Missive

01The full story

Missive is a collaborative email client for small and medium businesses: a shared workspace where teams can handle email delegation, customer support, and internal communication. Co-founders Philippe Lehoux and two partners started it in 2015 after building Conference Badge, a profitable name-badge business that ran with only a few hours of work per month. They used that runway to pursue a much more demanding email product. The founders built the first version for themselves, launched a free product, and began acquiring customers in 2016. It took about six months to reach the first ten customers and two years to reach $10K MRR. The interview host reports current revenue at about $480K MRR, with roughly 3,700 businesses served and an 11-person team; the founders say the business is profitable and has no investors. Early discovery came from Product Hunt and relevant social conversations. Later, detailed comparison pages and a custom affiliate program became durable acquisition channels. Missive grew by prioritizing product quality, listening to support conversations, and keeping the company deliberately small for years.