How Klaviyo helps marketers get smarter at thousands of companies

by Justine Hofherr
April 7, 2017

Generic marketing emails suck.

Whether it’s a vague subject line, irrelevant content or false sincerity, there are quite a few factors that can cause an email marketing campaign to go horribly awry and turn off potential customers.

That’s one of the reasons why Boston native Andrew Bialecki (pictured right) co-founded Klaviyo.

Klaviyo builds database technology that makes 1:1 personalized email easy. Instead of blasting customers with the same emails, companies use Klaviyo’s software to aggregate everything they know about customers’ individual profiles from a customer analytics database. 

Then, Klaviyo’s email platform sends out personalized emails that drive better results.

Today, the downtown Boston-based company sends tens of millions of emails for thousands of organizations — from e-commerce companies like Chubbies and Nomad to nonprofits such as ActBlue and Qgiv.

Before starting Klaviyo in 2012, Bialecki and co-founder Ed Hallen spent time working at Google, Performable (acquired by HubSpot) and Applied Predictive Technologies (acquired by Mastercard) using data and technology to help marketers get smarter at some of the world’s largest companies like Walmart, Staples and Lowe’s.

The pair decided to apply some of what they learned working with those huge brands to help smaller businesses better market themselves.

“I really wanted to build a business from scratch that was sustainable,” Bialecki said. “I didn’t want to raise money. So for the first three years, it was just the two of us. We grew in fits and starts.”

Over the last four years, Klaviyo has expanded to a team of over 50 people. Bialecki said he aims to bring on between 40 and 50 new hires by the end of the year, particularly in engineering.

Though the company has been bootstrapped and profitable from the start, in 2015 they partnered with Accomplice to grow faster, raising $1.5 million in seed funding from notable angel investors like Drift’s David Cancel and Elias Torres.

Want to work at Klaviyo? Bialecki said they value people with an entrepreneurial spirit.

“We’re looking for engineers who want to work on hard problems,” Bialecki said. “What we’re doing with large volumes of data will require people who want to work on scaling and distributing that data — people who want to be the backbone of the company. Through Klaviyo, I would love for us to be teaching them about how a business runs, from the technical side and across the board. So if they want to be a leader in Boston, they can do that.”

Though his hiring goals may seem ambitious, Bialecki said Boston’s talent pool is a major reason why he chose his hometown to launch a startup.

“There are so many awesome colleges here,”  Bialecki said. “It’s easy to meet great people and build personal relationships. And I definitely have a lot of hometown pride.”

 

Jobs at Klaviyo

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