Building a $600M Business to Revolutionize Email Marketing
March 18, 2025
How NewSpring Growth grew Message Systems, a small technology-enabled messaging company, into a $600 million email infrastructure behemoth supporting the world’s biggest businesses.
What We Saw at Investment
 THE RIGHT MARKET | Digital communications between businesses and customers were in very early days and exploding in volume. Companies were attempting to build their own communication software, but the volume of the communications was causing their systems to crash. Message Systems identified a need for a holistic, intuitive, and engaging product that empowered brands to strengthen connections with their customers. |
 THE RIGHT LEADER | Co-founder George Schlossnagle is an innovative technology expert. He was eager to take Message Systems to new heights and surrounded by a talented team of bright technologists. |
THE RIGHT BUSINESS | Message Systems had built an offering with exciting underlying technology that was impressing industry giants. With blue-chip clients on board, the company was at the precipice of rapid growth while already turning a profit. A strong commercial team was needed to capitalize on its potential. |
Accelerating Growth
Our diligence identified four primary areas needed to help Message Systems reach new levels of growth:
1. LEVERAGED NETWORK TO BOLSTER LEADERSHIP TEAM
Starting with NewSpring Value Creation member Paul Melchiorre, a sales expert with experience at SAP, iPipeline, Ariba, and Annaplan, who became a Board Member and Advisor to the company, we began building a commercial go-to-market team. Together with George, we recruited Rich Harris, a SaaS and cloud-based tech veteran with executive experience at innovative, high-growth businesses, as CEO and filled key leadership roles such as Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and Head of Marketing.
2. LAUNCHED CRITICAL NEW PRODUCTS
NewSpring advised the company through the introduction of SparkPost, a high-performance public cloud email service that allowed customers to easily add email to their web and mobile applications. For the first time, businesses of all sizes got access to premium-level email capabilities that drive customer engagement and revenue growth.
3. EXECUTED STRATEGIC SHIFT TO SAAS-ONLY MODEL
Shortly after its launch, thousands of companies signed up for SparkPost. The company pivoted to an entirely cloud-based, SaaS-only model with SparkPost as its brand name.
4. MADE STRATEGIC ACQUISITIONS
With our help and analytical support the company closed notable acquisitions, including eDataSource (2019), a key add-on that bolstered its email
data analytics and insights.
Growth by the Numbers
After several years of significant growth, SparkPost was acquired by MessageBird in a $600M transaction.
Leveraging Our Direct Sourcing Model
NewSpring Growth is supported by experienced technology investors that leverage a thesis and data-driven approach to identify opportunities within our targeted thesis areas. Our direct sourcing model led us to find Message Systems, a company that represented exactly the type of business NewSpring Growth targets for investment.
As thesis-driven investors, we gain an intimate knowledge of the market and find growth opportunities where others don’t think to look. We have a deep understanding of the email software market in which Message Systems operates, which not only led us to discover this investment opportunity but enabled our team to quickly put our proven approach to work.
Success Powered by Partnership
The Message Systems success story is an apt reflection of NewSpring Growth’s methodology of forming close partnerships with proven leaders in expanding, fragmented markets and building a team that can execute a strategy to drive accelerated growth.
NewSpring’s brand of partnership starts with the proper alignment of interests with founders and executives looking to take their business to the next level. We collaborate with executive teams to forge smart paths to sustainable growth. Through initiatives such as helping to shape the company’s strategic playbook, professionalizing financial reporting, or consulting on how to best maximize opportunities within an organization’s human capital, the NewSpring team maintains a relentless focus on its partnership with the CEO in order to activate transformational growth.
