- Mailchimp employees had no equity in the company, but were promised a bonus after its sale to Intuit.
- Many employees received notice of their bonuses and were "devastated" by how paltry the amounts were.
- Multiple Mailchimp employees said they planned to quit as the company becomes part of Intuit.
Many Mailchimp employees were furious last month after learning the company's two cofounders, Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius, were selling their Atlanta-based email marketing company to Intuit for around $12 billion in cash and stock.
The cofounders netted upwards of $5 billion each from the deal – cementing their status as two of the richest people in the US. But about 1,200 Mailchimp employees got nothing because they were never given equity, which is unusual for a startup.
Mailchimp cofounder and CEO Ben Chestnut defended himself in part by pointing out employees would receive transaction bonuses when the deal closed.
In an interview last month he said he could not yet share how much the bonuses would be but said, "When I think about it, I cry."
Employees finally found out the size of their bonuses Thursday and said they were "devastated" by how paltry the amounts were — some in the tens of thousands of dollars for longtime employees — Insider has learned.
Some cancelled meetings in disgust, others threatened to leave the company or unionize, and multiple employees mocked Chestnut on Blind, an anonymous employee forum viewed by Insider.
"Remember when Ben hyped this up in the media saying it would be amazing enough to make us cry?" said one employee.
"Maybe he meant we would be crying tears of disappointment," responded another employee.
"8 years here and I got crumbs," said another.
80% of employees said they were unhappy with their bonuses, according to a poll taken on Blind by 153 employees.
Mailchimp appears to have used a specific formula based on an employee's time of service and salary, according to two employees familiar with the matter. For instance, someone making $100,000 a year who had been at Mailchimp for five years would get a $60,000 bonus.
"The Mailchimp population is gutted by the news we got today," said the employee. "Ben and Dan cultivated an image that they actually cared about employees and I just feel gaslit and like a fool for believing it."
One longtime Mailchimp manager was so angered by the paltry payouts that he cancelled meetings Thursday afternoon, according to the employee.
"People are much more upset about this than the original acquisition," added another employee.
A Mailchimp spokesperson declined to share the bonus structure or average payout, but pointed out the company has offered generous profit sharing bonuses, maxed out 401(k) matches, and employees will be getting Intuit restricted stock units or RSUs.
"Mailchimp has long invested in our employees' short and long-term success, and this acquisition has not changed that commitment," the spokesperson added.
On Wednesday, Chestnut addressed employees on a video call that was Mailchimp's last all-staff meeting as an independent company that one employee called "ominous and foreboding." Kurzius did not attend, but Chestnut grew teary, according to employees who watched the presentation.
The few employees getting transaction bonuses of more than $100,000 were also surprised to learn that half of the amount would be paid in Intuit RSUs that vest over three years.
"Hearing that RSUs are suddenly an aspect of B & D's [Ben and Dan's] transaction bonus is infuriating," one employee said. "This is our money, from B & D, from their own pocket. Not from Intuit, not from Mailchimp. Intuit has no right to this money, yet they seem to have declared it's theirs for three years."
Typically, when startups go public or get acquired, early employees can receive a life-changing payday of millions of dollars. For instance, when Twitter bought the ad tech platform MoPub for $350 million in 2013, 36 out of 100 employees were minted overnight millionaires.
Many employees previously told Insider they were repeatedly promised the company would always stay independent.
"It was part of the company lore that they would never sell," said a former Mailchimp employee.
Employees were also dismayed by the sale because the founders worked hard to project a little-guy, egalitarian ethos that seems at odds with Intuit, the financial software giant that makes TurboTax and has been criticized for its heavy lobbying to make it harder for people to file taxes for free.
Multiple employees said they planned to exit Mailchimp as it becomes part of Intuit.
"I am devastated," an employee posted on Blind. "They didn't want to give people too much money to leave, they wanted to give too little and clean house. I am out."
