# Curt Keller

> Curt Keller is the Southern California entrepreneur who co-founded Benchmark Email with his wife, Denise, and bootstrapped it from a small office and a distributed five-person operation into a global SaaS platform. An accounting graduate who found accounting too dull, Keller moved through desktop publishing, printing and financial services before choosing email marketing, financing early growth with credit cards and search advertising. After Benchmark merged with Hatchbuck in 2019, he moved from CEO to innovation leadership and is currently listed by the company as founder and CIO.

- **Role:** Founder and CIO at Benchmark Email
- **Organizations:** Benchmark Email, Benchmark Internet Group
- **Education:** Degree in accounting, California State University, Fullerton
- **Known for:** Co-founded Benchmark Email with Denise Keller and bootstrapped it into a profitable global SaaS platform., Built Benchmark's early distributed product and support organization across Southern California and India., Expanded Benchmark Email into multiple languages and international markets.

## Career timeline

- **1980s** — Worked in public accounting for three years, then joined a brother-in-law in a desktop-publishing business that operated for about four years before being sold.
- **2000** — Entered financial services, an effort he later described as a failure that taught him important lessons; he and Denise Keller subsequently bought specialty printing businesses.
- **2004** — Co-founded Benchmark Email with Denise Keller and began building the product with a distributed team in India.
- **2007-2008** — Benchmark reached roughly $750,000 in annual revenue, supported first by paid search and increasingly by organic search.
- **2011-2012** — Benchmark passed $5 million in annual sales and was heading toward roughly $7 million while expanding its multilingual product and international operations.
- **2019** — Benchmark Email merged with Hatchbuck; Jonathan Herrick became CEO and Keller moved to Chief Innovation Officer and chairman of the board.
- **2026** — Benchmark Email's current leadership page lists Keller as founder and CIO.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Benchmark Email with Denise Keller and bootstrapped it into a profitable global SaaS platform.
- Built Benchmark's early distributed product and support organization across Southern California and India.
- Expanded Benchmark Email into multiple languages and international markets.
- Helped grow the business beyond $5 million in annual sales by 2011 and toward $7 million in 2012, according to his contemporaneous interview.
- Led Benchmark through its 2019 merger with Hatchbuck and transitioned into innovation and board leadership.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Benchmark Email's updated company page listed Keller as founder and CIO and described the company's effort to rebuild its platform for an era shaped by generative AI.
- **2019-09** — Following Benchmark Email's merger with Hatchbuck, Keller moved from CEO to Chief Innovation Officer and chairman of the board while Jonathan Herrick assumed the CEO role.

## Links

- Website: https://www.benchmarkemail.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtkeller
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/benchmarkemail
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/benchmarkemail
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benchmarkemail/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BenchmarkEmail

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/curt-keller
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-26