The bill that started it.
Years ago, I was a solo founder shipping a SaaS product. I needed to email my list. Mailchimp was the obvious choice. By the time I had 5,000 subscribers, I was paying $80 a month for a tool I used twice a week. By 10,000, it was $150. The math stopped making sense. I built FlackEmail for myself, fully expecting to use it for a year and move on.
Why we kept it.
The thing about building your own tool is that you can fix the parts that bother you. I never sent another email through Mailchimp. We've been running FlackEmail in production for years. It was never a hit. Honestly, it was never quite a product. But every founder who tried it came back with the same reaction: "Why does this feel calmer than everything else?"
What changed.
We're now building Empowered Founders, a portfolio of tools founders actually use. Email belongs in the bundle. Not as a "starter feature" hidden behind a tier. Not as a "premium add-on." Just included, fully unlocked, the way it should have been from the start.
What we believe.
Founders don't need another marketing platform. They need software that doesn't get in the way. That doesn't pop up demos. That doesn't penalize them for growing. That doesn't pretend SMS or "AI engagement scoring" is a feature when really it's an upsell.
What's next.
FlackEmail is one of seven products in Empowered Founders today. We're shipping more. Every product follows the same rules: a real free tier, one bundle for everything, honest pricing. If you've ever thought "there has to be a better way to run my stack," that's the thing we're building.
— Segun Kolade
