

MailChimp Acquires TinyLetter (ask me anything) - pud
http://blog.mailchimp.com/mailchimp-acquires-tinyletter/?

======
softbuilder
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>

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GBond
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.

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

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leebandoni
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?

~~~
pud
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.

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

Good job and congrats.

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rednaught
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?

~~~
pud
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>

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johnrob
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?

~~~
pud
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.

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thinkzig
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.

~~~
pud
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).

~~~
quickpost
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!

~~~
pud
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.

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

~~~
pud
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.

~~~
dotBen
But you said "ask you anything" :P

Can you at least say how many 0's?

~~~
gvb
He didn't say he would answer.

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citricsquid
Ask you anything eh? How's blippy?

~~~
pud
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...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/05/blippys-new-direction-
daily-deals-for-artisanal-goods-at-heartsy-me/)

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benologist
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.

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

~~~
prawn
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!

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bcx
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?)

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sahillavingia
How much for? (ballpark?)

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

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

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

~~~
pud
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.

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

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

~~~
pud
No, but I did get a MailChimp cat hat:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/freddievonchimp/sets/7215762650...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/freddievonchimp/sets/72157626505122242/)

~~~
saltpeanuts
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.

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

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

~~~
citricsquid
but on your site under dead it says:

> Fandalism - Like Soundcloud, but not as good

make up your mind! unless I missed a joke.

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

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popsift
how much?

