In a world obsessed with unicorns, blitz-scaling, and billion-dollar valuations, ConvertKit quietly did the impossible. A simple email marketing tool built for creators—writers, YouTubers, podcasters—turned into a powerhouse with $40M+ in annual recurring revenue, a $200M valuation, and over 45,000 paying customers. 

Even more impressive? It did all this without raising a single dime from venture capitalists. It achieves 100% net dollar retention (nearly all customers stick around) and healthy profit margins, sharing over $8M in profits with its team. 

ConvertKit (recently rebranded to “Kit”) isn’t just a SaaS success story. It’s a blueprint for modern, sustainable entrepreneurship. One where profits aren’t sacrificed for growth, and where creators are prioritized over enterprise checkbooks. Behind this movement is one man from Idaho: Nathan Barry.

Let’s rewind to the beginning.

From Homeschooled Kid to Self-Made CEO

Nathan Barry didn’t grow up in Silicon Valley. He didn’t drop out of Stanford, and he wasn’t coding in some elite startup incubator. 

He grew up in Idaho, homeschooled, and curious. His early education was unstructured but rich in exploration—he built model rockets, sold woodcrafts at local fairs, and developed a knack for teaching himself whatever he needed to know. This is a classic story of all the opportunities and the independence that we have the privilege of. 

He had finished high school when most teenagers start it, at the age of 15. By 17, he had dropped out of college—after landing a $10,000 client for web design. 

That was his moment. “If I can make that kind of money at 17 doing something I taught myself,” he figured, “why not go all-in?”

That confidence only grew from there. Over the next few years, Nathan wrote and self-published three books on app design and business and launched online courses. 

He built an audience of nearly 40,000 email subscribers—not by growth hacks, but by simply teaching what he knew. 

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He was a creator, first and foremost. This matters. Because when he later built ConvertKit, he wasn’t just scratching a market itch. He was solving his own pain point.

“I Built It Because I Needed It”

In 2013, Barry had a full-fledged info product business. He had books, courses, and an email list to promote them. But the tools at the time—Mailchimp, AWeber, Constant Contact—felt clunky, bloated, and not creator-friendly.

So he decided to build his own. A better email tool, designed specifically for creators.  His background in design/UX (books on iPhone app design, etc.) equipped him with the skills to build polished software.

He called it ConvertKit. And unlike many founders who quietly tinker in stealth mode, Nathan did the opposite. He launched in public, announcing his goal on his blog: reach $5,000 in monthly revenue in 6 months with just a $5,000 investment. 

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He wanted it to be a challenge, and more importantly, he wanted accountability.

Of course, like all entrepreneurial stories, that didn’t go as planned.

After six months of coding nights and weekends, ConvertKit had just $2,000/month in revenue. His attention was split. The tool was raw. The growth... stagnant.

He hit a crossroads: shut it down, or double down?

Most people would have folded. Nathan took the $50,000 he’d earned from books and poured it into ConvertKit. He quit everything else and went all in.

The Bootstrap Hustle That Built a SaaS Empire

After going full-time on ConvertKit, Nathan changed his approach.

Instead of building quietly, he talked to customers every day. He began manually onboarding users, migrating their lists from Mailchimp himself. He wrote blogs, made videos, and reached out personally to creators he admired. 

With a new focus, Nathan personally handled sales calls, migrations, and customer support. He onboarded users one by one, moving their email lists over from Mailchimp by hand. This “concierge support” wasn’t scalable, but it created early evangelists who stuck around.

This level of involvement echoed what Groove founder Alex Turnbull once called “doing things that don’t scale” —because at that stage, scale wasn’t the goal. Survival was.

And it worked. Slowly but steadily, ConvertKit’s MRR began to climb.

By mid-2015, ConvertKit crossed $10K/month. In 2016, it hit $100K/month. The team was tiny but tight—5 to 10 people scattered across the globe. All remote. 

And the product? It kept getting better. ConvertKit wasn’t trying to be everything to everyone. It focused ruthlessly on serving online creators, adding features like automations, landing pages, and eventually even digital product sales tools. Every decision was guided by one question: Will this help creators earn a living?

That mission became ConvertKit’s north star—and the reason thousands of creators ditched Mailchimp and switched over.

