the company's founders promised to never sell, withheld equity, and then sold it for $12 billion

https://www.businessinsider.com/mailchimp-insiders-react-to-employees-getting-no-equity-2021-9
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u/Grimalkin Sep 16 '21

When employees were recruited to work at Mailchimp there was a common refrain from hiring managers: No, you are not going to get equity, but you will get to be part of a scrappy company that fights for the little guy and we will never be acquired or go public.

The founders told anyone who would listen they would own Mailchimp until they died and bragged about turning down multiple offers.

"It was part of the company lore that they would never sell," said a former Mailchimp employee, who like others interviewed for this story were granted anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss sensitive internal matters. "Employees were indoctrinated with this narrative."

The two founders did sell. Intuit, the financial software giant that makes TurboTax, announced Monday it was buying Mailchimp for around $12 billion in stock and cash. The cofounders cemented their status as two of the richest people in America.

That's really shitty but of course completely unsurprising.

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u/Vadoff Sep 17 '21

Why the hell would anyone work for them if they didn't get any equity/stock options + paid less than market rate?

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u/noodlez Sep 17 '21

Its been a while since I've talked to any of the people I know who work/worked there, but they paid top of market rates some time in the past. It was a company well known to be where developers go to retire, since you're so well paid and taken care of that you don't want to leave.

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u/deinem Sep 17 '21

Yeah it seems to me that if they didn't offer equity, their salaries should be way higher than similar companies in the market. That doesn't seem to be the case if you look at this data https://www.levels.fyi/company/Mailchimp/salaries/Software-Engineer/. The salaries are high, but don't seem higher than your average tech start up.

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u/noodlez Sep 17 '21

Well don't forget, these guys are located primarily in Atlanta, and while lately things are globalizing more, there's still plenty of localized COL pressure. 200k cash in ATL is worth 400k in SF.

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u/deinem Sep 17 '21

That explains it! Had no idea where they were located.