D an Kurzius is an American self-made billionaire and a co-founder of Mailchimp, one of the world's most popular email marketing platforms. A former DJ and real estate agent, Kurzius taught himself to code and teamed up with his co-founder, Ben Chestnut, to start a web design agency. They developed Mailchimp as a side project in 2001 to help their clients with email newsletters.

They eventually decided to focus exclusively on Mailchimp, which grew organically through a freemium model and a user-friendly, quirky brand identity that appealed to small and medium-sized businesses. For two decades, they famously bootstrapped the company, never taking any outside venture capital funding. As the company's Chief Customer Officer, Kurzius was instrumental in building Mailchimp's beloved brand and customer-centric culture. In 2021, they sold the highly profitable company to the financial software giant Intuit for $12 billion in cash and stock, turning the bootstrapped founders into multi-billionaires.