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Below is our recent interview with Ross Paquette, CEO of Maropost:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Maropost?
A: I got into the email space about 10 years ago, and quickly realized not only how underdeveloped most email marketing platforms were on the technical side, but also how underserved their clients were on the service side. When I first founded Maropost in 2011, I created both an email service provider and an answer to those issues.
In the beginning, our team was just me and two other people—one of whom is now our CTO—to say we were understaffed was an understatement. Even though we didn’t really have the manpower for it, we kept redirecting our resources into development, taking every opportunity to improve and innovate.
Over time, we added components like automation, mobile, social, web, AI, and machine learning, building out a complete cross-channel marketing platform—something so much more than the ESP we started with.
Our dedication to development attracted a lot of attention—taking us from $300,000 in revenue, to $3.3 million, to $13.3 million, to $30 million—in just 6 years.
Recently, we’ve expanded outside of marketing, with Maropost Sales Cloud—which includes CRM, commerce, sales automation, service and support, membership management, referral management etc.
And now we’re expanding even further—to really cover every area of business—with more platforms on their way in the next few months, making this an exciting time for Maropost.
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Q: Can you distill the Maropost mission down to one sentence?
A: We’re creating platforms to power businesses and empower them to grow to their full potential.
Q: What’s something that’s consistently missing from your competitors? What do most tech companies get wrong?
A: That growth-focused mindset is something you just don’t see at most tech companies. They’re looking for their next round of funding, or how they can angle to get acquired—not how they can build something meaningful and scalable. And that attitude shows through in a lot of platforms, which aren’t built to be sustainable and reliable, which means clients need to switch providers or buy add-ons as soon as they start to grow.
We want to be there to grow with our customers—as a partner, not just a platform.
Q: What sets Maropost apart?
A: We’re not just looking to generate revenue from our clients—we’re looking for ways to help them generate more revenue for their businesses. Our goal is to both grow them and grow with them.
Q: You’ve had unprecedented growth in the past five years. What have you had to change to keep up? What have you kept the same?
A: The biggest change we’ve needed to make has been with our team. You can only get so far working with three people, and the kind of growth we’re aiming for goes way beyond that. But even as we’ve scaled our team, we’ve kept that same level of focus we had as a small team. Work ethic is key and it’s been consistent at every stage of our growth—the people that act like owners, that are driven and self-motivated, those are the ones we’re looking for.
Q: Your product suite is also rapidly expanding. What’s the common thread? How do you see them fitting together?
A: While we started off as purely a marketing platform, we’ve grown beyond that label, with a sales/CRM platform, a productivity tracker, a transactional email tool—and there’s even more coming down the line.
At first, it seems like a really diverse portfolio of products, but everything comes down to one thing—powering businesses and driving growth. We’re building based on our own experiences—the products and features we wish we had—and feedback from clients. Everything is an answer to real business needs and problems.
Ultimately, we want to see organizations using Maropost across their entire operation. That’s the end goal.
Q: Why the focus on personalization in your recent product updates?
A: Companies have access to more customer data than ever before, which means personalization can go deeper than ever before. But it’s not data alone that’s prompting a move towards personalization—it’s also customer experience and customer expectations.
More and more, customers are expecting a personalized experience with brands. Keeping up with those expectations, by providing highly personalized experiences, is how companies are winning over customers—and their loyalty.
But it’s not just that companies have more data—it’s that they can do more with data now, through technology.
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Q: And how does AI and machine learning fit into that move towards personalization?
A: Technology has been a game-changer for personalization. We’re at a point now where we’re seeing features like dynamic content—to give an example—which uses machine learning and behavioral data to provide content or product recommendations designed for individual customers.
AI can sort through information in ways human teams can’t—finding the signal in the noise. What it used to be was that even if teams had access to that data, it wasn’t a viable option to go through everything manually and personalize accordingly.
Today, through AI, even small teams can turn bulk data into meaningful insights—making a real revenue impact.
But it’s also a bit of an arms race. As technology advances, so do customer expectations. What was once innovative soon becomes standard. So, companies have to adapt—with more and more advanced tech to meet ever-rising customer expectations for personalized experiences.
Q: What’s next for Maropost?
A: With a series of platforms already slated for release in the coming year, we’ve got a lot already planned out. Now, it’s all about execution—taking our ideas into the market. As we keep launching products and producing platforms, we’re going to keep finding new areas we can explore, and that’s what’s really motivating me right now—finding new opportunities to help companies grow as we grow.
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