GetResponse

Simon Grabowski founded GetResponse in Gdańsk, Poland in 1998 — making it one of the oldest bootstrapped email marketing platforms in the world. What started as a simple email autoresponder evolved over 25 years into a full marketing automation platform: email marketing, landing pages, webinars, CRM, and conversion funnels. GetResponse grew entirely on customer revenue, never raising outside investment. It expanded from Poland to global reach, with offices in multiple countries and 350,000+ customers in 183 countries. The platform competed against much-better-funded competitors like Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign by focusing on affordability and feature completeness for SMBs. GetResponse remains one of the largest bootstrapped software companies in Europe, with an estimated $2M+/month in revenue and hundreds of employees. A 25-year journey from a solo developer's email tool to a global marketing platform, entirely funded by customers.