Bumps, Bruises, and the Rebrand That Didn’t Work

As ConvertKit grew, it faced its share of stumbles.

In 2018, Nathan made a bold move: he rebranded ConvertKit to Seva. The idea was to reflect the company’s deeper mission—seva means “selfless service” in Sanskrit. 

But the decision backfired. The new name caused confusion, and some felt it appropriated a term with deep spiritual meaning.

To Nathan’s credit, he listened. A few months later, he apologized publicly and rolled back to ConvertKit. It was a rare moment of humility in tech—and a reminder that even well-intentioned moves can miss the mark.

The bigger scare came in 2021. ConvertKit was thriving—tens of millions in revenue, a team of 70+, and strong margins. That’s when Nathan got an acquisition offer: $200M.

He said no.

Some executives disagreed. A few left. It was a turbulent time. But Nathan stood firm. He didn’t build ConvertKit to exit. He built it to last.

That decision to stay independent meant rebuilding the leadership team and weathering tough internal transitions. But it also meant retaining control over the company’s future.

The Secret Sauce: Customers, Not Capital

So what made ConvertKit succeed where so many indie SaaS startups plateau?

Two things: focus and profitability.

ConvertKit didn’t try to outspend competitors. It didn’t blitz-scale or chase vanity metrics. Instead, it ran lean, profitable from early on, and stayed tightly focused on one customer: the creator.

While other platforms expanded into enterprise features, ConvertKit kept its UI simple and intuitive. While others bloated their product, ConvertKit focused on email, automation, and creator commerce. That simplicity became a moat.

Community, Content, and the Network Effect

What ConvertKit lacked in ad budget, it made up for in authenticity and reach. Nathan taught email marketing on podcasts. He gave away his knowledge in blog posts and tutorials. He published transparent updates on MRR, churn, and team growth.

Early advocates like Pat Flynn helped evangelize the product. And in 2022, ConvertKit launched its Sponsorship Network, helping creators earn through brand deals. Within a year, over $520,000 in deals were booked, turning ConvertKit into more than a tool—it became a monetization partner.

Building the Team (Without the Bloat)

For the first two years, ConvertKit was mostly a one-man show. But as revenue grew, so did the need for support, engineering, and marketing muscle. By mid-2016, the team had expanded to about 20 people, including remote developers, content marketers, and customer success leads.

Still, Barry remained famously frugal. No big ad spends. No flashy perks. Instead, ConvertKit doubled down on organic growth: blogs, tutorials, YouTube appearances, and course partnerships.

Nathan also built a unique culture. Remote from day one. Transparent about everything—sharing revenue publicly, and even launching a profit-sharing program that paid employees millions over the years. In one year alone, they distributed $3 million of profits back to the team.

This built loyalty. Not just internally, but from users too. Today, ConvertKit boasts 100% net dollar retention—a sign that not only do customers stay, but they also spend more over time.

Today, the team has grown to over 80+ members worldwide—still fully remote, still lean, and still mission-driven.

Final Thoughts

Today, ConvertKit is more than just an email platform. It’s a full-fledged ecosystem for creators—helping them grow audiences, sell products, and even earn through sponsorships.

Nathan Barry still runs the company. Still writes his own blog. He still teaches everything he learns. His core teaching is to work in public, create everyday, and teach everything you know.

He turned a tiny side project into a $40M+/year SaaS tool, not by chasing hype, but by serving a community with empathy, discipline, and relentless consistency.

He didn’t “disrupt” an industry. He built trust in one.

So ConvertKit became creator-first, adding:

• Simple landing pages
  
  
• Visual email automation flows
  
  
• Basic ecommerce tools to sell digital products
  
  
• Seamless CMS integrations (think: WordPress, Teachable, etc.)
  
  

Instead of throwing features at the wall, ConvertKit prioritized what bloggers, course sellers, and indie creators actually needed—a philosophy deeply evident in Sacra’s overview of the product.

His mission is clear! He doesn’t want to build a billion-dollar company, but build a company that helps a million creators make $1,000 a month.

That’s a different kind of ambition. But in a world increasingly burned out on hypergrowth and hustle culture, it might be the kind of ambition we need more of.

In the age of the creator economy, ConvertKit stands as a monument to what’s possible when a founder aligns passion with purpose.

It’s the indie dream, done right.